Constipation

[Sazj25]

Has anyone experienced their child holding in there poo cause they’re scared it will hurt, even though it hurts to hold it in. The doctor has put my daughter on laxatives to help her go but it’s not working. We’ve also been told to give her prune juice. I’ve given her high fibre foods but nothing is working. Does anyone else have any ideas? TIA

Have a look on www.eric.org.uk It's a really common problem, and usually what you need is lots of movicol/laxido, and then gradually reduce.

Yeh my daughter has been on cosmocol for about 2 years now but doesn't seem to be working now. Xx

Is the issue constipation or stool withholding? Often the stool withholding starts after a bout of painful constipation. The constipation may now be resolved though in which case something like laxido/movicol at a maintenance dose will help but you need to tackle the withholding behaviour. How old is your daughter? Have you tried a reward system?

It's stool withholding. She 4 nearly 5 years old.

Can I hijack this thread instead of making another one? My daughter is 11 and she started on movicol when she was 3. She isn't on it all the time but needs it more often than not. She has big, hard poos which use to cause bleeding when she was younger. Tonight she struggled to go again and said it hurt like a cut after. I had a look and it looks like she is full, sorry tmi!
Like she could keep on wiping and would never clean if that makes sense?

@Sazj25

It's stool withholding. She 4 nearly 5 years old.

Then some sort of positive reinforcement should work quite well. Have you tried anything apart from the laxatives? E.g sitting on the toilet at a regular time (e.g after a meal) each day for at least 15 mins. Sticker charts,referral to a continence nurse or specialist? Sorry if these are things you've already tried - it just sounds as though if it's been going on for a long while it needs more than just stool softeners. I would be pushing the GP for more support. Good luck with it all - it does wear you down x