Anyone got any experience of Picolax?

[PippaFawcett]

DD, 6, has now been prescribed Picolax to clear her out because of constant soiling. She is already on Movicol. How long will it last for? Do I need to block an entire weekend out or longer? I am apprehensive but hopeful it might 'reset' her system.

Dd was on it briefly, we were only to g I've it at weekends and to keep using the lactulose during the weekend, she wasn't on it for long as it still didn't work.

Oh no, did anything work? What happened next? We have only been prescribed one dose which I can collect tomorrow but with Halloween parties and activities planned I wondered whether I could do it in a day on Sunday or wait until next weekend.

DD1 (7) takes 5ml of sodium picosulphate every morning. Not quite the same as picolax but similar. It's been brilliant as we were on movicol and having soiling on it. The pico really works to ensure DD1 does a poo every day and that has been one of the key things to helping her get clean.

Thanks Soup, I haven't heard of sodium picosulphate. Is that a long term thing for your DD?

And has she stopped soiling now? I am just so desperate to stop the accidents as I am worried that her friends might notice

Marking place for advice as having similar problems with DD (7). Movicol now causing soiling but sodium picosulphate can cause extreme reaction in her (poop explosion!). Has this been your experience , soupmaker?

I have been told that DD's reaction to picolax will be explosive too. But I just googled sodium picosulphate and it seems suitable for daily use so I would assume it might calm down?

DS has been on various permutations of Movicol and Picosulphate over the years, following about 18 wasted months on mega doses of useless lactulose. Pico is the only thing that's worked. After about 2 years of experimentation with dosing, he's been on 17.5ml (not a typo!) for the last 2-3 years - ie since he was about 7 yo. That dose alone should give an idea of how awful his constipation was. He is regular now, but the one thing I'd note is that he found some of the dose step-ups really distressing and painful, as a) his bowel was very loaded and b) he found the muscle contractions caused by a stimulant laxative both painful and bewildering. His bowel is very sluggish though. We've had no soiling since we got the dose right. DH and I are so relieved his paediatrician decided to give it a go.

I should say, DH and I once cocked DS's medication up due to a disrupted bedtime routine & gave him 17.5ml twice at bedtime the night before he was due to leave on a school residential trip which involved a 2.5 hr coach trip the next morning. The out of hours doctor was a bit and said we should expect a MASSIVE clear out but not to worry about overdose side effects. Fortunately the raging torrent arrived at 5am, it was very explosive and DS was a bit tearful, but he was right as rain by the time the coach left. In some respects, he was well set for a 2 night stay away - his bowels were super clear & he had no problems whilst away, but we felt awful about it. That's one thing about the pico - urgency!!

We've not had explosions at all on the pico, but it does make getting to the loo a matter of urgency.

For the past year we have had less than a handful of soiling incidents, although we had one yesterday. The problem is that DD1 withholds when she's having fun or busy sometimes. She only became reliably dry this summer as she withholds both wee and poo. She is on two sachets of movicol a day and the 5ml of pico.

It's been a very long hard slog to get here and really the key has been DD1 changing her behaviour and doing less withholding. She had 5 UTI in the space of five months starting in October and I think that concentrated her mind as up until then she'd never been in pain due to the constipation or lack of bladder control, except when she ended up with sore skin which she didn't care about.

We have a DD2 who is showing all the signs of wanting to potty train at 2.3 and I'm dreading it.

ReallyLoveWine what dose of movicol is she on? Have you done an impaction clear out?

She has been on one sachet of Movicol per day for a good couple of years now. However for some reason at the end of the summer hols she was soiling 4 times a day, which became unmanageable with school, so we stopped all medication. The soiling has largely stopped but but now she only manages a bowel movement once or twice a week at most. We have used picosulphate in the past for a total clear out but it's pretty horrific for her, poo all over the bed etc. maybe we just need to work on dosage. Interesting to hear other views on what complicated levels of medication work for their child, I guess it's so individual!

Yes, it does seem to be trial and error with each individual child. We are going to give the Picolax a try tomorrow and I will report back. I am going to see if i can get any large pull-ups to help contain the mess in case she can't get to the toilet in time. It is interesting that your DD's soiling stopped, ReallyLovesWine, when you stopped the medication, I have reduced DD's movicol before and she continues to soil so we go round in circles.

It took us a couple of years to get the levels right for DD1. And we had to do complete clear outs a few times using movicol as DD1 still managed to be very constipated and bunged up despite doing a poo every day. What I really notice now is that her belly is rarely distended. I agree it is very individual and no size fits all.

Have you been referred to a specialist paediatric gastroenterologist yet? DS' consultant explained how critical it was to get him regular and reduce the bowel loading before his teens, as she said childhood soiling can persist into adulthood and is very much more difficult treat then. She said if we could get DS regular between 5-10, he would 'grow into' his over-stretched (from chronic constipation) bowel in his teen growth spurts. We bitterly regret the 18 month to 2 years we let it slide whilst the GP tinkered with ineffective doses etc when DS was a toddler, though you can see from the dose I mentioned above he has it bad and we were on off licence doses for quite a while which needed consultant input. Every prescription refill was queried by the pharmacist, do it helped having a paediatrician's advice to fall back on.

Dd ended up in hospital for 5 days having an enema and high dosage of movicol, after 5 years she was finally pooing normally on the loo.