Panicking a bit - I'm worried DD has damaged herself with a massive poo

[ItsAllGoingToBeFine]

We were in there an hour trying to get it out. She'd wanted to go do a poo a couple of times before, some brown liquid would come out, but no poo, and it made her cry.

The third time the poo came down, I could see her being stretched, but the poor wee thing just couldn't shift it.

I'd tried a couple of times to hold her over the toilet so I could "assist" but she was having none if it. Eventually she just let me.

I could see the poo jammed up against her sphincter so I kind of firmly pushed in around her sphincter to try and support the area and to try and reshape the poo. She didn't like this at all, but it was almost immediately successful.

The problem is now her sphincter looks kind of puffy and a bit loose, it feels puffy not hard but is closed. She also has a weird baggy looking but behind her sphincter that was not there before. Not baggy as such just a different shape like it was stretched - which it was massively. And a fissure running from sphincter over this baggy bit.

She is pretty traumatised so I didn't want to materially examine too much I put some sudocrem on and she seems a bit happier now (worryingly she still seemed pretty uncomfortable after the poo)

I'm really worried I have damaged her, and what do I do if this happens again?

She is nearly 3 btw

Your poor DD.

What do you do? You get her checked out tomorrow. And you do everything possible to avoid any further large/hard poos.
Has she been prone to constipation before? Does she withhold poos because they are sore? How long can she go without going to the toilet?

Sudocrem is a good idea for tonight. I hope she gets some sleep.

More info

DD had an enormous poo that wouldn't come out, she got it out a bit but was trying all afternoon on and off and ended up on the loo crying and sweating. TMI alert - I ended up having to pick the middle out of it with a q-tip to 'collapse' it from the inside. By then, her poor bum was really swollen and bleeding a little bit from being stretched.

I slapped a huge amount of Sudocreme on it (she was 7 btw), and her bum was sore for about three or four days, but fine after that. I did get her to sit on the loo twice a day and try to poo, she was afraid to poo again in case it hurt but she was old enough to understand that the longer a poo is 'inside', the bigger and harder it would get so it was better to push it out while it was still small.

Do get your GP or practice nurse to take a look though - better safe than sorry and all that.

Your poor DD. Def go to GP. My DD had a similar experience causing a fissure as you described. She has been having stool softening medicine for 4 months and it still hasn't healed

Sounds similar to my exp with dd i's take her first thing to a& e

my daughter had similar at 18 mths, was just checked over at hosp and presribed Motillium to keep her bowels flowing. i was so worried.

it worked but removing milk from her diet was the thing that fixed her bowel habits so much more.

Hope youre ok. It may have eased or gone back to normal by morning if you say your dd is now sleeping well

My son routinely does enormous poos. Literally size and length of his forearm. I make sure he eats a plate of prunes and kiwis nightly, and yes, pushing in the sphincter is a brilliant remedy.

Ive ben to the doctor but they dont take it seriously....a three years old doing poos the size and shape of a cricket ball seriouly worries me.

Thanks all.

She is normally a one poo a day. She has had this once before. She didn't poo yesterday, and has been eating way more than usual today and yesterday. She does tend to do massive poos sometimes, but they are usually soft. This one was mostly soft apart from the section that was wedged.

I will have another look tomorrow and see how it is. There's no visible prolapse or anything. The fissure is definitely a fissure rather than a tear if you see what I mean. Not bleeding.

Is it worthy of an emergency appointment? Otherwise it'll be days before she is seen.

What is her diet like? Mine has to have her water bottle around constantly and regular walks plus grapes steawberries etc to maintain her bowels

Yy to emergency appointment.

The definition of constipation is not how often somebody goes, but that they go in comfort and with ease.
If she has had similar problems before, and certainly while the fissure is healing, I like the idea of a plate of prunes and kiwis before bedtime . And/or Lactulose/Senna/Movicol/Glycerin suppositories (my favorite for stuck poos). You needs to be very proactive and treat for several months to retrain the bowel's receptors. I could go on, but will stop and get a life...

Her diet has been shocking recently but I'm going to get back on top of it.

She has pressed Apple juice with meals and has water the rest of the time. And she BFs. She's not a big drinker though. She's a dangerous of dried fruit though, so going to give her more of that (ironically I had cut back a bit because it was having such an effect on her)

I bought those curly coloured straws and a pink cup and she drank lots more water too hth

tbh, this sounds like faecal impaction to me. The solid poo blocks the colon, and the softer poo goes runny and squeezes past it. I'd get her seen tomorrow if I were you.

pacific
She usually goes with comfort and ease - except this and one other time. There's no ongoing issue with constipation, after last time she was straight back in the saddle as it were.

I'm a bit worried it may be more traumatic this time, and it I will see. Would her bowel need retraining after a single event like this (last time was months ago). I'm a bit wary of putting her on stool softeners as apart from this she is fine. She never withholds her poo, it's just that his was so genuinely massive she couldn't push through the pain barrier to get it out.

My dd used to hold her poo - She would go for days and they would be enormous and dreadfully painful. It was sorted by using Movicol - it's not a laxative, it keeps the stool soft so when she did go it wasn't painful.

I'm sure your dd is just swollen but get her checked and ask for some Movicol. I used to put it in my dd's milk with some honey to disguise the taste.

Your poor dd hope she's ok!

I don't think it can be faecal impaction as normally she goes absolutely fine - large soft (not liquidy) poos of normal shape, once a day, no smudges in nappy

Just re-read my first post - my dd definitely wasnt presribed motillium as thats the breastmilk enhancing Medication! Sorry OP

It was movicol OP - it really helped needsleep

Your dd will probably be quite fearful to go again. I would give her Movicol so it won't hurt her if she holds it in. You could also reassure her that the medicine will stop it form hurting. I would be worried the fear of it hurting will make her hold them in more.

Thanks for the link pacific I've calmed down enough to read it and it was very useful :-)

My DD started with this when she was 2 years old. She was constipated like this and it really hurt and gave her an anal fissure. She then tried to hold in her poos ever time she needed one. This caused problems for a year as she ended up stretching her bowl and was under the bowel management clinic at our local hospital who gave her lactulose to help with the poos. The clinic advised us not to stress when she needed a poo as she would pick up on this and also to put some of her favourite books next to the loo and encourage her to read them when she went to take her mind off what she was doing. I'd book a doctors appointment to have her checked too to see what damage was done. Hope everything works out well for you all.