Nov 16, 2010

Collecting a Stool Specimen

     Unlike most other lab tests, stool is sometimes collected by the child's family at home, not by a health care professional. Here are some tips for collecting a stool specimen:
  • Collecting stool can be messy, so be sure to wear latex gloves and wash your hands and your child's hands well afterward.
  • Many kids with diarrhea, especially young children, can't always let a parent know in advance when a bowel movement is coming. Sometimes a hat-shaped plastic lid is used to collect the stool specimen. This catching device can be quickly placed over the toilet bowl or your child's rear end to collect the specimen. Using a catching device can prevent contamination of the stool by water and dirt. If urine contaminates the stool sample, it will be necessary to take another sample. Also, if you're unable to catch the stool sample before it touches the inside of the toilet, the sample will need to be repeated. Fishing a bowel movement out of the toilet does not provide a clean specimen for the laboratory to analyze.
  • Another way to collect a stool sample is to loosely place plastic wrap across the rim of the toilet, under the seat. Then place the stool sample in a clean, sealable container before taking to the laboratory. Plastic wrap can also be used to line the diaper of an infant or toddler who is not yet using the toilet.
The stool should be collected into clean, dry plastic jars with screw-cap lids. You can get these from your doctor or through hospital laboratories or pharmacies, although any clean, sealable container could do the job. For best results, the stool should then be brought to the laboratory immediately.
If it's impossible to get the sample to the laboratory right away, the stool should be refrigerated, then taken to the laboratory to be cultured as soon as possible after collection. When the sample arrives at the lab, it is either examined and cultured immediately or placed in a special liquid medium that attempts to preserve potential bacteria or parasites.
The doctor or the hospital laboratory will usually provide written instructions on how to successfully collect a stool sample; if written instructions are not provided, take notes on how to collect the sample and what to do once you've collected it.
If you have any questions about how to collect the specimen, be sure to ask. The doctor or the lab will also let you know if a fresh stool sample is needed for a particular test, and if it will need to be brought to the laboratory right away.
Most of the time, disease-causing bacteria or parasites can be identified from a single stool specimen. Sometimes, however, up to three samples from different bowel movements must be taken. The doctor will let you know if this is the case.

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