Tracking bm

[my little penguin]

So another question....
This should be obvious but in am questioning everything these days...
What counts as a BM ?
One small piece of stool even if it's the size of a pea?
Or does it need to be a few pieces or a bowel full?
Tracking attempts doesnt help us . He always feels like he has to go even if he just went .
If we increase the miralax things are soft and he goes 3-4 times a day a lot .
Less miralax things are hard formed painful but still 3-4 times just less of an amount. A single pea at times.
So what do you count???

 

[Farmwife]

I'm right with you MLP.
Grace is on 4 tsp. of miralax + 1 Tbl. of fiber.
At first this combo worked great, but now she's stretching out to every two to three days in between BM's. But when she passes the BM's normally their soft!
CONFUSING to me all well!

 

[Patricia56]

Miralax makes stool slippery. Fiber (benefiber, metamucil) holds it together while keeping it soft.

Both require good hydration to work.

If he's having hard pea stools then he needs either better hydration and/or added fiber through foods or OTC products.

Foods that help combat constipation include:

apple juice, apricot nectar, prune juice
pears (w/skin on), apricots, plums/prunes

Avoid foods that promote constipation like white rice/pasta

I would probably make a chart. I am big on charts but I try to keep them simple.

I would have a column for date, time, quality of stool (soft, hard, D), amount (small, med, large?), blood (yes/no) and a place to make notes of things like whether there was lots of mucus mixed in the stool. I would post it over the toilet.

I would also keep a meds diary that let me keep track of when/how much Miralax, etc he was getting.

One way to tell if he is getting enough fluids is the color of his pee. The darker yellow the more dehydrated. Well hydrated people pee nearly colorless pee.

 

[DustyKat]

I would count anything that results from a session on the toilet as a bowel motion.

No doubt when you are tracking you would be noting the amount so i think it is important that even the smallest motion is noted as it may give a hint as to what is going on.

So I would write something like...Sat on toilet for 10 minutes. One small (pebble sized) hard motion, (include if it was painful or not). Still feels as if he needs to go but is unable to.
As Patricia has suggested, if you like a chart then document the info that way.

Dusty. xxx