Hello, I can see that there's a lot of experience with Movicol on here, so I'm hoping someone might be able to answer some questions - the GPs at my surgery are sympathetic but don't seem to be specialised in this and leave it to me to decide on doses etc.
My DS, 5.5, has been on paed Movicol since last July. Before that he had got into a habit of holding in his poo and going about every 3 days for very large BM (8-10inches), after a day or so of soiling. Gradually the time between poos got longer, more like 5 days, then suddenly he went 8 days so that's when I went to GP. She prescribed Movicol and after 2 days (1 sachet first day, 2 sachets second) he had another large BM. Soon poos were very runny (not liquid but running down his legs) so reduced to one sachet and in the next couple of weeks things got very loose again so reduced to half. Gradually we've reduced further, and now he's on about 1/4 per day, adjusting a bit depending on BMs.
From then until now he has been soiling every day several times, for a while he had no large poos at all but such a lot seemed to be happening in his pants that I assumed he was getting rid of it all. Now he has a large BM every few days (up to a week) with lots of soiling in between, but generally only if he's in the shower and I catch him crossing his legs and get him onto the loo in time. The poos are not as big as they used to be, which may be because a lot is coming out in between, and may be (I'm hoping) that the bowel is less stretched.
What I'm wondering is whether the constant soiling is because his muscles are weak, and he's tending to be a bit bunged up, but that when he does a "biggie" it is all cleared out each time- or whether there could be an impaction that has never got cleared. The GP was happy when she felt his tummy the second time we went, but he hasn't seen her since - they renewed the prescription over the phone. I will make sure they see him next time. He always (except once) says he has no tummy ache - just that sometimes doing the poo hurts. In fact, the time he had tummy ache it was followed by diarrhoea - he'd had a large BM the night before immediately after having about half a sachet (because I had a feeling he needed to go and hadn't been getting rid of enough through soiling the last few days I'd given him more) so I put it down to the Movicol acting on an empty bowel. The diarrhoea cleared up quickly and tummy ache went.
I imagine he'd have pain if impacted? Do children soil just because their muscles need retraining / time to recover?
Also, the large poos he does seem v big for a little person and a good consistency (sorry for detail!) and I can't imagine more being in there!
I had expected it to gradually improve but the only sign I can see is that he seemed to have lost the "feeling" to go altogether and now he seems to be getting it again - even though he still resists it. Mostly however, he soils without realising - it just seems to come without any control.
I don't mind the soiling if it's getting rid of what has to be got rid of(!) rather than causing a backlog, but just concerned it could be sign that things aren't clear.
I think it's mainly a behaviour thing, he never seemed to have really hard poos, but reading the high doses that some children have had to have to get rid of impaction, I just wonder if we have reduced the dose too quickly (although Dr seemed to be suggesting that we should.) When I up his dose very much his poos get very sloppy, and if I reduce too much the soiling reduces but then he does seem to get bunged up.
Any advice gratefully received!
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Children's health
Movicol questions - sorry very long
17 replies
bananabrain · 04/02/2013 22:52
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