3 year old’s gut trouble

[Theresamooselooseabootthishoose]

DS (almost 3) broke his femur 6 months ago, because he was in a hip to toe spica cast and because he was immobile it meant he was severely constipated (could go up to 15 days without a poo), he’s now fine (out the cast back fully mobile) but still in his mind pooing is scary because of this holds it in and caused terrible stomach pain and large poos when he finally passed them (usually in his sleep when relaxed).

He has a great balanced and healthy diet, loves his fruit and veg, drinks a lot, occasionally breastfeeds, still does have cake and crisps as a treat though. GP has prescribed laxido and he has this daily, but still, holding poos in, screaming and writhing in agony daily, it’s so distressing for everyone but most of all him, will hold poos in for 5-8 days. GP says it’s common and to just be patient. Does anyone have any advice please? Thank you for reading.

Is he toilet trained? My 2 year old had bad constipation whilst wearing a nappy, I potty trained him, and since he has pooed every day without fail, sometimes 2/3 times a day. Before he would have 3/4 days in between. I never linked the 2, but guess he maybe didn't like doing them in his nappy?!

He isn’t unfortunately. We started 1 week before he broke his femur and had to stop for 8 weeks while in his cast.. cue point blank refusal to do poos on the potty/toilet now. He will wee on it though. He just gets really distressed and shuts down at the thought of pooing on the potty and then refuses to use it all together and begs for a nappy, it’s soul destroying so when we’re ready for ‘poo time’ he refuses any and all potty use.

Poo withholding is truly awful for both parents and toddlers. We had this when our son had not long turned 3 but fortunately only lasted 2 weeks.

There's a lot of good books aimed at children that explain the digestion process, "come out mr poo" was one that really clicked with our son. There's also an app our HV recommended called "poo goes home to pooland".

Rewards were what cracked it for us though, collectable rewards! We had 4 toilet poos in one day when he knew what he might get next.

It's heartbreaking when they're so uncomfortable but you can't do anything, and when it finally comes out you hope they'll feel better but you realise it only came out because more poo is waiting.