Tips: 72 Hour Fecal Fat for Boys

Having two boys with Shwachman-Diamond Syndrome I have had to do many 72 hour fecal fat collections. When they are still in diapers, it is difficult to keep urine from contaminating the stool sample, but it can be done! First...... note that this post is going to talk about private parts---- it is part of life with SDS!

The best way to collect the stool samples for boys still in diapers--

Buy one pack of disposable diapers one size too big. Use disposable diapers that fit for the bottom layer.

1. Place the first diaper on the child inside out (plastic side toward skin).
2. Draw a circle around the area on the diaper where the penis is located.
3. Remove diaper and cut the circle out.
4. Place diaper back on child (inside out-plastic touching skin) making sure the penis fits through the hole. This will keep the urine from contaminating the stool samples collected in the diaper.
5. Place one of the larger diapers on the child in the proper fashion over the first diaper with the hole that has already been placed on the child.
6. Once the child has a bowel movement, remove diapers and scrape the stool into the proper container.

Most labs have you refrigerate or freeze the stool samples until it is brought in for analysis. Be sure to keep a food diary for several days prior to collection and the 3 days (72 hrs) of collection. This helps the doctors figure out the grams of fat ingested. Most labs say to eat a minimum of 50 grams of fat per day for a child and 100 grams for an adult.

Why keep a diary for the several days prior to collection? Remember what goes in one day comes out a day or two later!