Clouds and Clocks: A Story for Children Who Soil

Rating:
Summary: My Son Got Instant Results From This Book
Review: I read the story to my 4 1/2 year old son, after months of fruitless efforts to help him. He immediately identified with the boy in the story. I took him into the bathroom, intending to start with the first step suggested, however, my son proceeded through all the steps right then and there, and has not had an accident since! I couldn't believe it! I recommend this book to anyone with a child who has this problem.

Rating:
Summary: Tender and uplifting, but aimed at much younger children
Review: This little book is short and simple. The main problem is that it is clearly aimed at children who may not even be old enough to read it for themselves. Not that there's anything wrong with a grown-up reading to them, but encopresis affects many children that are over the first-grade reading level. (The little boy in the book appears to be approximately first or second grade.)

Unfortunately, there is very little out there in the way of useful, informative literature that addresses the medical and psychological aspects of these problems. Dr. Galvin is to be commended and congratulated for his efforts and insights on how to comfort, encourage, and challenge children (and parents) who deal with encopresis. Believe it or not, with patience and perseverance, this problem does end, and there is life after it.

Rating:
Summary: Can help you, talking to your child about soiling problems
Review: We have read through this book and find that it can be useful as an aid to opening discussions with your child about encopresis. Having said that, we feel that it is aimed at a very low age group, who may have difficulties with reading in the first instance. The one problem we have is that our encopretic children are above the elementary reading level and therefore got bored and distracted very easily.

One situation that arises with encopresis is that children tend to feel very alone and afraid, because of the amount of pressure heaped on to them at an important stage in their development. This book goes some way to addressing those feelings, but if you are considering it for a child over 5-6 years of age (which is of course the very age where encopresis is causing its biggest headaches) then maybe have the book on a side stand somewhere, and try to talk to your child on a more personal level.