severe constipation in ds5

[tortoisefairy]

DS is screaming and holding a poo in. He is on lactulose but I think the problem is more psychological than physical. He drinks loads of water, does lots of exercise, not too much fibre but enough, loads of fruit, no bananas, so i know there is nothing I can do. I have tried to insert the suppositries given by doctor but this is impossible unless I have someone to hold him down. I am at a loss and looking for advice to prevent this re-happening and advice to encourage him to release the poo.
TIA

he may need something better than lactulose then. I have heard that movicol is very useful at helping ease severe constipation

Get some Movicol paediatric from the GP- he'll give a dose of sachets to get rid of the blockage and then reduce it to less after a while.

Movicol adds water to the stool and doesn't have any side effects.

I will never use movicol again. My son used it and all it did was make him poo his pants....literally oozing out all the time.

How old is your son? My son was 9 and 10 and he had 2 courses of hypnotherapy combined with CBT and it really helped. His "withholding" was a definate response to me and ex splitting up and also ex flipped a bit and wasn't very kind to ds for which I could kill him even now when I think about it.

i would recommend hypnotherapy wholeheartedly. xx

if it happens again put him in the bath- nice and warm- good old play etc etc have a pott handy and dont flap if it ends up in the water. I have been there you are doing all the right things and they do grow out of it. Milk of magnesia is good too.xx

mumsiepie - how many scahets was he on per day? sounds like it was too much or for too long.

Is he 'really ready to go?' If so, my ds ha great belief in 'special cream' which was a little vaseline wiped round on cotton wool. To 'oil it out'. Lactulose didn't work for him, liquid paraffin did but I think you need a gp to OK it. Movicol seems to be a big help to most users?

Even with a half a satchet he soiled himself. It was a horrible time looking back. Perhaps he was supersensitive to the movicol although the consultant was not surprised to hear he was pooing himself. His thinking seemed to be just be glad he is doing it!! he wanted him to stay on it for at least 6 months.

If it was oozy poo, I think it was the bowel clearing out the 'sneaky' poo before getting rid of the big blockage. Glad he's better now though.

Thanks for replying all of you. We have tried Movicol. He hates it and getting him to take it is a nightmare. He also literally poo'd his pants afterwards so I avoid that now. The poo came out last night (really soft and squidgy not a bad shape) after him screaming at me that it was the worst day of his life and him begging me for help as he had never been in so much pain and screaming Help me. He is normally such a good patient and HV advised today too young to be putting this on.

So this morning (my birthday!) he has a stomache bug, sick four times no action other end. Has just kept down some toast and starting to perk up a bit and then starts crying he needs a poo and that again it's a bad one.

I am going to doctors to discuss other possibilities as I don't believe he is actually constipated. There is nothing else going on in his life. So I cannot find a reason for him to have this psychological problem.

Mumsiepie - Will consider hynotherapy - how did you find a good hypnotherapist locally?

You need someone who is trained in helping children. I am a hypnotherapist myself and I used my tutor who was so very good. I couldn't recommend him highly enough. He is Glasgow though. You could google "BSCH" and then "find a hypnotherapist in your area". I belong to a forum so I could ask if there is anyone in your area with experience with children if you like. You could pm me if you want this.

How old is he?

I have to say that the hyp worked immediately and he went every day for ages and now a couple of years on he is in his own routine. He only goes to poo about once a week and honestly (hope no one minds this!) this is the size of a tall fairy liquid bottle ( the white one) and I have to lift it out of the toilet because it is like a rock and will never flush!! Not ideal I know but it for some reason doesn't bother him. It is weird because he eats loads of fruit. By the way choc raisins in large quantities are a great help.

Good luck

My dd1 (7) is prone to constipation and the resulting overflow problem which meant she had to take spare pants to school every day. GP prescribed movicol but I had a lightbulb moment in the surgery when discussing if it was all psychological or not.

I started during the holidays by scheduling regular poo-breaks. 3 times a day - morning, lunch time, bed time. A poo-stool was placed in the bathroom after having been told that on Embarassing Bodies they said putting knees up mimicked the natural squatting position that makes for easier pooing. So, with poo-stool in place, a favourite sweetie as a bribe reward and an appreciative audience ready to celebrate the occassion....dd1 began making the effort to try and has not had pooy pants (overflow) for a record 4 weeks now. Success!

I believe that the problem she had was simply not wanting to make time to go to the toilet and not liking to poo in any toilet other than the one at home. She got into the habit of with-holding and needed to retrain her body back into the habit of going regularly.

mumsie - that just isn't normal. If it's filling the loo and you have to take it out as it won't flush, our paeds doctor says the bowel isn't working correctly.

You say that that is his routine but his bowel is likely to be really slack and stretched if he's only doing a poo once a week. The paeds doc said at least 3/4 times is normal. any less, needs treatment.

Kissing frogs - you're right - the brain needs to recognise that it needs to go to the loo and children who withhold don't allow their brain to tell them it needs to go. By sitting at a set time every day, should eventually signal that the bowels need to open and they get into their own pattern.

DD takes her DS or a good book and always goes when she's not thinking about it.

mumsiepie: I had to laugh! My dd2, a petite wee slip of a thing, has been known to produce toilet-blockers which require a pair of marigolds and a plastic bag to dispose of. I once had to call Dynorod when the sewer pipes backed up

get a stick from the garden and break it up

Vintage: like mumsie's ds, dd2 never appeared to be in any distress at all before, during or after this happens. Admittedly, it's not that often any more as her diet has improved (faddy eater).

Her father was the same (blame the pair of them for the Dynorod incident).

Hi Vintage, I know it's not normal but his paed consultant told him he only went once a week too! I live in hope things will work out well but am worried he will get an anal fissure or something equally as horrible.

Mumsie - sorry - I re-read my post and it sounded so rude. I didn't mean it's not normal (that was blunt), I just meant that although some adult don't go more than once a week, in children, the paed consultant told me it needs to be more often for the bowel to stay healthy.

Anyway sorry for my blunt comment

You didn't sound rude!! It is true, it is not often enough.

I don't want him to go back on movicol but I might take him again to be seen by my tutor.

is hypnotherapy okay for children then? Dh thinks it's weird for me to have it, let alone the kids. he says it's messing with your brain and whilst you're 'under' they hypotist can mess with your mind and make you do things at a later date just when you hear a certain thing. He's so sceptical.

Tell him he is getting mixed up with stage hypnosis!

Hypnotherapy is at it's best with children cos they have no preconceived ideas or worries of being made a fool of etc!! I used it a lot for bedwetting and it was really successful. Lots of visualisations and using the imagination....just what most kids are wonderful at.