Child soiling himself - at my wits end!

[DoeIdea]

I have two boys, one 9, one 6.

The youngest has been having soiling issues for a while now. He's been to the GP a few times who said constipation and gave us laculose which he's taking daily but he's still soiling. I'm trying to get him back in but I'm struggling to get an appointment and tbh the GP hasn't really been helpful.

I'm sitting in the car and can smell he's had an accident and know it's going to be a fight to get him sorted because he just doesn't care and will happily go around in shitty pants. Everything stinks of shit despite washing daily, using bio detergent, using laundry sanitizer.

Timers and sending him to the loo do nothing - he'll "go" to the loo then ten minutes later have an accident. Not sure if he's actually using the loo because he doesn't want me in the bathroom with him.

I'm buying packs of pants every week and it's costing me a fortune. I've never told him off for it - I just clean him up and move on but I honestly didn't expect to still be cleaning his bum at 6yo! He's also started denying having an accident even when it's clear he has had one and it's turning into a fight every time to make sure he's clean and not getting sore.

I'm waiting to hear back from ERIC but I genuinely don't know what else to do. I'm so fed up of it I could genuinely sit and cry.

A slight tangent here, but pasta has gluten in it if it's made from wheat.

My daughter had this and it was fructose. - in her case because it's mild high fructose corn syrup.

So basically anything fruit flavoured is a culprit, dried fruits. Jam. Haribo some ice creams.

Too much fruit can sometimes also do it.

Oh bless you. It’s horrid isn’t it. You do need lactulose and movicol combined, DD was so bad in the end that we ended up in hospital and she had an enema, once properly cleared out this did the trick and she has managed to regulate herself ever since

I say this on all these threads because I have been through this. Google the Poo Nurses. Watch the video all the way to the end. It is the best video and professional advice I have seen.

www.coeliac.org.uk/information-and-support/living-gluten-free/the-gluten-free-diet/about-gluten/?&&type=rfst&set=true#cookie-widget

Tangent continued...

You might consider eliminating gluten from his diet if you believe you are sensitive to gluten.

Chronic constipation can be a sign of coeliac disease.

But your first port of call needs to be the GP, and don't be fobbed off. A number of posters here have described a complete clear out with movicol, which is sound advice, and will need about a week off work and school to get done.

Maybe save your comments for threads that aren't about children's medical issues, since giving advice when you know very little is actually quite dangerous.

Medical misinformation is dangerous. Save your ‘advice’ ignorance for threads which are not concerning a child’s health. If you are aware that you know very little then don’t try and tell a worried parent what is right/wrong.

I second the impacted theory, sounds exactly my DD. She was 5 when we disimpacted. Movicol Mummies of Facebook was an absolute life saver for me, so much information and support. The gp have is the laxido prescription, but really didn’t know much about impaction at all. If you don’t get through to Eric, keep trying, their line is busy, but you do get through eventually. The location can take a while depending how big it is so be patient. Ours was 12 days. Thankfully I was on maternity leave and it was lockdown so we didn’t have anywhere to be. Good luck x

This was my son. Everyone said it was constipation but in his case it wasnt. He is autistic and one of the symptoms for him is poor awareness of bodily functions. My advice is as follows.

1 do not show any emotion over accidents. This is very hard and you might have to walk away and scream into a pillow some days.

2 find a way for him to communicate when he has hac an accident. My son drew his own special card to show at school.

3 Do not use any form of reward or punishment

4 each time your son finishes eating, time 10 minutes then ask him to sit on the toilet for two minutes. Do this religiously, you are likely to catch at least some poos.

step 4 was the game changer for us, he went from daily accidents to more like weekly. Grew out of it when he turned 7. Part of the solution for us was also diet as certain foods were making it worse.

You have no idea

Thank you, especially nocoolnamesleft! Will push for an appointment with the GP tomorrow.

Similar problem here with DS. Laxido didn’t help, picosulphate didn’t help, multiple disimpaction didn’t help.

He’s now 9 and been having a rectal suppository of Dulcolax most days, in order to keep him moving and bring his lower rectum back to normal size - long term constipation causes it to stretch like a balloon. It started as behavioural withholding when he was potty trained at 2, and then the cycle started. The suppositories have been life changing but obviously it’s also not ideal, having to insert something into your child’s anus every day! He does sometimes go naturally without it but not consistently enough to stop the suppositories.

