Advice or previous experience of your child having an iguinal hernia please

[Jenny123G]

Hi I'll keep it short, 2 months ago ds was diagnosed as having iguinal hernia we are awaiting a date for hospital operation appointment. On thu last week ds stopped passing stools and saying hs bum hurt took him to doctor on Friday, dr said it was probably constipation prescribed lactulose 5ml twice daily, which we have kept to since then he's only passed one stool with great fear, anxiety and difficulty, he's dancing around holding his bits saying hurt he's too afraid to go to the toilet or potty and refuses to sit on either. Has anyone out there who's child has had this hernia type experienced anything similar?

Strangely enough had the same problem with DD when she was about 3yo and it lasted about 8 months. It drove us mad, I had to kneel in front of her on the loo and cuddle her and hold my hand against her stomach quite firmly until she went. She used to bleed terribly as so constipated, which just made the phobia worse.
She was born with an Inguinal Hernia and another hernia lower down but they were fixed before this problem arose.
The hand on the stomach was the most effective way of making her 'go', none of lactulose meds were palatable but she was ok with syrup of figs.
I have never before associated the two things together and can only say it got better once I worked how to make her 'go' and it became less stressful to her.