6 year old constantly withholding poo!

[Daisydoo73]

Hi I’m just wondering if anyone has any advice! My 6 year old now hasn’t pooed in over two weeks, this is a constant thing now where he hides and holds it in, and has little soiling accidents constantly!! I’ve ended up throwing away so many pants! I feel awful for him as it must be so uncomfortable but I’m at my wits end knowing what to do, he has possible adhd and autism and I know this can be common alongside, he is sooo defiant as it is so when we tell him to try on the toilet he refuses! I’ve even tried tonight withholding his new pants (I don’t know if that’s mean) but he’s been through so many and I’ve told him he needs to sit in the toilet even if nothing comes out! Drs are useless, nothings worked, we even went to an and e as he had a temp with it to and they did nothing! What do we do??

No advice but following as my 5 year old boy is the same. He has been potty trained since he was 2 but has only ever pooped in the toilet a couple of times. He has to ask for a nappy to go, and we have never been able to get out of this cycle. We have tried everything. We suspect ADHD with him too.

This needs sorted asap OP we had this with our DS and his colon became so stretched they call it 'mega colon' he needs stool softeners at least.

The stretched colon can further accerbate the issue to the point where he will not be able to feel the need to go. Dr should prescribe something like Paediatric plain Movicol or Laxido. Ideally you should be referred to a continence service but the waiting time is typically really long. He needs also to do a 'sit' for a poop half an hour after a meal.

Good resources are Eric Website and book
Stool Withholding by Sophia J. Ferguson.

The soiling is essentially wetter stuff bypassing the backed up stuff and he won't always be feeling or be aware of this. He needs to drink plenty of liquids throughout the day. Assuming this is happening, the main thing he needs are the stool softeners and good practices with a sit after a meal. Dr can advise on dosage but it comes down to finding the right amount for your son. I'll bet he's not eating well either, his appetite will improve once things are moving again. It can take some time as the theory is he will have had a painful poop at some point and now he needs to kind of unlearn pooping is a painful experience. This can take some time unfortunately.

This video is a bit cringe but here we are

At two weeks without passing stool he needs an enema and then an disimpaction regime of macrogol (laxido, movicol). Take him back to a paediatric A&E who will give him an enema and make sure he passes some stool.

I wouldn’t give him an enema (tends to be psychologically unhelpful in children who already fear poo coming out of their bum), but I’d definitely be going for a disimpaction regime of movicol/laxido, to get the back log cleared, and then a smaller dose regularly to get him over it. www.eric.org.uk is useful.