DD will not poo. She is in pain, what should I do?

[HumphreyCobbler]

She did a painful poo at preschool last Friday. She has refused to poo since. She cries and refuses to push, she says it hurts. I don't think it is constipation as the poo seems to arrive, only she holds on to it. Her powers of retention seem considerable! She normally goes about three times a day and she has continued to eat so is now in considerable pain.

We gave her movical on Monday which caused to to have a small, involuntary poo. Nothing since, despite continuing to treat with Movical. Today she has been in a lot of pain so we switched to lactulose and used a glycerin suppository. No result.

We have been getting her to drink much more, eat a lot of dried fruit, upped her veg and brown rice intake. What else should we do?

Glad it worked ! Got funny looks from friends with the pack of balloons we kept in the loo but hey oh it works and I didn't care !

Just read this with interest as DD is in the same position but is only 19mo. I'm pretty certain she's holding it in. She spends hours every day straining with no result-it's now been 5 days and no poo despite a sachet of movicol every morning, masses of water, fruit and veg etc. It's been going on for a couple of months now, on and off, and the GP just keeps saying it's normal and will pass-but she's clearly in pain! I hate it :(

She's not potty trained which doesn't help matters.

My daughter is also 19m and has been on Movicol since 7m for chronic constipation. Has the GP not suggested increasing the dose? DD is on 1.5 sachets daily, increasing to two sachets if she goes a day without pooing. In bad cases of constipation one sachet just ain't going to cut it. Two or three would probably be better. Just steel yourself for the explosion!

Glad your DD is better Humphrey.

She is bouncing around all over the place, the difference is remarkable

She has also had movicol, we will keep it for a while

amazing the difference a good poo makes!

Glad she's better OP!

Squalor he seemed reluctant because she's not yet 2, and I think it's meant for 2yrs+ technically. If we have no poo over the weekend I'm going to up the dose though. We can't carry on with this :(

Well, like I said, DD has been on it daily since she was 7m, and gets reviewed by a consultant who's very good at letting me up the dose if I think it's necessary. Guess that's the difference between a consultant and a GP though - a GP is always going to be more cautious re. dosage. Do ask for a referral if you think you need one.

Yay for a good poo!

Have to say, I've been giving DS a probiotic yoghurt every day recently and I did wonder if it was helping, might try yakult just to let him have a choice now and then. Do they taste nice? Never bought them before.

squalor do you give more than one sachet at once or spread them out? DD will only drink it in milk (well, in water and then mixed into milk) and she only has milk in the morning and then last thing at bed. Don't know whether it would be advisable to give a double dose in her morning milk or split it over both bottles. If we split it I'm scared she'll have a poo explosion overnight!

My ds (he'd hate to know I told you all this, he's 11 now) had chronic constipation as a toddler, and we gave him (my dh is a doctor and spoke to a paediatrician friend) a spoonful of senokot every morning - ds called it "bottom Medicine". It worked a treat!