Encopresis (cont.)
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When to Seek Medical Care
Any of the following warrants a visit to your child's primary care provider:
- Severe, persistent, or recurrent constipation
- Pain when passing bowel movements
- Reluctance to pass bowel movements, including straining to hold stool in
- Soiling in a child who is at least 4 years old
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Encopresis »
According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Third edition (DSM-III), encopresis is defined as the "repeated involuntary passage of feces into places not appropriate for that purpose...the event must take place for at least 6 months, the chronologic and mental age of the child must be at least 4 years."
