Sorry this might be a bit icky/tmi in places. And long but please bear with me!
My son is 3 and constantly yo yos between constipation and loose stools. He has been on movicol for about a year now and I just cannot get the right dose for him. Too much and it becomes so sticky and he can't get it out of his bottom and too little and becomes bloated, tummy ache, and has painful non existent bowel movements (if that makes sense). There is such a fine line that playing around with his dose has been a nightmare. He is potty trained. But frequently poos his pants. Not sure if this is laziness, fed up of constantly being on the toilet or inability to control. It might be a normal sized poo or often it can be tiny either dry bits of poo or slimey sticky poo. On ocassion it is giant sized and mishapen! It can easily go unnoticed (moreso at nursery) cos he doesn't pipe up about it. So the doctor has said I'm doing everything I can (high fibre, exercise, fresh air, fluids, playing with movicol dose and suppository when in pain) and agreed if I wanted to check for food intolerance I need to do it for 6 wks. She gave no guidance to achieve this. I feel completely clueless. Should I try dairy free or gluten free first? Gluten free seems very complicated. I've also read it's not healthy for toddlers. But it would only to be to identify a change. Currently his diet is packed with fibre, has alot of different grains, fairly useless with veg but not the worst, loves milk. I have tried soya milk and oat milk as diary replacement but no change (altho alongside other albeit few dairy products). Please somebody give me some idea where I could start, I am clueless with nutrition. I sometimes have to give a suppository and even that doesn't always work and its generally awful for both of us. Of note swimming is also a nightmare cos warm water sets him off almost immediately. Sorry this is long thank you if you're here reading to the end. Hopefully somebody here has had similar experience and can point me in the right direction. Cos I feel quite miffed with GP right now! I hope this makes some sense. Thank you in advance x