Movicol

[Rogben13]

Hoping someone can help? My DS (almost 2) has been on movicol for 5 days now after not pooing at all for 8 days and his belly was huge. Today he has none stop pooed but it has been very runny/slimey and not really been that much of it. The dr said to stop when he does a ‘solid decent’ poo. He’s only had 4 packets maximum daily the last couple of days. There’s no chance I’m going to get the 6-8 packets in him.
I think he’s in a bit of pain with it as he’s been cuddling into me and curling up in a ball.
I’m going to ring the doctors tomorrow anyway for advice but just wondered what your movicol experiences were? Thanks.

Our DS had it when he was about 14 months for constipation. On the third day he did an enormous pop - it was like a hard plug at first then very very loose. But it wasn't slimy particularly - could this be seepage? Definitely worth getting back in touch with doctors.

Poo not pop!

keep going can take a while to get all the back up stuff through. esp after such a long day.
stuff is coming through on 4 packets, so its working. lots of extra drinks/ water if he can/ will drink helps.

It might be that he has a blockage and poo behind the blockage has been softened by the movicol and is now seeping round. I wouldn't stop the movicol based on what you've said but would call the dr toMorrow for further advice. He might need something as well as the movicol.

We used to hide it in weetabix and milkshake if either of those are any good!

Evening

There is a very helpful Facebook group called movicol mummies. I found it when I posted similar on here!

Whilst you are waiting to get accepted (please do answer the questions), watch this vimeo.com/179497116

What you are probably getting at the moment is sneaky poo. Basically, you dc has a load of firm poo stuck somewhere. The movicol is adding water to all the new poo, so it’s really soft and can slide down the side of the firmer stuck poo. The firmer poo will start to soften shortly.

Have you been told to increase the dose everyday? Ie disimpact? If so don’t stop too soon (you want to get to rusty tea looking) and decrease slowly.

Read up what you can - gp’s aren’t very knowledgeable quite often with the best use of Movicol

www.eric.org.uk is also really useful and they have a helpline and they can advise you. Sometimes they take a day or two to get back to you though, but they are very helpful

Thanks so much lovelies!
He is terrible at drinking extra drinks with these sachets I’m literally having to force him (tipping water/juice into his mouth) to drink extra.
i Couldn’t even get the third packet into him today.
The dr said to decrease slowly once he’s had a solid poo...which hasn’t happened yet.
So I guess I’ll continue to give him 2-3 each day til weds and then it’s been a week and see where we are with it. I feel so sad for him :(

We had a horrible period with DS1 at a similar age where he would scream in pain every time he tried to go and shout "mummy, mummy" over and over again. It was awful!

Just to say (because we weren't told this initially) once you've had an episode like this your DC will need to stay on a maintenance dose of movicol for at least a few months even when they are back to pooing regularly.

When there is a blockage it stretches the bowel and makes further blockages more likely. You have to keep the poo soft until the bowel has had a chance to shrink back down. DS1 was on a maintenance dose for going on for a year.

We hid it in his morning weetabix everyday. We also tried custard, orange juice, milkshakes, lemonade, anything that got it into him basically! At one point I mixed it up and syringed it down in a calpol syringe 5ml every 5-10 minutes.

Fingers crossed the blockage shifts soon and things improve quickly.