What this resource is
This print-ready bowel diary records stool consistency in plain language, urgency, leakage, gas leakage, toilet difficulty, straining, diet or medicine changes, and pelvic-floor strategies. It supports a clinical conversation; it cannot determine whether symptoms arise from stool consistency, sphincter injury, pelvic-floor coordination, neurological disease, medication, or another cause.
Print this page from the browser when a paper copy is useful. Navigation, advertising spaces, and promotional calls to action are hidden in print, while the instructions, blank fields, related context, and sources remain.
Review the on-screen version again if the page shows a newer update date.
How to use the handout
Record events close to when they happen and use descriptions you can repeat consistently, such as hard pieces, formed stool, loose stool, or watery stool. Note uncertainty instead of guessing. Do not change laxatives, antidiarrhoeal medicine, fibre, fluid, or prescribed bowel care solely to improve the appearance of the diary.
Read every safety boundary before completing the fields. Keep a completed copy private because bladder, bowel, sexual-health, pregnancy, surgery, or symptom notes can be sensitive. This resource is educational and does not establish a clinician–patient relationship.
A useful event record
For each bowel event, note time, stool consistency, amount in simple terms, urgency, ability to defer, bowel or gas leakage, awareness of leakage, protection used, pain, bleeding, time on the toilet, straining, incomplete-emptying sensation, and any manual assistance. Also record whether the event woke you and whether it followed a notable meal or medicine change.
Separate control from emptying
Leakage and difficult emptying can occur separately or together. A person may have urgent loose stool, reduced sensation, sphincter injury, constipation with overflow, or difficulty coordinating relaxation during defecation. More squeezing is not a universal answer. Record both holding and emptying symptoms so the discussion is not reduced to contraction strength alone.
How professionals may use the pattern
NICE faecal-incontinence guidance and NIDDK treatment information place bowel retraining and pelvic-floor approaches within broader assessment and management. A clinician may add history, examination, medication review, stool-management decisions, tests, or specialist referral. The printed sheet contributes observations, not a diagnosis.
Warning signs and dignity
Seek prompt medical advice for significant or unexplained rectal bleeding, black stool, fever with illness, severe or escalating abdominal pain, persistent vomiting, new neurological symptoms, or a major sudden change in bowel control. Bowel leakage is a health symptom, not a personal failure. Use neutral language, store completed sheets privately, and share only with people involved in care.
Personal or clinician-supplied fields
Leave any item blank when it has not been assessed or agreed. Blank space means “not supplied”; it is not an invitation to invent a dose, diagnosis, treatment date, or clearance decision.
Date, usual bowel pattern, medicines, and current care plan
Event rows: time, consistency, urgency, leakage, emptying, pain, and bleeding
Food, fluid, medicine, activity, and pelvic-floor strategy notes
Patterns, quality-of-life impact, questions, and review date
Safety and review boundaries
Pause an exercise that causes pain or clearly worsens symptoms.
Seek a qualified pelvic-health physiotherapist or other appropriate clinician when technique is uncertain, symptoms are complex, emptying is difficult, a programme is not helping, or treatment and recovery affect exercise choice.
New or severe symptoms may require medical assessment rather than an exercise review.
The page cannot examine tissue healing, muscle activity, sensation, coordination, prolapse, retention, infection, neurological function, or the reason for leakage. A completed form records observations and instructions; it does not convert them into a diagnosis or prove that the exercise was performed correctly.
Review before reusing
Date the printed copy and replace it when professional instructions, symptoms, medicines, pregnancy stage, catheter status, treatment, or functional goals change. Do not keep progressing an old plan because it is convenient.
If the resource is shared by a clinician, that clinician remains responsible for checking that the written variables and safety route fit the individual.
Related guides
Continue with How the pelvic floor supports bowel continence, Pelvic-floor dyssynergia and obstructed defecation explained, and When bowel or gas leakage needs specialist assessment.
Sources
- National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. Faecal incontinence in adults: management. CG49. 2007. Official or indexed source.
- National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. Treatment of Fecal Incontinence. National Institutes of Health. Official or indexed source.
- Santoro GA, Wieczorek AP, Sultan AH, eds. Pelvic Floor Disorders: A Multidisciplinary Textbook. 2nd ed. Springer; 2021. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-40862-6. Official or indexed source.
- Rao SSC, Benninga MA, Bharucha AE, et al. ANMS-ESNM position paper and consensus guidelines on biofeedback therapy for anorectal disorders. Neurogastroenterol Motil. 2015;27(5):594-609. doi:10.1111/nmo.12520. Official or indexed source.