2 year old just started on Movicol by Paeds GI specialist.

[lionelchia1986]

My DS was prescribed one sachet a day.

He had his first sachet of movicol yesterday....no poo yesterday.
2nd day, brown runny poo x2. not sure it is diarrhea.

Should i continue till soft lumps appears? Does it mean he has big hard chunk inside?

[eyeoresancerre]

That sounds about right I think. My 2 year old had to take it for several days. Liquid stuff first then softer but more solid poo came out. It's so stressful isn't it. Hope your ok.

[littleoldladywho]

If you have been prescribed movicol for impaction, you should have been given very specific instructions. Sometimes they recommend staying on a maintenance dose and then halving etc as stopping taking it can cause another episode of constipation and subsequent impaction. Discuss with your health visitor or gp if you are unsure. It usually takes longer than a couple of days to get clear impaction and get the bowel working again (obviously depending on how long the child has been impacted)

[littleoldladywho]

Rereading title, if this was prescribed by paeds GI, you should contact them directly if you did not understand the process. They may be working with you on specific bowel issues and have slightly different protocols sepedning on what they are. Lots of kids remain on some form of softener/ lubricant as a maintenance dose to keep things moving.

[lionelchia1986]

@eyesoresan
Thanks. I wish my ds will produce some soft solids in few days time.

@little

The planned was to give him a sachet a day for a month and meanwhile cut down his milk intake to make him take more solid food instead. My mistake I didn't ask what to expect when give Movicol to my ds. I thought lumps will come out but runny brown poo instead. Reading some other mothers thread on Movicol, this runny poo is actually "the new poo" and the old hard poo is still inside?

The hospital is very far (250km) from my place as paediatric GI Specialist is not very common in my country and they will not entertain any phone consultation.

[grace9892]

We had to use movicol on our two year old as well. She has gotten past that stage and is now eating well, good luck to you

[Tweedledumb0]

If the aim is to disimpact, there's a separate dose regime for that, where you build up the dose until you've disimpacted. 1 sachet a day is not a disimpacted dose; it's a maintenance dose post-disimpaction.

You're quite right that the runny poo is probably new poo flowing round the blockage. I'd be surprised if you achieve disimpaction on that dose.

If this was prescribed for disimpaction, I suggest phoning the consultant's secretary and asking for a call to discuss asap, as you're concerned the dosage isn't sufficient; google the Movicol paediatric disimpaction dose (iirc, it's 2 day 1, 4 day 2, 6 day 3 etc), and refer directly to that and ask whether you should be following that dosage.

I see what you say about phone consults, but in this case, this dosage doesn't sound right to perform a full disimpaction; and if you don't disimpact fully, it's impossible to sort out.

Be pushy

[Tweedledumb0]

Here you go: [https://www.evidence.nhs.uk/formulary/bnfc/current/1-gastro-intestinal-system/16-laxatives/164-osmotic-laxatives/macrogols/movicol-paediatric link]. You can see there's a difference between maintenance dose and disimpaction dose.

[lionelchia1986]

@tweedle

Maybe when he examine my ds abdomen and find that he is only mildly constipated so he just give a sachet a day? Before we went to see him, we usually will have to enema DS every 5th or 6th day. When we brought our son to him, DS wasn't having bowl movement 2nd day, quite flat tummy. If there's no soft lumps after few days I might start stool disimpaction protocol.

[Tweedledumb0]

It's impossible to know the extent of constipation just by feeling the abdomen, to be honest. I think you really should check in again with the doctor if at all possible; they're the person to advise on dose, rather than me, a random stranger online But i think you're definitely right to be looking for solid/semi solid output! Good luck.

[lionelchia1986]

May i know your 2yo,how many days of liquid stool only the solid will come ? Dosage was 1 sachet a day too? Are you still using Movicol up till now for your child?

[nocoolnamesleft]

If it's gone straight to runny, almost certainly overflow diarrhoea, coming past lumps. Keep going.

[lionelchia1986]

Can't wait to see the lumps coming out.

[lionelchia1986]

Update :Day 3 Movicol a sachet a day,passing liquid stool still. 😕

[lionelchia1986]

Mmm... Day 3 Movicol still no semi solids coming out, liquid stool already 6 times today, is this normal? Keep going till I see semi solids?

[littleoldladywho]

Not sure how you are going with this, but as we have no way of knowing whether he was actually impacted, you may not ever see anything else... Ds1 was on all sorts of things over a number of years, and the only time we really 'knew' what was going on inside was if they x-rayed. We spent a while using suppositories to erm, clear him out from the other end. (At a certain point in his treatment, whenever he had 'overflow' / seepage, we would go straight to suppository x 3 to clear bowel). He was on maintenance dose of stool softener for long time. (Years)
Sometimes the specialist will prescribe movicol or similar to prevent impaction, or to keep everything moving by making it all softer and more slippery - that way it is less likely that a child will be able to withhold, if this is thought to be part of the issue. So it may be that this is the case here?
Hopefully I am too late, and you have already had some other proof of what is going on but it's pretty impossible to tell most of the time.