Bowel incontinence can make day-to-day living difficult. Discover the top bowel incontinence products to provide you with relief.
Dealing with bowel incontinence makes it challenging to live your everyday life. Those with the condition may feel like they aren’t in control of their body and have no confidence to leave their house to go about daily activities.
Today, we live in a world better equipped to accommodate bowel incontinence, and a variety of products can help people live more comfortably. Keep reading to learn what those bowel incontinence products are and how they can help enhance your quality of life.
What Is Bowel Incontinence?
Before getting into the essential bowel incontinence products, let’s start by explaining what exactly bowel incontinence is.
Bowel incontinence, also known as fecal incontinence, is the inability to control bowel movements. The result is usually an involuntary bowel movement. This loss of bowel control can make wearing regular underwear difficult.
Anyone can develop bowel incontinence, but it’s most common in older people. According to Johns Hopkins Medicine, 1 in 12 people will experience bowel incontinence at some point. Not everyone experiences bowel incontinence the same way.
Some people experience urge incontinence, which occurs when they suddenly need to go to the bathroom, but the urge is so sudden that you can’t make it to the toilet in time.
For others, passive incontinence may be the problem. This type occurs when you feel no sensation before soiling yourself or the slightest sensation that resembles flatulence.
What’s more, the frequency of incontinence also varies. For some, incontinence is a daily occurrence. It may happen less frequently and at odd, unpredictable times for others.
Let’s take a look at some of the common causes of incontinence.
Common Causes for Bowel Incontinence
The most common cause of bowel incontinence is the weakening of the rectal muscles. For your bowels to function correctly, the nerves and muscles in your rectum must work together as a system. When this system fails, you may experience bowel incontinence.
The most common causes of bowel incontinence are:
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Diarrhea
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Chronic constipation
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Nerve damage
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Damaged muscles
In most cases, bowel incontinence is not a standalone problem. It’s usually an underlying symptom of a more significant medical problem.
Bowel incontinence is a symptom of several diseases, including:
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Dementia
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Alzheimer's disease
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Parkinson’s disease
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Strokes
Even if an older adult catches a simple cold, their bodily functions may shut down, and they could experience mild bowel incontinence.
Bowel incontinence is a complex condition to live with due to its unpredictability; however, there are several ways in which you can improve your quality of life with incontinence, including using select products.
Let’s look at some essential bowel incontinence products to help you feel like yourself again.
Bowel Incontinence Products
Today, various bowel incontinent products can provide comfort in your daily life. While these products cannot cure incontinence, they ensure that you’re always prepared when it happens.
Here are four must-have bowel incontinence products that will help you feel more comfortable in your daily life.
Peristeen Plus TAI System
If you want more control over when and where you empty your bowels, take a look at the Peristeen Plus TAI System. With this system, you use a balloon catheter to create a seal in the rectum to keep water in the bowels; after the recommended amount of water is instilled and enough time has passed, deflate the balloon, remove the catheter, and wait until you’re done.
You can use the Peristeen Plus TAI System independently or with assistance, daily or every other day to keep your bowels moving and gain more control over when and where you have a bowel movement. This system comes with everything you need, but be sure to get instructions from your doctor first about how much water you need to instill and how long it needs to dwell.
Absorbent pads for your bed
For some people, bowel incontinence only happens when they are sleeping. Being unconscious in bed makes fecal incontinence even more challenging, especially if it doesn’t wake you up and you don’t realize it happens until morning. The longer a soiled mattress goes untreated, the more difficult it is to treat.
That’s why absorbent pads are an essential bowel incontinence product. An absorbent pad protects your sheets and your mattress, so you don’t have to worry about ruining them in your sleep. There are a variety of protective incontinence pads to choose from. There are absorbent pads that you can throw in the wash, underpads that can be put beneath your sheets for extra protection or waterproof sheet protectors to protect your sheets entirely.
Here’s a pro tip: You can use a combination of different types of incontinence pads and disposable underwear to ensure greater absorbency and the most protection while you sleep.
Adult briefs
Another essential bowel incontinence product to have on hand is adult diapers or briefs. Briefs are critical to have on hand when you leave the house and don’t have a readily available bathroom.
There are a variety of adult diaper or brief options to choose from. Some provide full coverage, and others are less invasive and feel more like protective underwear. Some are made for light leakage, while others can accommodate heavy bowel leakage. What’s more, there are specific briefs for both men and women.
Love swimming? You don’t have to allow your incontinence to give that up. There are also swimmable briefs to enjoy the water peacefully and without stress.
Skincare products
One bowel incontinence product that many people forget about but is essential to dealing with bowel incontinence is skincare.
Treating your skin after any leakage is essential, especially if it occurs in your sleep and you end up lying in it for hours.
At a minimum, the skincare products that you should be using to protect against skin irritation are:
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Cleansers
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Lotions
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Wipes
The skin around your genitals and buttocks is often sensitive if you have persistent bowel incontinence. Ensure that your products are gentle enough for your skin to handle. Prolonged skin contact with fecal matter often results in dermatitis or even eczema. If this happens, you may need specialized creams meant to treat these conditions. Your wipes should also be gentle and fragrance-free.
Be sure to carry these skincare products wherever you go to ensure you’re always ready.
Feel Like Yourself Again With Bowel Incontinence Products
To recap, the three must-have products for those who experience bowel incontinence are:
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Bed pads
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Briefs
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Skincare products
Bowel incontinence can easily ruin your day. However, if you have the right bowel incontinence products available, this condition becomes much easier to live with.
To learn how SCI Supply can help with additional incontinence accessories, check out this page.