My son is 30 years old and he has cerebral palsy. He is considered severe and profound, therefore he cannot walk, talk, or see. He is also incontinent. I have loved and cared for him all his life. He is now on oxygen but his general health is pretty good. He laughs and seems to enjoy life in spite of all his problems. Recently he has started having trouble having bowel movements. He used to take Senokot liquid for many years but that is no longer available. He cannot take Senokot tablets and even if I crush them up, we cannot seem to get the same results as we did with the liquid. Long story short - I've tried just about everything; stool softeners, suppositories, laxitives, etc. but nothing seems to work. I've had to give him several enemas over the last few weeks and at first they seemed to work, but now they don't. He gets LOTS of water, juices and I've even been giving him Benefiber but no results. His doctor said to try Marilax for a while and if that doesn't work, then we'll do a colonoscopy. Does anyone have any suggestions that I may not have tried? I'm really getting worried about obstruction, impaction, etc. Doctor says my son does not have any signs of that now but I'm afraid if we keep this problem up, we'll run into it. Thank you for any help you can give me!!!

have you tried that philipps liquid stuff, or tried asking his doctor what's wrong? Heather

Does he eat by mouth? Many people w/ CP have bowel problems especially if digestion is slow. Reglan is supposed to help increase the process but I had a bad reaction to it. Also, if you have access to a heated pool it might help him relax & increase his "movement." Hope this helps.