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Children's health

moviocol - a question re: fluid intake

11 replies

katechristie · 13/10/2009 20:18

DS has just started movicol. I understand how it works in that you mix it with the 62ml of water and the movicol keeps the water with it and takes it into the bowel to keep the stools soft etc. However, to get DS to actually drink it, I have to then mix it with enough diluted apple juice and water that he can't taste it. Is all this liquid then being taken to the bowel, or just the 62 ml I mixed it with originally?

sorry, as I'm typing this sounds a ridiculously dense question, but does anybody really know how it works? DS's fluid intake is probably one of the reasons he is constipated in the first place. Despite offering as much fluids as I can, buying as many different glasses, cups, sports type bottles etc. and leaving them everywhere and anywhere, I just can't get his fluid intake up.

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thatsnotmymonster · 13/10/2009 20:23

My dd was on this for quite a while and I can't remember!! I think I mixed it up and then diluted it with other drinks throughout the day so that over the course of the day she had the full dose.

Seemed to work fine.

She actually ceased to be constipated when she changed from cow's milk to soya.

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MinkyBorage · 13/10/2009 20:31

I never measured the amount of water/juice I was mixing with the movicol, but it was always more than 62 ml. I would have thought that it will take as much as it can in to the bowel, and this may be 62 ml per sachet?? but I can't imagine that it keeps hold of the 62ml. I guess that you just need to get as much fluid in to you dc as possible so there is always enough spare liquid to be absorbed in to the bowel.

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katechristie · 13/10/2009 20:49

thanks both. I've been trying not to make a big deal of the fluid intake so it doesn't get even worse, but this week I've actually been saying ooh, lets drink lots of water as that will make the belly better and help the poos come out, as he's aware now that he's uncomfortable sometimes "my bum bum hurts mummy" bless him. As he doesn't actually finish every drink I offer him, I put the movicol in with the diluted juice he has at meal times as he definitely does drink them.

Interesting the dairy link - we had a consultation with a community paed and I asked her about this and she said no link with dairy - I was hoping to have a consultation with the constipation clinic, as guessed they'd be much more up on the link with diet and have tips for me, but their waiting list was much longer. - Our own GP would have been happy to keep him on lactulose forever I think. He'd been on it 6months and I took a poo diary last time saying I really don't think this is working and she was fairly non-commital and just said up the dose if you want. ? to what? for how long???

DS drinks about 300ml of cows milk p.d. as well as a yogurt maybe 5 days out of 7 and cheese a few days a week, so whilst not excessive consumption, it's significant enough I guess. maybe I should try cutting it out and see how we get on.

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MinkyBorage · 13/10/2009 23:06

get this book, it is absolutely brilliant!!

Good luck

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katechristie · 15/10/2009 10:55

thanks minky, have seen that book recommended on other posts actually (been searching through the archives on this!) and did wonder, so will order it now, many thanks.

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pooter · 15/10/2009 11:07

We are having similar problems katechristie - DS is scared of pooing and has been trying not to - ending up in tiptoeing around the room sobbing his heart out the GP (well, three of them!!) have been distinctly underwhelming - they dont realise what a huge problem it is for him, and how upset he is, and what effect this is having on our family life.

Anyhoo - he is on Movicol now (had to fight for it) and after one week of one sachet, he went on two sashets for one week, now ive reduced the dose to one and a half for four days now just one sachet split in half morning and evening (his poo was getting to be too runny and explosive). It is helping A LOT and every time he does a poo we cheer and clap and bribe him with a kinder egg .

The Movicol works by osmosis, whereby It will draw water into the bowel until it is the same concentration as the fluid (in blood or interstitial fluid) outside the bowel. It will not take all the water from the fruit juice - dont worry. I am having to mix it with hot chocolate to get him to drink it.

Good luck - this is an underestimated problem imhe, hope it works out for you both. (and lactulose does bugger all - why dont the GPs understand this???) (although it also works on teh same principle - osmosis)

I have been eating textbooks about this - what an interesting life i lead

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thatsnotmymonster · 15/10/2009 11:08

Kate- the gp's know nothing! I actually found a study online where they did a double blind trial. All the children suffered from Chronic constipation and all of them improved whilst on Soya.

The thing is that the usual thing is that soya makes children constipated, however not everyone reacts the same way to everything.

My 2 girls get constiapted and horrible green runny noses when they've had too much dairy.

They can tolerate cheese, chocolate and the occasional yogurt but I substitute all milk drinks and in cereal for soya.

If you tried him on soya you would probably know within 2-4 weeks. My dd1 stopped her movicol the day we introduced soya and never needed it again. Previously she would be constipated even if we missed one dose. This was after 6mo of being on movicol.

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Marie12 · 15/10/2009 14:02

I can't believe what a common problem this is and how unclued the GPs seem to be about it. My DS2 has chronic constipation only recently helped by movicol (which I had to beg for!), and no-one seems to take it seriously, however, it has really affected him.

We always thought he was a very fussy eater but since starting movicol he eats everything I give to him! Next time I go shopping I am going to buy soya milk as my DS2 loves cows milk and still drinks more than he should at this age (20 months). I have tried watering it down but it doesn't seem to make much difference.

All of the posts on here are really interesting and reassuring.

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katechristie · 15/10/2009 15:58

thanks very much all. we're on day 4 now - 2 sachets for the last 2 days and still only little poos coming out - he's drank even less today, so I'm trying so hard not to make a big deal of it, but get more in him. Was up half the night with DD who is 6mo, so it's hard going having this to deal with as well. the thing is when his poos do come out, they're fairly soft, he just strains up to 8 times a day till he's red in the face, - he's not actually withholding, just can't get the dam things out, it's heart breaking sometimes isn't it.

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pooter · 15/10/2009 17:46

Heartbreaking is the word kc - you have it in one. Im sure you have thought about all this, but have you offered him ANY drink at all - ovaltine, hot chocolate, pink milk? I would much prefer DS to be drinking water, but the hot choccy route is the only wayi can get a decent amount of fluid in him. (i do sneak some prune juice in it though!) Dried apricots are really good for softening poo as well.

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katechristie · 15/10/2009 18:06

well, I now give diluted juice throughout the day, but I think it's time to get over myself and just start buying squash in the hope he'll drink that more. He's not so hot on chocolate, so hot choc wouldn't go down so well, I've got about 10 or 11 cups glasses etc now, we've been buying new ones anytime we see something we think he might like to make him drink a bit more!