Disimpaction Help :-(

[WorriedMumZZ]

My DS is 3 and has always struggled with constipation, only going every 4-5 days since he was a baby.

He has now not had a poo for 11 days. Nothing at all. He’s been on movicol for a week but the GP only told me to go up to 4 a day. Took to A&E yesterday as he’s in a lot of pain and the doc said to up to 6 a day .. nothing at all is appearing and he’s in so much pain when he gets the feeling he needs to go.

anyone with similar experience in the past? I’ve never been so desperate to see some poo!!!

*laxido not movicol

laxido and movicol are just brand names. Have you looked at the disimpaction regime on the Eric website? It’s super helpful they also have a telephone advice line.

I think movicol is meant to be better for this. I'd say just keep going but if he shows signs of getting worse then go back to A&E.

*brand names for the same medicine

How are you making up the movicol? It has to be in liquid, preferably clear and not milk. I've been through this a few times with my son but he also has laxatives to take and increase for a disimpaction. I know how desperate you're feeling, it's awful.

You need to go the the pharmacy and ask for children's suppository (they don't need prescription). Use one and see how you get on. That should get the hardest bit out then because you have been giving movicol it should be easy after that.
Once the backlog is out give a maintenance dose every day.
His bowel will be stretched and it will take months or years to shrink.ny 3yr has had issues for 2 yrs but we are over the worst of it now and as long as he drinks plenty of gas lots of watery fruit/veg he is ok now.

Feel for you though, it's such a worry.

just had a quick check and you can go up to 8 a day for 3 year old. Make sure he’s still having a good amount of water on top of the medication as the medication water isn’t absorbed by the body just hydrates the poop to make it easier to pass.

Making up as per guidelines but it’s proving v hard to get him to drink it all - he’s usually so good with his drinking. It must be so hard for them bless them

In fact what I'd do is give a bath first then put the suppository on and put a nappy on so he can just stay laying down. With my son it took less than 15 mins to get the worst bit out. They can't withold against the power of the suppository!
You pop it in some cosy water for ten second then insert it. I dry my hand after I wet the suppository as it's a slippery thing and difficult to push into the anus. You just have to be firm.

Make sure you get the flavourless one. Once it’s made up you can mix it with squash, it’s also better cold in my opinion

Definitely need suppository to attack from both ends as it were.
Vaseline on anus as it'll be sore passing hard dry stool 😢

After this long he would really need to take a huge amount of laxido in a short time window. I would also take him to the GP as an emergency after that time and see if they can manually clear it. Ask about picosulphate drops and docusate (stool softener) but the picosulphate could be quite painful if what's there just doesn't want to move so the laxido and check at the GP are really important. It's been quite a long time, I really feel for him. GPs don't tend to be into suppositories but they may be worth asking about. I would really keep the pressure on though as it's been a while and you don't want to cycle slowly through ineffectual first line methods at this stage.

GPs don't even think about suppositories which is ridiculous but luckily you don't need to go to go for them. They are over the counter from a pharmacy