to go to A&e with my dd3 *pictures*

[littlemaemae]

My DD who is 3 has been having stomach/bowel problems for the last year. Diagnose as constipation. She can not pass a stool for weeks despite fantastic diet and laxatives and weeks is in severe pain most days. She is very petite and skinny but her stomach has swollen to look 9 months pregnant. Getting no where with doctors/hospital etc.
Aibu to think this is not how a heathy child's stomach should look.

Good news- I bet you'll start getting somewhere now

Well done getting her seen OP. I am glad someone is really listening to you and looking more closely at your little girl. Hope x ray goes well tomorrow.

That's progress littlemaemae,let's hope this is the starting getting her sorted!

Glad you managed to get some help.

Try to keep a food, drink and poo diary.
Ask for a second opinion referral as you have no confidence in the consultant you saw (was it a paed gastro consultant with interest in constipation?). If no one experienced near you then travel. Remember with choose and book you can be referred anywhere. Google to find the best and ask to be referred to them. Your daughter has several red flags according to the NICE guidelines; I'd want a second opinion due to insufficient investigation.

There won't be a quick fix but you come across v sensible and I don't think you're expecting miracles.

Good luck for tomorrow.

Brilliant news, good luck for tomorrow, I hope you get some answers!

I've only just seen the thread sorry.
Your poor DD and poor you, this sounds like it's been an all consuming time with this condition, please don't minimise it, you've been through the mill!

The initial concerns with this level of distension would be a volvulus ( a twisted loop of bowel) mesentetic ischaemia (which sounds unlikely given the symptoms you describe) or a perforation in a section of bowel (again unlikely as not usually 'silent' and now she has had an absolute examination it's unlikely)
An X-ray would have been helpful, but by the time the poor little mite got round there after a big wait, she probably wouldn't have kept still anyway!
Did the medic see the pictures too?
Does she vomit at all when she's going through these long periods of no movement?
Does she fart?

I feel that you have been really rather fobbed off so far and because you're probably so lovely and accepting that they've just dismissed you with a vague plan.

When you do speak to an appropriate team (paeds gastro) ask them for a proper plan, eg if they aren't going to areange scans/scopes/autoimmune investigations, what are their reasons, are they going to put a review limit on their decisions?
Sorry I rambled

Good news op.

Frizzlyadams - I agree with everything you said. In a weird way I assumed everything I can't eat as colitis d / ibs d would be a fail safe to promote bm.

I'm hijacking the thread but you seem incredibly well versed in all fodmap issues. If you have any advice I'm all ears

Glad she's getting some more thorough investigations.

Just to echo the thoughts about hirschprung's disease which is in my family. I've read that there is generally a problem with the sphincter muscle too with this disease. My brother's tummy looked exactly like your little girl's and laxatives had no effect. My mum had the same experience of having to fight to be taken seriously too. So worth them investigating. You would have to push for a biopsy though, as that's the only way to get it diagnosed. Good luck.

Please please keep us updated Op. Thinking of you all

Sending you all the best wishes...longest my DD has not had a bowel movement was six weeks. I understand the frustration and worry. Movicol consumers here too! Just wanted you to know you are not on your own. 15 years and counting.

So glad there is progress. Hope tomorrow brings more progress and some relief for you both.x.

Hoping tomorrow goes to plan and you start to get some answers

Have you tried upping the movicol dose Op?

My ds had a similar condition from the age of around 2. He was put on movicol by the consultant - we had to go up to 10-12 doses a night to clear the blockage because he had become so impacted his bowel had stretched and was no longer effectively working.
He is still on a maintenance dose at age 8 and occasionally has to up his dose when he gets impacted.
There was also talk about dilating his anus but the consultant preferred the long term use of movicol.

It's been a long road and he is still sometimes in pain from it. I hope you get your dd sorted - the watery stool is a definite sign of chronic constipation - and will be causing tummy pain.

I'm really glad you were not fobbed off and your dd is getting an x-ray. I was shocked to read that your dd hasn't had BM for 21 days, poor mite, hope she is going to get sorted soon.

I actually wanted to scream reading the replies to this post!! Full the fuck off those saying that's not what a and e is for and that's a normal tummy. its scary that this child hasnt pooed for 21 day and is writhing in agony and her tummy is that distended! If your gp is useless and consultant won't see you till August then you take the child to A and E to get hopefully admitted and seen by a group of doctors, consultants and registrar and get things moving quickly! 21 days!!!

Op, I am so glad it's been taken seriously finally. When my dd was about one months old shed only been contacted about five days. She was constantly going between pushing furiously (where we could see the poo was the size of a fist pushing against the inside of her anus and far too big to come out) my husband took her to the gp two days in a row who was useless. In the end he took her to the out of hour doctor who sent her through to a and e to be given a suppository due to her age and size. They said they were shocked the doctor left her in such distress and we absolutely done the right thing taking her.

As it turns out she's now being tested for celiac disease at six.

Helli, I'm not well versed at all

Sorry to OP, but a quick thread hijack to respond to Helli...

I was diagnosed with Crohns a couple of years ago, after yet another emergency trip to hospital with 'appendicitis' - had a bowel resection a few months later due to all the damage that had happened after years of misdiagnosis.

Did the FODMAP plan for quite a while and it worked well for keeping symptoms at bay but it fell by the wayside over the last year due to other stuff. Definitely will be going back to that style of eating again in the near future I think.

All I know really is that I have to avoid fibre as much as poss as it can bulk me up too much and I get very bloated (gut/bowel can't handle it well). Most other things go straight through and can be explosive at times.
And low residue is super easy to digest (but the total opposite to 'healthy eating', so when you combine it with the bad boy steroids and being laid up in bed, you get very fat very quickly ).

Crohn's & Colitis are hideous diseases to have, especially as your digestive system never rests.

Glad you're getting somewhere, OP.

Somewhat at the people insisting that that's normal child tub. Poor kid's belly is horribly bloated.

Well done op. Glad you were taken seriously.

I'm glad you've had a positive response. I hope you get some answers and help.

Poor thing, well done pushing for some more help. Good luck with the appointment in the morning.

Poor little mite. I hope you get it sorted xx

Glad that progress is being made, OP. Hope your little one is being kept comfortable - and that you manage to get some sleep.

OP I took my DD to A&E with a similar complaint. I called my GP first thing and they gave me a 530pm appointment which I explained to her and she just gave me this hideous look and said she couldn't wait that long, so I went to A&E call it mothers instinct. Anyway, she had a massive impaction. It was so large it was squashing the tube from her bladder and she couldn't wee or poo. Not weeing for 24hrs is a medical emergency I have since learned. They filled her up with movicol which takes a while to work and they had to insert a catheter to get her bladder drained. We spent 3 days in hospital. I could not believe my eyes when I saw the poo coming out. The movicol was 8x a day and she was pooing about 8 times a day, huge amounts of soft sludge. I estimated there was about 2-3 months worth of poo in there. We were given instructions to use movicol at whatever level gives one soft poo a day and we've kept with that for about 2 years. Constipation can have serious complications and can be emergency. I hope you get the help you need.