Poo holding or constipated

[Lucyg10]

My 3 year old daughter is either constipated or holding her poo and I'm not sure which one it is. She won't go for days and on occasions stands stiffed legged and goes red in the face. She insists she is trying to 'go' but I'm not convinced. When she does go it is huge and painful. A friend told me that if you pull the legs apart it becomes impossible to hold, although I'm yet to try this. How do I know if she is telling the truth or fighting to hold in the poo?

If it's huge and painful then she's constipated. If it hurts like hell to poo, then of course a 3 yr old doesn't want to. Please see your GP for a decent dose of movicol.

Thanks for your reply. I thought if it's constipation poos are normally small and pellet like. Hers are wide in diameter tmi and generally large. I'll take her to go.

Yep, that's "elephant sized poo". Think of it this way - only when they've got sufficiently constipated as to stretch the rectum can they actually make poos this size.

Elephant poo lol .. well it is astonishing something like that could come out somebody so tiny!