Dr. Tom offers personal telephone consultations for parents who wish to speak with him directly about questions related to their child's treatment for functional constipation. For example, are they using the correct laxative? what is the best dose? how long should they make their child sit on the toilet to poop?  Some parents want to talk with Dr. Tom because their pediatrician has not been very helpful, e.g. "He or she will grow out of it." Parents report that consulting with Dr. Tom provides them with more hands-on treatment guidance than they get from their pediatrician.   

Prior to scheduling a consultation Dr. Tom recommends that parents read his book, The Ins and Outs of Poop, if they have not done so already.  

I recently received a request for a telephone consultation from the mother of a 13 year old girl who had been withholding her poop for eleven years. She said that her doctors had recommended Miralax, ultra sounds, x-rays, therapy and even a barium enema when her daughter was only 4 years old, which, she said, "was horrible beyond belief and probably made everything worse".

Because she had not yet read my book, I suggested that she do so before we talked by phone. Shortly thereafter she sent me the following email:

Dear Dr. Tom,

Just to let you know that my 13-year old daughter wept like I haven't seen her weep as we read your book together and we read about kids who were like her, who are great achievers and great kids, but who have greatly struggled with functional constipation. When she read that a girl had actually recovered, she just started sobbing. There it was, a possibility she had never heard of... she has felt so alone. We all have because most people aren't willing to talk about this, so, we haven't known that this was a problem others were facing.

There has been so much shame. Doctors have mostly just sent us away telling us to feed her more prunes or giving us sheets on normal constipation which we knew somehow was very different. There has been much trauma and loss of trust with the medical world over the fact that doctors couldn't hear us, for example, when we told them that she was able to hold in an enema for 13 minutes as a four year old.

It has been a week and we are all supporting my daughter in going to the bathroom every day with Miralax.  We are going to continue for 6 months with her going every day and see how this goes and contact you again if we need guidance along the way.

I was truly at the end of my rope when a Google search finally brought me to Dr. Tom (I had done several in the past, just not the right combo).  I cried myself to sleep some nights wondering how this would ever resolve.  My son was 5.  I had taken him to his Pediatrician, a GI specialist, gotten him custom self-hypnosis CD’s, tried aromatherapy, a chiropractor that did energy work, 2 child psychologists, an occupational therapist to help him “push”, and this was all after trying all of the known methods for potty training.  I was very concerned about Kindergarten and his delicate self-esteem.  One 45-minute PHONE session with Dr. Tom turned everything around for good!  Within 2 days, my son was mostly accident-free.  After a few weeks, we have worked out a regimen that has had him regular, mostly accident-free, & so much more happy & confident.  Dr. Tom has been extremely accessible to all of my questions/concerns which has made a HUGE difference.  The impact Dr. Tom has made in our lives is beyond words.  This has been such a big deal for so long and now we have moved on to other, more interesting things like learning math!  Thanks, Dr. Tom!