Use of play with clay to treat children with intractable encopresis.

Abstract

We used play with modeling clay to treat six children, aged 4 to 12 years, with a history of intractable constipation with encopresis for a mean of 5.4 (2 to 8) years, refractory to treatment; biofeedback therapy had not been tried. Clay was chosen because, as a brown, messy material, it was a metaphor for feces and could let the child express either his disgust or aggressivity, or let him build symbolic structures. No interpretation was made during treatment. Four children had no symptoms during 2 months of therapy and no relapse during 1 year of follow-up, one child improved significantly, and one child failed to respond but withdrew from treatment after only three sessions. Modeling clay may be a cheap and effective treatment modality for refractory constipation with encopresis.