Colonoscopy

[mumof1879]

My son has been offered a colonoscopy as part of investigations for abdominal pain.

The prep arrived today and I can’t see how he will ever manage it it. I’m also really worried about how traumatic it will be.

Has anyone’s child had one and how was the preparation?

Thank you.

Its fairly hard work for an adult

When is it booked for, what does he understand of it?

And how old is he?

I didnt read your post properly

The prep is awful, I cant lie

I have two kids with crohn’s and unfortunately we have had to do this too many times (think dd has done 6) both had first about 8 years old. It is tough there is no denying it. Bribery is key think of something good to have after and lots of fizzy lemonade while doing it. Also if the prep is pixolax then I would suggest dissolving it in less water and having a glass of water at the same time as that is easier.

He is 7. We haven’t actually discussed it with him as we were expecting an endoscopy to confirm coeliac but now also offered colonoscopy too.

he is very partial and will only drink water, never touched any thing other!

So I genuinely don’t know how he would drink the prep is four sachets followed by eight tablets.

Could I ask what your children’s symptoms were/are? My son has abdominal pain and very low iron and vitamin d. All other bloods and still test normal.

One had adominal pain, feeling really sick and low iron for a long time the other had blood in stools and a bit of tummy pain. Bloods normal, has he had a calprotectin poo test? Worth saying to hospital that you don’t know if he can manage as I know that some kids have the prep at hospital so might be a possibility? Although not sure if that is better because of the number of times they will need the toilet. But worth getting endoscopy and colonoscopy done at same time to thoroughly check.

I’m not sure if prep at the hospital would be worse. None is great!
Stool tests all normal and inflammation blood tests.
It’s really hard 🙁Did you feel your children have crohns before the tests? Was there anything that made you think that’s what it was? And you felt sure to go ahead…

I only have experience of these as an adult myself but I have quite a lot of experience of getting my DD through other difficult medical procedures.

As an adult getting through the prep mostly requires mind over matter but I know from experience that kids can't adopt it in the same way. I think you have to approach it as though it's not a big deal at first then the first couple of sachets might go in without issue.

I personally don't like adding anything to the prep but you might be able to use clear jelly sweets for after each sachet.

Once you've started taking the prep I would resort to pretty much anything to ensure it's completed even if it means a ton of bribery if it starts getting difficult. You could assign a prize to each sachet.