4 year old with blockage in bowel?

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Hi ladies , I'll try and keep this brief lol my DD is 4 and has been awake every night for a full week and has been having 4 bowel movements a day all just very water like , loser that diarrhoea if that makes sense . Anyhow her gp on Tuesday said her bowels felt full and prescribed laxitives . On Thursday she had got worse . He said he couldn't feel a blockage and prescribed movical . Her Bms are still the same and she's in pain. Has anyone ever experienced this with their kids . I'm considering and a&e trip to get her xrayed xxx

Incredibly common - lots of young children get so constipated that the only thing that can get past the old hard rocks of poo in their stretched out rectum is liquid poo from higher up that hasn't had all the water sucked back out of it. Lots of threads on here about it - try searching for impaction. National guidance is not to xray for it. You might find this website helpful: www.eric.org.uk

Hopefully the GP prescribed a disimpaction regime, where you keep giving more and more until the world falls out of their bottom, then advised to only reduce gradually, and keep on enough movicol to keep their poo soft and squidgy for months, so their guts can heal up, so it doesn't happen again...

Disclaimer: no one on here has taken a full history, or examined your child, priority must always go to what the HCP who has seen the child says.

Thanks for your response , it's just so horrible for her . She is up every night screaming and on toilet most of the day and night with nothing more than water coming out . She has 2 days off school with it last week and was sent home the other day . She's only just started too. X

I would ring 111 and see what they say, bowel blockages can get very serious very quickly and especially in such a young child, it sounds like more than constipation to me.

How much movicol has the doctor told her to have? When my dd was impacted we had to gradually build up to 10per day until her poo was consistency of gravy. Then cut it down gradually again and keep her on a maintenance dose. She was on movicol daily for about 4 years and occasionally still has the odd sachet if she gets constipated. It's definitely a long term thing for many children as the bowel is stretched and needs to return to normal size. My dd was 4 at the time and would often soil herself as she had no indication that she needed to go

He's gave her 2 a day but it's not even touching it. She's lost a lot of weight over the past few days and mucous coming out of back passage to. She's had broken sleep for over a week. Just wish I could help her . I've rang the GP and am waiting on a call back to get some advice xxx

School have sent her own . Pains in her tummy . Rang Gp and he increased the movical . I know there's prob not much more they can do but I'm feeling very frustrated xxx

It won't be an immediate cure the sachets will be increased day on day until she is basically passing water and her bowel is empty, she is better off being at home while you are doing the regime. After this you will need to find her maintenance dose.
What has the GP increases you to?

He's increased her from 2 sachets to now 3 a day. He says Max is 4... What she is passing at the min is watery with a mucous . Iv rang the school and told them I'm going to keep her at home for a few days xxx

When one of mine was that age and needed movocol for impaction I was told increase every day until it's all out, up to 12 sachets. Started on 6 sachets and went up 2 every day until 12 a day. Once that was clear it was 2 a day for a very long time as a maintenance dose.

Yes, I was going to say unless he has prescribed adult Movicol as opposed to paediatric Movicol, 2 sachets seems quite low.
(Adult is twice as strong I believe)

I thought the same , no its paediatric . He said the max allowed was 4 tho? Still watery but was black there now . Keeping a close eye on shed this eve xxx

My little boy had this. He had movicol and lactulose now. His poor rectum bled so much and he has a little tear down there now. I hope she is able to pass it soon x

Have you looked on ERIC website, it says bladder and bowel cancer, but it has massive information and help for all bladder and biwel issues.

Thanks , I'll have a look now . She seems a little more contented this eve. Hopefully she sleeps well this eve x

The GP appears to have looked up the maintenance (ongoing) maximum dose, not the disimpaction regime, where at that age you work up to a max of 8 sachets. (according to NICE guidance)

I've had this over the years with my dd. Movicol takes its time I have however found that glycerin suppositories (prescribed by gp) worked amazingly

My little boy suffers with this. He has been suffering for years. I went on Eric after advice on here and rang the doctors to check it was ok to follow their clear out instructions. The doctors finally paid attention. We got referred to a paediatrician. Things were getting a lot better. He's unfortunately started holding it again so has had a bit of a relapse. But the Eric website is fab. It has games and stuff too. To help them understand.

I forgot to say that the paediatrician told us that if no clear out is done then the laxatives won't work. We got to 10 sachets a day to completely clear him out and we had to do that a few times.

How's she doing?

4 sachets isn't enough, if you look up the Movicol disimpaction regime you increase to 10-12 sachets a day, it usually tells you on the leaflet inside the box too.

She's at home with me today . She's been on the toilet a few times this morn... A liquid type consistency . Do this mean it's working or is that still moving around the blockage ? Should it come out formed ? Sorry for all the questions ladies x

The liquid coming round the blockage gradually helps to erode/dissolve the blockage. Most commonly it goes from liquid to lumps then to liquid again. You're waiting for the world to fall out of their bottom.

Lol I've never paid so much attention to the consistency of poop in my life lol

See your GP again and ask for a referral to paediatric Gastroenterologist, my DS had long term chronic constipation with overflow diarrhoea, it is very common in children, until the impaction is released it won’t improve and your DD will be in pain and completely unable to control the overflow diarrhoea.

My son saw two different consultants both privately, the first one didn’t help we tried again and it is now completely under control.

It was such a worrying time for me, so I understand what you are going through.

My DS impaction routine was 6 sachets of movicol paediatric daily for 4 days each morning, and 20-30mls of sodium pico sulphate daily, messy but cleared the blockage, obviously he couldn’t go to school!

Daily now he has 2 sachets of movicol paediatric each morning and 1 spoon 5ml of sodium pico sulphate.

He is absolutely fine now. Not further problems as long as he keeps up the medication he is regular.

Good luck OP, if you can afford to see a paediatric Gastroenterologist privately for quickness it’s worth it. Good luck I hope it’s sorted out soon.

Crap GP - they've prescribed maintenance dose instead of disimpaction dose. Google movicol disimpaction dose, but pretty sure it's up to 12 a day as per previous poster.

You need to keep going until there are no lumps at all for a few days, then gradually reduce the dose, then (this is important) keep her on a maintenance dose. I'd highly recommend seeing a different GP to get maintenance advice once you're confident it's cleared. And, as recommended above, definitely use the ERIC website and advice line. Once they've had an impaction, you need to be really careful it's fully cleared and doesn't back up again (the bowel can be stretched and therefore retain poor more easily), otherwise they can develop long term probs.

But I really would recommend a different GP if poss ;-)

I was considering going private .shes missing a lot of school and I'm getting no answers from the GP . Xxx