so on to movicol again, tried with high fibre diet but still soiling going on

[miarosemum]

can anyone give me any success stories with movicol and constipation. dd who is nearly 4, never had any digestive problems until a few weeks ago. noticed she was soiling herself only little bits though and then crying with pain on using the toilet. prescried movicol but stopped after a week as no improvement and tried her instead with prune juice, wheat germ, wholemeal everything, apples etc. still no improvment and tuesday this week i nearly had a nervous breakdown as soiled herself all day. back to docs and told to take 2 sachets of movicol a day and she could be on it for as long as 6-12 months! please give me some reassurance that things will get better and she won't become reliant on these things!

[auntevil]

Sorry, no reassurance here. DS had movicol over the summer hols and was liquid for nearly 5 weeks and had to put him back into pull-ups - he's 5.6!
We're now on to fybogel and senakot. The gastro paed gave a dose that was far too extreme for him. He was soiling 5/6 times a day at school.I kept calling gastro but he didn't reply. I dabbled with the meds myself and found that the fybogel every couple of days and no senakot has led to only 2 soilings this week at school - which is a vast improvement on pre fybogel, movicol, and no meds at all.
As to the reliance issue. I'm hoping that as he develops and gets older that his own body will be able to regulate his bowels.
Good luck [hsmile]

[3littlefrogs]

Has your dd actually passed the blockage? Has the doctor examined her to see if she still has impacted faeces there? If she is crying with pain, maybe she is still passing loose stools round the obstruction.

Did anything precipitate all this?

Yes - it can take 12 months to treat and retrain the bowel.

[3littlefrogs]

dd had this as a result of being given piriton over a period of a few days. She got very constipated, got an anal fissure passing a huge solid poo, and developed a fear of the pain and started witholding. It took a year to sort out, with a very strict, consistant regimen of medication, but we got there in the end.

[3littlefrogs]

Actually, a high fibre diet is the worst thing you can do if the soiling is leakage due to impaction.

[miarosemum]

thank you everyone for your advice, ended up in A & E last night as has soiled herself 15 times a day over the last 3 days due to the movicol and is so so sore and inflamed down there that is impossible to clean her...she was so distressed and me too that i had no choice...they were great at the hosp though and helped me clean her and make her comfortable and they told me to stop the movicol immediately as it seems she is probably very sensitive to it. they have told me to leave her off all medication untill it gets out of her system then if the constipation starts again, to start her on small doses of lactulose and see how we get on. he said it is a fine line to get the dosage and combination right to suit her. gp had checked her bottom for anal fissures but all fine there..so good to know i am not alone with all this as is a very upsetting thing for them to go through and a lot of people don't understand a lot about the conditon

[miarosemum]

so now 3 days since stopped movicol but still soiling pants although definiteley not as much as she was! how long does this stuff take to get out of her system?

[miarosemum]

yes have been increasing the water consumption...also a mum on another thread mentioned trying the Eric website, very very helpful in making me understand how movicol works to maintain the soft bowel movements after the impoaction has cleared..really made sense just wish my gp had explained it like that!

[tughela]

Hi ,

If your son has impaction you will need to get the stools pretty liquid to de-impact. Once thats done try removing cows milk from his diet.
My son was on movicol for about 1.5 years until we realised the cause of the constipation was milk. The reason we missed it at first is because he got constipated before he had ever had cows milk, he is obviously prone to getting constipated, but now that we have removed all cows milk from his diet he is a different child. He goes either everyday or every other day with normal soft stools. In order to test this you need to go two weeks without ANY products containing cows milk.
He was on movical when we did this test, but it was clearly working as his stools were so so soft and regular. Once we realised the milk was the problem we weaned him off the movicol gradually as per recommendations. He hasn't touched movicol for 6 months.
If there are any signs of his stool hardening he just has a couple of prunes (this never worked before)
If you haven't already tried this, try it . I really hope it works. This discovery has changed our lives. There was actually a medical study which is what convinced me to try it
www.wholewoman.com/drupal-6.16/node/2906

We now have a normal happy family.

He drinks soya milk and soya products, and he knows not too take cows milk if offered it. Now that he is so regular he probably could have a bit, but because he is so well, energetic, regular and healthy we have decided that for the moment he does not need it. But I have heard they grow out of it.

Tughela

[nightcat]

totally agree with tug, dairy free/lite is the answer, if that doesn't work then limit wheat

[miarosemum]

thank you tug and nightcat, she does eat a lot of dairy products in milk, yogurt, cheese etc so maybe this is worth trying. the eric website did mention this as well, i am willing to give anything a go!

[par05]

my ds who is 7yrs now has suffered on and off with constipation/impacted poo since she was 3yrs she now poos on average 1 or if i'm lucky 2 times a week lately its gotten real bad and she was on movical and had to have a enema i now give her actimel everyday and that does seem to help along with lactulose

[cece]

DD was on movicol from the age of 4 and recently stopped taking it daily at the age of 9. She is mostly OK but every now and again we have to go back onto the movicol if she gets bunged up again.

The paedeatrician told me to limit the amount of milk and apple juice I gave her. I can really tell if she drinks apple juice, too much milk or a lot of chocolate - for instance she always gets badly constipated after Easter.

[monkey12]

i will try some of your suggestions. my dd has suffered from constipation for just over a year. she goes once a week if we're lucky, but she has gone 2 weeks without pooing before. she also soils herself and when she does eventually go to the loo she cries and screams for hours.

[miarosemum]

well i know a lot of you wont agree..but i took her to see a homeopath on friday, i am willing to give anything a go at the moment. a lot of what she said made sense, but am still a little sceptical. she is sending me some remedys through the post tomorrow so will keep you updated...i have read some really positive stories about homeopathy so we shall see!