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Stomach Troubles - Constipation, cramps

4 replies

tdl86 · 15/05/2021 15:49

Afternoon all,

Looking for any suggestions or ideas. Or 3 1/2 year old son has been having stomach issues for a couple of months now.

He's not been pooing regularly for a while, however as of about 2 months ago he started to go 7-10 days without it, and then daily would cramp up, go red, and look like he was trying his best to get it out. Once it would come out then we would get a couple in quick succession and then repeat.

We went to the doctors who recommended Lactolose and some suppositories. This helped loosen things up, however where we are now at is he is cramping up several times a day (Circa 30-50), on maybe 8-10 of these it will produce a skidmark of little consistency. He will also have one poo a day again of fairly loose consistency.

So as such, the lactalose seems to be working fine and breaking it all down. However that doesn't then explain why he is still getting these cramps. Went back to the doctors and they didn't seem overly interested unfortunately and just said to ride it out. Just doesn't seem to make sense why he would be getting stomach problems and look like he is struggling to get poo out, when its now been loosened and is not an issue at this minute. A bit of google searching led me to Encopresis which seemed to fit some of his symptoms. Just seeing if anyone has any other ideas?

As wider context - He is also being diagnosed for autism, and toilet training hasn't gotten anywhere so far, so still in pants. He is also now fighting very hard to not have his pants changes, or be wiped - So it's clearly affecting him in general.

Thanks for reading, all ideas welcome.

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Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
IwillrunIwillfly · 15/05/2021 19:03

It sounds like he is still very constipated and the loose poo he is passing is just overflow poo that can escape from around the big lumps of poo. If this is is case, he needs movicol disimpaction (this involves taking increasing amounts of the medicine every day until he is totally cleared out and passing lots of watery poo) then he will need to continue to take some every day while his bowel recovers. The ERIC website has lots of very helpful information. I would have a read at that then go back to the gp.

tdl86 · 15/05/2021 21:08

Thanks for the reply. Hadn't seen that website before but at first glance looks perfect, and the free helpline should be very useful to.

Appreciate the thoughts.

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nocoolnamesleft · 16/05/2021 01:11

Absolutely 100% agree with previous poster. NICE guidance on management of constipation in children absolutely recommends using movicol/laxido (same thing, different brand).

tdl86 · 16/05/2021 12:19

Thanks for the advice, much appreciated. Will look to get some sachets and get him to take them as best we can!

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