Healthy Bowel Habits
- Find your best time of day to have a bowel movement. Usually the best time of day for a bowel movement will be a half hour to an hour after breakfast. For some people a half hour to an hour after lunch will work better. These times are best because the body uses the gastro-colic reflex, a stimulation of bowel motion that occurs with eating, to help produce a bowel movement.
- Make sure that you are not rushed and have convenient access to a bathroom at this time.
- Eat all of your meals (breakfast, lunch, and dinner) at a predictable time each day. The bowel functions best when food is introduced at the same regular intervals.
- The bowel functions best when food is introduced in similar amounts. The size of the different meals taken through the day may vary, but the amount of food eaten at a given meal (breakfast, lunch, of dinner) should be about the same each day quantities from day to day.
- Eat a high fiber diet.
- Drink plenty of decaffeinated fluids, ideally 64 ounces a day or 8 glasses of water.
- Exercise daily. Bowel function is helped most when exercise is at a consistent daily time.
- Keep caffeine to a minimum. Caffeine is a diuretic drawing fluid from your colon and leaving your stools hard.
Bowel movement technique:
- Sit on toilet and lean forward, resting forearms on thighs. Lift heels or place feet on stool.
- Alternate position- may try leaning forward and grasping ankles.
- Relax rectum, feeling it slightly bulge outward.
- Keeping lips, jaw and mouth open will facilitate relaxation of the pelvic floor during your bowel movement.
- Breathe in through nose and exhale through mouth or perform gentle hissing through the teeth. Gently direct the air down and back to the rectum, keeping your abdomen firm.
- If post-partum or if you have perineal descent, place your fingers externally on the perineum (area between vagina and rectum)..
- When finished – contract pelvic floor muscles to restore normal pelvic floor tone.
- Repeat 3-4 times. If still unsuccessful, contract the pelvic floor and get off the toilet. Avoid straining
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Information provided by the Michigan Bowel Control Program & UMHS Physical Therapy, April 2007