Just to say not to eliminate gluten without first doing sensitivity/coeliac tests as you need to be eating gluten for it to show up.

Not all doctors are as well informed as nocoolnamesleft. We were given movicol by the gp but failed to follow the disimpaction regime properly and stopped the movicol once the bowels had moved, on the advice of the doctor. The problem continued for ages until we finally did the disimpaction regime properly.

My DD has had this issue intermittently and the latest bout is just finishing. She's just 10.

You need to fully clear out with Movicol. May need a few days off school.
Then back up to sausage shaped poos. I think it's a 4 on the Bristol chart.*

We are not doing the full thing again but increased the sachets till we got some of the right sort and added fibre into all possible foods: extra veg in dinner, wholemeal bread and breakfast cereal, seeds into flapjacks and muffins, plus dried fruit, fresh fruit for school snacks. I totted up my own intake using MFP to check hers was probably high enough.

We are also using screen time as a reward for tidying up all her pooey clothes and putting them in the machine. We soak in the machine with eco bleach for an hour and use powder (removes more than liquid).

*As an aside, I always think it's funny that Bristol has a stool scale and Glasgow has a coma scale.

My dd had this and for years the stupid hv told me it was behavioural.It wasn't, it was faecal impaction and easily sorted once we knew

No luck with the doctor's this morning. No appointments left and none available to prebook either. Genuinely thinking of taking him to urgent care to see a GP there because I'm so frustrated with my GP practice!

Other thought was to just buy some movecol and follow the dose on the pack?

DS (7) isn't soiling much now but often after school says he has wet himself so we have to get him showered immediately. Costs a fortune in washing detergent and laundry sanitiser.

DS also autistic and waiting on the diagnosis. In the meantime, he has child disability payments so that helps us out financially.

My 9yo also still has wee accidents too. It's exhausting 😪 didn't know I would still be going through all of this at their ages.

Have you watched the poo nurses video? It is quite short and the disimpaction protocol is all on there in a very clear presentation. Also the stool chart and maintenance programme is all there.

We found paraffin liquid-based medication much more effective than movicol for the disimpaction phase. Agree with PPs that it’s critical to keep up the medication after the initial disimpaction - not all GPs are knowledgeable about this and we ended up with a paediatric gastroenterologist who was pretty cranky that we’d been advised to stop after a short time instead of continuing for, iirc, at least 3 months.

Encopresis is a genuine medical condition that looks behavioural but isn’t, so do try to think of it as a medical condition beyond your DS’s control. It’s very difficult!

Please do contact ERIC, I was advised to speak to them a few years ago when they both were soiling their pants. They offer fantastic support❤️

Hand hold, OP, it's really hard going through this as a parent. We had it with my eldest. It was impaction.
ERIC website/helpline are fab.
School nursing service referred us to our local children's continence service, who then wrote to our GP and told them what to do/prescribe for disimpaction and follow on maintenance.
There's a Facebook group called Movicol Mummies which has some good advice.

Other thought was to just buy some movecol and follow the dose on the pack?

You can't buy the children's one over the counter (needs a prescription) and the adult one is a different dose.

Does your GP surgery offer e-consults? Mine does and they are an excellent way of getting triaged and getting an appointment of phone call quickly. I have done an e-consult twice recently and got a GP call back the same day.

You need to keep trying for the GP and push for a referral to the children's continence service for the specialist nurses. The NICE guidelines are really good but not all GPs follow them/are aware. You need to be.

Things I have learnt:
A lot of gp's haven't a clue
I had to try 4 in our old practice before I found one who was competent
ERIC website have lots of information and a helpline. Try listening to their podcasts too
Pooper highway on the ERIC website also helpful for kids to understand
Movicol needs to be prepared according to instructions and you need to make sure they drink a lot of water too
The instructions re maintenance are good for some but not a guarantee

Children's movicol/laxido isn't available over the counter. Adults is but it's twice the strength

The turning point for my family was listening to a webinar by a nurse from ERIC. She explained everything so well. Still needed all of the above plus a lot of time and effort and a few backwards steps along the way.

Good luck x