Everybody Poops

By Aimee Sterk, LMSW, MATP Staff

As a new mom, I’m pretty familiar with poop–all kinds of poop. And I’m pretty aware of my son’s pooping (or not), when he has a poopsplosion, what he’s eating that is causing what reaction… From the very beginning in the hospital, the medical professionals tell parents about tracking health and bowel movements. I even have the book Everybody Poops on my Amazon wishlist. I want my son to view pooping as something healthy that everyone does–albeit sometimes in different ways. I don’t want him to have anxiety or shame about pooping which can lead to lifelong digestive problems. Yeah there’s a lot of poop thoughts up in here.

In our office, we tend to talk about poop a lot too and bowel programs… and they came up again at a meeting yesterday. I mentioned how I frequently talk about toilet aids when meeting with professionals and teaching about low tech AT for community living. Often, I’m met with nervous laughter. That bugs me.

Rant warning here. Look, we as a society have made poop a taboo topic, but in doing so, we’ve made it so people with disabilities who need AT to assist with toileting, are so ashamed that they don’t ask for or get information about this need. Parents of young adults with disabilities continue wiping their sons/daughters for years when they could be using AT to wipe themselves. What happens when you go off to college or move out on your own and you’ve never learned to wipe yourself? There’s already plenty to learn about budgets, laundry, meal prep. For goodness sakes, people with disabilities should learn about AT for the bathroom when their peers are learning to wipe themselves. Pooping is an important, daily (for many) activity. People need to do it to stay healthy and out of the hospital. Professionals and people with disabilities need to drop the shame game and talk about going to the bathroom–and what devices and supports are needed to go to the bathroom as safely and as easily as possible. People who want to be able to wipe themselves need to be able to get information on devices that can help. People who can’t wipe themselves and need assistance doing so, need information on personal assistance care, safe toileting options, and AT for the bathroom–a note from friends in the know, bidets can be amazing!

Stop with the poop shaming!
Let’s learn a lesson from each other and from what I’m trying to teach my son. Pooping matters. Everybody poops. There are great AT items that can help with pooping and with wiping.

And for the AT info piece–this was previously published in our blog and its worth repeating here:

Many people invent things out of a necessity they have themselves. This was the case for Deborah Tacoma. After an accident where she broke her back, Deborah found she could not twist and reach to wipe and take care of her personal hygiene needs in the bathroom. She did some research and found various items but didn’t find one that fit her body size, arm length and reduced finger strength—so she invented one, the FreedomWand ®. It is available on Amazon.com for $10 less than the FreedomWand website.

In promoting her product, Deborah has talked to many people with many types of disabilities that have trouble wiping and taking care of all their bathroom needs but are ashamed to talk about it with their doctors or others that might have helped them find AT—people are ashamed and suffer for that shame risking skin breakdown, pain, and infections.

The FreedomWand® is an easy-to-use multipurpose, portable toilet tissue aid that can also be used to hold a razor, loofah, or ointment applicator. It has extendable reach of up to 25 inches or as few as 9 and can be taken apart and stored in the carrying bag that comes with it. The bag and wand can fit in a backpack or large purse.  Instead of a push-button release which can be difficult for some people, it has a slide button.

Our Small Changes Big Differences kits have FreedomWands® for you to see in-person and decide if they might work for you. The kits also have dozens of other devices to help people with disabilities live in the community. Find the kit nearest you and give them a call to set up a demonstration. Deborah also has a video showing how the product works.

And for what its worth, also from my new parent experience, pregnancy constipation is no joke and squatty potties really do help with constipation and that crew understands that we need to talk about poop–and even have fun with it.

What do you think? Can you help break the poop shaming cycle society has created? What AT do you use or have you heard of that helps with toileting?