Bowel management program

The bowel management program at Dell Children’s in Austin, Texas, is dedicated to improving the quality of life of children with chronic constipation and fecal incontinence. We provide personalized treatment plans for your child using medications, an enema program, or dietary interventions. Our goal is to help your child consistently empty stool and eliminate stooling accidents to stay clean, comfortable, and confident.

Children who could benefit from the bowel management program may have symptoms of constipation or incontinence from the following conditions:

• Previous surgical repair of imperforate anus (or anorectal malformation)
• Previous pull-through procedure for Hirschsprung disease
• Spinal cord anomalies or injuries (spina bifida, tethered cord, sacrococcygeal teratoma)
• Behavioral conditions (withholding, toilet aversion, developmental delay)
• Idiopathic or functional constipation (constipation with an unidentifiable cause)

We offer a family-based approach to bowel management care. Our multidisciplinary team includes pediatric colorectal surgeons, gastroenterologists, urologists, gynecologists, physical therapists, psychologists, and neurosurgeons. We focus on your family’s goals and work together with you and your child to develop an individualized treatment plan.

Our bowel management team is led by our nurse practitioners and nurse coordinator. What sets us apart from other programs is our communication – we provide support and engage families in shared decision-making to ensure your child gets the right care at the right time.

During your child’s first visit to our bowel management clinic, our nurses will educate you about your child’s condition, perform a physical exam, and recommend tests or imaging. Working closely with our pediatric colorectal surgeons, we create a personalized care plan that may include a combination of medication, enemas, and diet changes. After your child’s appointment, we stay in close contact with your family so that we can monitor your child’s bowel habits and recommend changes as needed. If your child needs more care, our multidisciplinary team of bowel management specialists provides all the care your child needs.

We frequently communicate with families by phone, email, online (telehealth), and other tools. We treat many children outside of Austin and understand that traveling for appointments can be difficult for families. Our care team offers telehealth visits for follow-up appointments where your child can receive the same quality of care from the comfort of your home.