my 5 year old DS2 and his poo issues - WWYD?

[mumofmonsters]

Tis long so won't bore you. DS2 is currently having many poo incidents a day where his pants will be full of poo. TOok him back to consultant who said it was Faecal Compaction and that he had lost the sensation. He said that we were to give 2 sachets of movicol before bed and that by morning he would "produce".

Well, it's a week later and all that has happened is that he is now having more soiling incidentgs and is wetting too.

Am at the end of my rope. Would you put back in pull ups? WOuld you take to GP because clearly the consultant got it wrong? (DS2 is under the consultant for ASD type behaviours and sensory issues)
Would you take him OFF the movicol because it was easier to handle without that?

It does sound very much like faecal compaction/ongoing constipation. The wetting can be a consequence of faecal blockage in bowels putting pressure on the bladder. The problem with faecal compaction/constipation is that once they lose the sensation (which it sounds like he has as he doesnt know when he has to go) then it takes time to recover the sensation - even when he is unblocked so to speak then it will take time to get sensation back and there can be more accidents.

I was once given a rule of thumb that however long they had had the problem for, it would take that long for the sensation to recover. In our case it was a few months although since then we are constantly monitoring diet etc to avoid recurrence as DD is prone to it.

You need to keep treating him for a while to make sure he is not blocked up. Also to address his liquid intake - in this sort of weather and if at school not drinking a lot, it can cause this type of problem. Also diet of course needs to have enough fruit/fibre.

There's lots of threads on here about constipation and Movicol is usually a good treatment but it does tend to cause accidents to begin with so often need to keep off school for a few days to avoid embarrassment/phone calls from school.

Hope things improve soon.

Ahh, just typed a really long message and it got lost!

My son was similar, he was 3 and is 6 now and is still on movicol 1 a day.

It is the best stuff so I would persist, although if your DS is impacted it could take longer than a week to clear. My DS was on 12 a day for several weeks to clear. He sounds like he is still impacted if it is affecting his bladder too, his bowel is probably full up and putting pressure on the bladder.

Also, if he has lost the sensation, then it could take quite a while for him to regain it and he could soil whilst this is repairing. I really wouldn't stop the movicol, he may be easier to manage but he is just impacting more and it has to come out sometime!

I would push for more consultant input, he may need to increase the movicol. I had to keep going back until he was eventually looked after by the community continence nurses based at the local childrens hospital.

It did take quite a while to sort him so he was going daily and not soiling so your consultant (as was mine) was being a bit ambitious.

Sorry to not be more positive, you will get hthere but it may take longer. Good luck!

A good source of information is the ERIC website, a charity based in Bristol that helped me through it and have an excellent helpline.

He has had bowel issues since he was born. I can't take another 5 years of this
And i am pretty sure he isn't blocked AT ALL. He has been on it a week and the accidents today have been extremely loose. It's as if it all goes straight thru.

My DD is the same, has been bad since November. We are now on Senocat and Lactulose, 5 mls of each, the wetting has stopped and the poos are now clustering at the end of the day and she is starting to get the sensation back.

I should have said that when he wets there is not always poo.

Thanks for replies though. This combined with his behaviours and teh other DCs is making life stressful at the mo.

DD did not poo when she wet. And she often had "liquid" poo accidents but was still constipated. Not saying there isnt another cause but just that it could still be constipation. The community continence nurses are good if you have one.