Do elderly people become bowel obsessed?

I'm an 89 years old male. I have never been obsessed about my bowel movements. I never had problems in that area. I make sure I'm well hydrated, I incorporate fiber in my diet and exercise every day.

Dad is almost 93, he has been fixated on bowel movements my entire life. "Regularity" is a common subject for him to bring up.

Getting old is compared with becoming babies all over again. Not able to ambulate, no hair, no teeth, no bowel or bladder control.

ExhaustedOne: The answer to your question is yes. My mother was quite constipated often and had to take a stool softener. Then swore off ever taking it again as it caused the opposite issue.

mom2mepil,

I hear you honey, and I totally get it. In fact, I usually get it three, four, sometimes five times a day. That commode is forever being cleaned.
I've also been an elder caregiver for almost 25 years. So, I've seen it all, cleaned it all, and to hear about it all LOL.

Oh, gosh, yes! Right now this is the most trying part of the disease for my mother and me. My mother (76, with Alz, late stage 5) has been completely obsessed with her bowels for the past four or so years. She actually takes photos of her "output" every single time she goes to the bathroom. She is also lactose intolerant (has been for 40 years), but will eat ice cream every time she can manage to get her hands on it at her Assisted Living facility, so she constantly has abdominal cramping and diarrhea and is convinced she has some kind of dreadful disease like intestinal cancer. (She doesn't--she has been THOROUGHLY checked out multiple times by a whole team of doctors (scanned, tested, re-scanned, re-tested, on and on and on.) Her bowel obsession has nearly driven me around the bend. I dread visiting her now because as soon as she can get me alone, she pulls out her phone to show me her hundreds of photos and wants to argue with me about why every single one means something is horribly wrong and she needs to go to the gastroenterologist or the ER RIGHT NOW. The facility's Director of Health Services is working on getting the kitchen staff to only serve Mom dairy free ice cream, but they are short staffed right now, due to Omicron, and are run off their feet and not paying as much attention as they normally do. I never would have believed I would be yelled at by my mom on a daily or weekly basis about the color and consistency of her fecal matter. But here we are. I just cannot muster the "appropriate" level of empathy over her obsessive concern anymore, and that makes her angry and me emotionally exhausted.

I suggest you talk to his PCP. There maybe something that will cut down on the frequency.