Quiz -- Is it behavioral or medical?

[Guest guest]

Hi Gang,

I'm curious to hear your feedback about this...

My son, Kenny, is 15 years old. He has been potty trained since he was 3.

A couple of months ago, instead of urinating into the toilet, he began

urinating next to it. At first, I ignored the behavior, and just cleaned it

up, thinking it was just an accident. But as the incidents increased, I

began to suspect there was something more going on. My first thought was

that perhaps he had a UTI. I took a urine sample in to be tested (twice)

and the results came back clear.

After getting the test results, I decided to approach this behaviorally. I

started by just having him clean up his mess, but not making a big deal

about it. As this made no difference, I began making the cleaning up

process a little more aversive to him by increasing the amount I expected

him to do. This, too, made no difference. So then I began using over

correction. At this point he was clearly unhappy about the whole process.

However, it made no difference, and in fact, he began urinating on the

carpet of his room in the middle of the night. I began making him shampoo

the carpet, empty the water tank etc. Still, the behavior continued. After

a week or so of this, he began defecating on the carpet as well. Since the

stool was very loose and liquidy (a REAL mess to clean up) I thought I

should check to see if he was actually having a GI issue. (He has chronic

GI problems, including Crohn's Disease and Barrett's Esophagus.) I took

stool samples in to be tested, but these results, too, came back with no

problems detected. I also took him into the pediatrician's office for an

exam twice. Two different doctors saw him, a couple of weeks apart, and

neither had any idea about what to do.

A week or so ago, I even caught him going into his room during the day,

pulling his pants down, and eliminating on the floor.

We started looking at foods that he was eating. In an attempt to expand his

diet, we had recently introduced some new items. I removed those foods, but

it made no difference.

So, for those who want to " bite " , what would your next step be? Do you

think it's behavioral or medical?

s

persistentC@...