To defy DH over toddler's medical treatment

[Bringmewineandcake]

Our 2.3 year old daughter has been prescribed movicol for the last 3 weeks to help with chronic constipation. Prior to that she took lactulose for 6 months which did absolutely nothing for her. Since starting on movicol she is happily and easily pooing every day, whereas before she could spend all day in pain and tears, knowing she needed a poo but not being able to get on with it.

A few times over the 3 weeks DD has behaved like a crazy thing. Bearing in mind she is 2 and so likely to act out and push boundaries right now.
DH has searched online for evidence that movicol is linked to behaviour issues, and is using a thread on netmums as support for his argument that we should stop using it. There is no medical evidence of a link, and for each mum saying their child had issues, there are 3 saying their kids were fine.

I don't want DD to suffer with her bowel movements and right now there's no plan for it to be a long term measure. I've told DH that she will continue taking the movicol and so he's gone off in a huff because "his opinion doesn't matter".

AIBU? Does anybody else have either a good or bad experience of movicol? Just to put it in context, DH comes from a fairly hypochondriac family where no one ever has a cough/cold, it's always a chest infection etc. My family are more the kind to downplay illnesses and just get on with things. I don't want to underestimate the possible impact of movicol, but at the same time I don't see the point in jumping to conclusions.

evelyn and dish montelukast?

Another positive story here - dd is 2 and a half and has been on it for 9 months now, no behaviour changes other than that she will now (finally!) poo every other day without hysterical tears, tantrums, and "I hold it in!!!".

My 3.5 year old has been on Movicol since she was a baby. Of course it doesn't cause behaviour problems. It's a life saver for some toddlers (and their parents!) and it's totally safe for long term use.

Tell him to Google paediatric faecal impaction instead.

I couldn't put it better than GetSober.

DS has been using it for years, sometimes come off it for a bit, play with the doses or cut it out. He has taken it under a paediatric consultant's supervision. Having dreadful stomach pains that were so bad that he was admitted into hospital was awful. That is my anecdotal evidence.

People are very easily convinced that their children's behaviour can deteriorate as a result of eating sugar. That's rubbish too but I would bet my bottom dollar that you could find a thread where at least one in three posters swear blind that it happens to their DCs.

Tell your DH that if he wants to come and argue his points to the GP at the next appointment he is welcome. If not, he can keep his counsel and you'll go with the advice of the person who has the degree in Medicine.

Youare - yes

Just because the majority of children are fine on movicol doesn't mean that some won't have side effects. My ds3 is on it, but I would never suggest that your dd isn't having side effects because my son isn't, that would be ridiculous.

My DS (3) has taken Movicol for well over a year with no side effects, as part of a suite of medicines he needs to help his digestion and bowel movements. As others have said, the pain of constipation is likely to be worse than a couple of toddler tantrums which are normal at this age anyway. It must be such a relief to have something that works after 6 months of ineffective treatment, I'd continue with it.

I have only have positive experiences, so have my family and friends.

Nothing behavioural listed under clinical precautions. She is being 2, and enjoying life without the discomfort of being constipated.

Surely the benefits of her taking Movicol and not being chronically constipated out weighs the risks of not taking Movicol and being chronically constipated. You might want to educate him on some of those risks: Haemmorhoids, anal fissures, faecal impaction requiring surgery, rectal prolapse and bowel perforation. Not to mention encopresis (soiling due to overflow) and bladder issues which can really effect a child's confidence, particularly once they start school.

A GP doesn't have huge knowledge of drug side effects. They can only say what is in their books, and if the side effect is rare enough, or left out of the information, they won't know.

A side effect shows a drug is reacting differently in someone, and is not something to ignore.
I would still advise that you rule this out and then decide what to do. Your DH is her father too, his opinion on this should be as valid as yours.
Yes, this is probably normal toddler tantrums, but as it sounds like the behaviour has only happened since starting movicol, I would definitely be ruling it out.

your dh is bu for looking things up on netmums

I know mousmous of all the places to find medical expertise! If you can google something and that's the best the internet had, then it's not really a supported standpoint.

Today she is back to normal and has had both doses so I think it really is just normal 2 year old behaviour.

My dd had movicol for a few months age 2 also. I didn't see any side effects at all, and think that anything minor would be outweighed by the pros of using movicol, and not letting constipation go too far. My daughters case was quite severe and movicol eventually did sort it out happily!

Tell your H his il-informed opinion doesn't matter when it comes to your child's health, and to keep his beak out if he can't be helpful.
He's clearly wrong, so take no notice of him (like all the other fucking idiots who have read some unscientific anecdotal crap online and think that makes it OK to risk their kids).

Singulair yes-evil stuff! I was disappointed the consultant didn't make any notes to feedback to the pharmaceutical company whilst saying 'never heard of that before'

Movicol is principally composed of polyethylene glycol, with some electrolytes ('salts') added in - the salts are there to make sure you don't get loss of water, sodium and potassium while you're using it (same as the powders you take when you have diarrhoea help maintain your salt balance). The polyethylene glycol is almost all not absorbed into your system, and comes out the other end of your gut unchanged. Therefore, it is highly unlikely that it can affect behaviour in the way you describe.

For the posters talking about other drugs, they act differently and have different side-effects. Montelukast (previously mentioned) has to be absorbed into your blood circulation to have its desired effect and this also means it can have unwanted side-effects in certain people.

I am not a doctor, but work in pharmacological research and have a daughter who has been taking Movicol on and off for a long time. I'm with all the previous posters who think your DD is feeling better now that she's pooing properly, and that explains the toddler madness. My DD is 12 now, and the difference in her behaviour when she's constipated is just what you'd expect - she's tired, listless and has no energy. The difference is that she can explain to me why she feels that way and your toddler cannot.

evelyn you can report yourself. look up yellow card.

Evelyn - it's typical for medics to dismiss singulair side effects, so it's very much a case of parents being on their own to deal with the fallout, decide what to do and try to make things better. We believe that ds is permanently changed from taking singulair, but no-one will listen.
There is a very informative support group on fb, if you want to join let me know and i'll pm you the details.

At the time when he was taking singulair I had a long conversation with another school mum, who used to be a biochemist. She pointed out that any drug, no matter how harmless, can cause reactions in individuals, as everyone has different blood chemistry (or something like that!)

Having been through what we have with ds, I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss any behaviour that could be an adverse reaction to a drug.

My DS when he was 5 had a bad 'blockage' that caused him to have to go to hospital for an X-ray as they were really worried about how distended his abdomen was plus accompanying symptoms.

Movicol is what they prescribed him to help and it really did. We continued use for 2 or so weeks and he had no adverse side effects that I can remember with regards to behaviour.

Singulair is fucking evil. It made me 18 month old depressed. All he could do is sit and stare into space or cry a cry Ive never heard and never want to hear again.

He was in it for 7 days. Horrible drug.

Movicol on the other hand was a bloody God send, its horrible watching your baby in screaming agony needing a poo.

DD1 who is 3 has been on Movicol since she was 10 months old and there are no behavioural issues. If it's helping she should continue with it. It's awful seeing them in pain.