3yo With Bowel Issues

[WhiskAndMix]

Hoping someone can advise... I've contacted the GP but can't get an appointment until the start of next week, so hoping someone can give some advice.

DD is 3.5. She's been potty trained since Easter or thereabouts, and at first it was fine. For the past couple of months she has often really struggled to poo - it took us a while to notice because DH thought she'd pooed when she was with me and vice versa, but it's been at least 2 months.

She would only poo about once per week or so, then be fine for a few days, and then for about 4 days leading up to the next poo she would have soiled pants a lot, with noticeable straining to poo.

GP prescribed Movicol, which I started giving her (1 sachet per day) on Saturday (it's now Wednesday). She's now got the opposite problem... seems to have no bowel control at all. She had soiled pants all day yesterday, quite badly at tea time and bedtime. I didn't give Movicol today, and she's a little better but still seems to be spoiling herself constantly.

She's just started Nursery and is back in tomorrow, so firstly I'd like to know if there's anything she can have in the short term so that they don't have to deal with this all day (or just send her home). Secondly, should I reduce the Movicol to something like alternate days, or just give half a sachet or what?

Thanks for any advice!

This probably won't help a lot, but my DS has had lots of bowel issues over the years. He has been on and off movicol and now on senna and sometimes movicol as well. All I know is that when a child has been having constipation issues for a while, it can take a while for the bowel to get back to normal as it gets stretched. Sometimes the soiling can be from overflow while still constipated and sometimes it occurs while the bowel gets back to normal. I wouldn't necessarily stop the movicol so soon, maybe reduce to half a day if it's becoming really loose, until you can see the GP. Sorry, it's probably not much help.

www.eric.org.uk/pdf-a-parents-guide-to-disimpaction
The soiling is because the movicol is working to clear the impaction. It’s seepage from around the blockage. You need to continue treating the impaction to stop the soiling.

Thank you, that's helpful. Sounds like i need to keep going with the Movicol in that case!