Constipated toddler - help!

[Disastronaut]

I know it's been done a million times, but here's my cry for help...

DD is 2 1/2 and has had trouble pooing for the past year. She's withholding, majorly, sometimes for a day, sometimes up to 5 days. She goes rigid trying to hold it in and screams with pain when we make her bend her knees to let it out.

Diet is full of fruit & veg (although she's not a big eater), she has prune juice, switched to soy milk.

I have a prescription for movicol but I don't know how to get her to drink that much. It's a daily battle to get any liquid into her, we've tried everything.

It's all become v fraught and she's totally hung up about it now. Any thoughts? Massage? Movicol with less fluid? Miracle cures?

I got told by a gastroenterologist to put movicol in any kind of juice my son likes and leave it in the fridge for half an hour and the taste disappears I have to say it worked and he does drink it mostly. I have no advice about the rest unortunately on the rest my 20 month old has been constipated since 2 weeks old.

Thanks so much for your reply. Poor you though, it must be really tough for it to start so early. We're going to give chilled movicol a go & try to disguise it as something tasty!

Sorry this is happening to you. My DS has his movicol in Robinsons squash. We have never told him what is in there and he has not seen me add it. Also remember that the Movicol works much better when they also drink a lot especially water. Good luck.

Oh dear! So many constipation threads recently. It shows how little advice and support there is out there and GPs are usually clueless.
First thing I would say it that Movicol tastes salty and is detectable in drinks, you could ask for cosmocol which is the same, different brand and I feel it is orange flavoured so goes very well in orange squash and can't be tasted.
Also, one sachet should be dissolved in 63ml of water so maybe try to give it in a cup only filled to 100ml rather than a whole beaker full. That will make it easier to get the whole dose.
How many sachets is she on?
You can also mix it up and make a jelly with it.

Is she off food and drink because of the constipation?

My dd suffers severely she has been hospitalised twice recently with it.
We have been through the mill so I have a lot of information fresh in my mind if you have any questions.

I have had so much support on here, I hope you get the support you need too