What should I know - paediatric movicol prescribed

[frazzled3ds]

Youngest DS (aged 6)has been prescribed movicol to (I hope) overcome some soiling issues he's been having. Now exDH took him to GP, and brought him back with the first box of the stuff, there's more to be collected next week. It's to be taken twice a day for quite some period of time judging by the number of boxes still to collect!

As I wasn't at the GP I've not been able to ask what the effect of this stuff will be (I know what it's supposed to do!) so could anyone with experience please let me know how messy things may get?! Thank you.

It just softens stools and in my experience takes ages to work!!!!!

Warn school as he may need help and support with wiping even if he doesn't normally. It's all a bit sticky.

Thank you bonkerz - that's interesting as from what I've seen he's not had trouble with hard stools, although they have been quite large and plentiful .... I may keep a couple of pairs of pants to hand just in case.....!

Thanks Chris, I will pop in to see his teacher on Monday morning.

I find it takes a few days to kick in but when it does it really does !
Definitely tell school and spare clothes etc.

It's a stool softener. It doesn't cause cramps or anything like that. Getting the dosage correct is a bit of trial and error. If your DS is chronically bunged up (and it sounds like he is) you may find nothing happens for a couple of days, in which case you can safely increase the dose until you see some movement.

Results can be... explosive. And can be quite runny once the blockage at the bottom end of the digestive tract has shifted. But don't be alarmed - better out than in

Then once he's cleared out it's a question of figuring out a daily maintenance dose. You'll want him to go every day. Expect that to be needed long term because kids can easily go straight back to square one once the Movicol is stopped. So expect him to be on Movicol for months rather than weeks. My DD has been on it for five years.

You can safely take it long term. It's an arse getting them to drink it though. I find the robinson's squashed squeezed into the plain drink is the best.

Thanks Hey, useful to know. He's been given 33 boxes of 30 sachets, with a dose to be given twice a day. I don't know whether anything was said about returning to the gp for a follow up, I'll have to find out from EXH. DS has just taken his first dose, I did add a splash of squash to it as he wasn't keen on the taste..... fingers crossed it's something that will help get things moving and back to a more regular pattern. Although that said he does usually go for a poo daily, or every other, not known him not go for several days..... (though he has been 'saving' the larger explosive incidents for when he's at his Dad's it would seem .....!)

I've been able to reduce my son's Movicol after starting to give him an Actimel drink each day.

My daughter has this I think and it did nothing! She had constipation with 'overflow'

We managed to referred for intolerance testing and it transpired she is fructose intolerant. Now sorted with diet.

Frazzled, he sounds like my dd. She goes every day but somehow seems not to empty her bowels fully - it's a learned response like gagging or something and they need the movicol to overcome the reflex reaction. It's a total nightmare though -sympathies.

Oh it's horrible without squash. Even strong squash is totally fine.

I've given 3 sachets today and find it goes down best with 100mls of water

Thank you for the helpful and sympathetic responses! I've had a brief wander round the Eric website too which seems quite useful. Apparently the GP did also say to ensure the diet is fibre rich - lots of fruit and veg, brown bread etc. Fortunately, of my 3 DS, this chap is the one who likes fruit and veg and a reasonable variety thereof so that won't be too tricky to do. He also likes porridge and 'seedy bread' - with any luck a bit of a system clear out, increasing the fibre stuff in diet and ensuring routine and regular loo stops may do the trick.

We're a couple of days ahead of you! We were referred to ERIC by HV (DS not quite 5) & had a phone consultation. She suggested that we probably need to do the disimpaction regime and then a maintenance dose. Sent us along to the GP (we actually saw a nurse practitioner) to get a prescription. Nurse only gave us 2 boxes to begin with. V vague about dose. Prescription label says one daily.

Luckily we've got the advice leaflets from ERIC which state that a maintenance dose is 1-4 sachets - whatever to achieve a soft poo each day & also shows the escalation of dose for disimpaction.

Anyone else done this?

Thanks Maximum - fingers crossed it goes well for you and sorts things out. I can't work out whether GP hasn't given EXH much detail or whether he's just not passed it on.... anyway, he's taken some sachets over to his for when DS is there so at least dosage will be regular. Hoping that any blockage clearance doesn't get tooooooooo messy... (there are some parts of being a parent I'm really not too good with!)

If it is stool withholding then good diet isnt really enough unfortunately

I don't think he's withholding - at least from what I understand about it. He's not straining in any way to pass a motion, and doesn't suffer pain etc with it. He's been this evening without issue, will keep ensuring regular trips to the loo along with the movicol dose as given and see how we get on!