how will i know when the faecal impaction has passed?

[bakedandpartbaked]

how will i know when faecal impaction has been passed? I assume it will come out firmer?
My 17 month old son was hospitalized with faecal impaction on Easter Sunday and stayed 2 days, they did an xray which showed he had a real back up of poo, he's always suffered from constipation but pooed every 2/3 days, whenever I've adressed this to Health visitor,doctor I've always been told as long as he's pooing he's fine.
He has been put onto movicol 4 sachets a day, he has been passing brown water/gravy consistency regulary, small amounts to medium. But it seems to also contain the undigested food that he's had that day. Rather than the back up of poo. So its obviously just passing the impaction.
He saw a doctor yesterday who said she Couldnt feel any lumps in his bowel, so he was fine.although seemed a bit concerned with the undigested food.
He had an ultrasound this morning which showed that he's still full of poo. So the impaction hasn't shifted at all which is what we were suspicious of. The doctor says if his poo doesnt change over the weekend go the doctors.
How will I know when its actually the build up of poo that's shifted?i assuke And after 5 days shouldn't we have seen some change? I'm worried as we don't know how long this poo has been built up, couldn't it be toxic? When should we take him to be seen again?
I don't want to leave something that could turn nasty, but don't want to overreact either.

You'll know!!! It will be more lumpy and the quantity will be considerable. You might need to up the movicol but check with GP or other doctor first.

It won't turn toxic in there although it needs to come out.

You will see either a lot of large lumps passed or a very dark slurry will pass. If you haven't seen it pass and a doctor tells you it's all good because they can't palpate any lumps, that can be because the impaction is floating in a bag of poo. Palpation is not a good way to assess impaction.

It will eventually work with the movicol but you might need to discuss adding an irritant laxative to the mix or upping the dosage.

Hi, my dd had similar although older. It took 2 weeks for it to clear but that was after a week of diahrea and then really hard golf ball lumps. A huge diet over haul helped, brown bread, brown pasta and rice and loads of veg. We were on 4 sachets for a month and then 2 sachets for a month and now as and when i think she needs it. IM going to take her back this week i think just so i can confirm its gone. If your worried its not clearing i would return again. You know your child best and how they are feeling.

What did they do in hospital? Didn't they do bowel washouts or enemas to clear it before they sent him home? My 2.5yr old ds has hirschsprungs disease so we've been in hospital a lot when he's become impacted.
Normally they would do an enema or bowel washout until the bowel starts to move itself before sending us home. Once the liquid poo is out and it becomes more solid the impaction is clearing. The liquid is the overflow that forces it's way out around the impacted poo. The paediatricians always told us the older the poo the darker and smellier it is. Look out for that.
Have the hospital told you to go back? You need to get as much fluid into him as possible too. Kiwis, mango and strawberries all good too