Help - child with-holding poo

[car25]

My two and a half year old has started with-holding poo (we haven't started potty training yet). It has been over the past week and a half, and she has been pooing about every three to four days, she is with-holding it until she can't any longer, therefore the poo she is doing is bigger and harder and causing her pain.

She has plenty of fruit and liquid in her diet, and is getting the urge regularly, just withholding it.

Any advice on what to do?

You should see your gp--if she does it for too long th poo can get impacted (she'll be constantly dribbling poo but still constipated).

You may be able to get some lactolose (sp?) to soften it and make it easier for her.

Do you have any idea what might have triggered this?

There have been a few threads on this before if you do a search--hope this helps. I know it's horrible.

Not sure what the trigger was. About 4 to 6 weeks ago she has a really painful poo, which made her bottom bleed every so slightly, ie just a tiny bit on the wipe, however she was pooing again normally for a good few weeks after this, although was desperate to get it out of her nappy as soon as it was done.

So really dont know what has caused this, I spoke to my mum and she said I did the same, which I can remember, but don't know why!

Will phone the HV and doctor tomorrow.

Def. see GP - there might be a physical cause. GP can advise whether laxatives/stool softeners are a good idea. DS1 was a champion stool-with-holder, but with him it was related to potty training. I do know that if they regularly go for more than a few days without passing faeces, it can beging to stretch their lower bowel out of shape, so you really ought to see the GP.

x-posts - the painful poo might well be the cause.

Also had trouble daughter (2 years)with constipation. In our case I think she got constipated for whatever reason then started withholding poo as she was nervous about pooing and got into a bit of a cycle of fear of pooing and painful poos. Our doctor gave us lactalose - basically a sugar which makes poos more loose and easier, it takes a few days to work but that did sort out the short term problem. She is potty trained for wees but refusing to poo in the potty, insisting we get a nappy for her. We are treading very carefully with this in case she starts withholding again and health visitor had lots of good advice which I posted on here somewhere.

My 2 year old boy has been withholding for about 6 weeks now. He can go for up to 5 days without pooing, at which point it's with much screaming, distress and fanfare. I've been giving him lactulose 2-3 times a day to make it softer and also Syrup of Figs to get it moving, but the distress continues. He will typically have "crises" about 15 times a day where he cries and holds on until the urge passes. Now he is waking 3-4 times in the night, uncomfortable but determined not to go. I know it started with one bout of constipation/painful poo/sore bottom, which he remembers. How can I break the cycle?

My twin boys both did this as i was trying to toilet train them.They did it over a period of months and one was actually hospitalized until he "went".We initially used suppositories as given by the GP but this can only be given short term as it interferes with the way the bowel naturally works. We eventually got refered to a "continence nurse" who put them on "Movicol" and devised a programme whereby they had to sit on the toilet after every meal and blo raspberrys onto their arm.This apparently encourages the rectal muscles to contract as does blowing bubbles.Of course they found this great fun.We also used rewards if they were succesful(little Haribo sweets)Basically her plan was to give them enough Moicol that they had no option but to go.They were then gradually weaned off it.One of my boys actually had problems up until and during his first months at school.
Phew,brings back memories.
Good luck to you.Apparantly its quite common esp in boys.

Hi Petra1,
Just wondering how your boy solved his poo problems when he started school. My 4 and a half year old is being very resistant to our many varied ways to get his poo in the loo.
He is at pre-school and daycare; and I had hoped daycare would have helped, but no luck really.
Did your boy just suddenly 'get it'? Right age, place and time?

My DS2 did this. HV gave us a book 'poo goes home to pooland'. Had to read it every day for two months, in that time the gap got shorter and shorter for holding. Then he toilet trained himself in a week and poos twice a day. This book has a 90% sucess rate. The hard thing is you have to totally give up all talk about poo, toilets or anything realated.