Holding Poo's!!!!!!!!!! Anyone else going through this with their LO's???????

[mumma2cjh]

in a nutshell.....last Nov my 3 yr old went for a poo, it was a little hard and hurt a bit.

Since then, in his head he thinks everytime he poos the same is going to happen hence e thinks if he holds them in he wont have to poo and therefore no pain. He holds on average for 2 days then last minute will cry/shout he needs a poo then its a mad dash to the loo

He is not constipated but its all in his head. He has an excellent diet of vegs, fruit etc... Went to the Dr's and have been perscribed Lactulose and was told this is "very common" and he will just grow out of it.

We started with praise, reward charts, pressies, chocolate!!! everything....worked for a while but now we are back to square one and he has not had a poo for 4 days now - this is the longest by he way.

I am now on the 4th large bottle of lactulose - 2 tsp in morning and one at night.

My GP should this may continue until he goes to school!!!!! Is anyone else experiencing this with their kids????

Oh god, sympathy. DD was like this as it was horrible. she would hold it in for 8days* and in the end would spend all the waking hours crying. It was dreadful.

We found that when she potty trained , it helped a lot.

If the lactulose isn't working, you should go back to the GP and ask for other things.

dd is 11 and her bowel habits are quite normal.....and have been for many, many years.

But it is awful for you all (and doesn't it piss you off when people say, 'give them some raisins!' [grr])

The lactulose is working as his poos are soft and sloppy (so sorry for the vivid descripion!) and on average he will go every 2 days. My GP who is great by the way, said its ust time and patience and we need to make his go regularly and give im the peace of mind that its ok etc... She said the Lactulose will not affect his bowels in later life it wont damage him etc... I learn to accept it but every now and again I get stressed....like now my poor little one is propped up on 4 cushions as his bottom huts bless him!!!

Oh so sorry - GP's really do annoy me!
I had this exact same problem with DD1 (now 7 and everything is fine!!). From about 2 1/2 up to just gone 4 yrs we had this issue. tried GP - Lactulose - just give until she goes to the toilet - then stop. She was hiding behind furniture clamping her legs - shouting I'm doing my poo - she was like a child possessed. We couldn't go anywhere as if this happened she was really awful!

Anyway - after lots of backwards and forwards I finally got the HV to listen (I think I had lost all sanity at this point!!). She explained it is very common - mis-treated aby GP's and not generally talked about as it the POO subject!! She referred to me to a Peadatrician (sp??) and community nurse. The nurse was fantsatic - she came to our home - she was on the end of the phone if things got bad - fantastic. The same thing was happening where I thought was going to the toilet every few days with a soft & runny poo - sum times then it could be a couple of times a day. The nurse explained this was "seapage". Basically it was the overflow from what the body couldn't hold anymore - the "poo" itself was still being stored up inside the body - she described this as the bung!

DD1 was prescribed MOVICOL (fantastic stuff) and she took this on a daily (sometimes twice a day) for over 12mths. As well as this she said the key was drink LOTS of water. DD1 also had (still has!) a brilliant diet - fresh fruit and veg all the time - but it appears she wasn't drinking enough - the bowel needs lots of liquid (not milk).

The key was the water and not letting up on the MOVICOL. Never stop that - even if you think after a week or two it's done it's jib - it hasn't - th echild needs that to keep them regular - and to re-educate the brain what to do and when to do it - & try and blot out the fact that once it was painful.

Sorry to ramble - go back to your GP - ask for MOVICOL - up the fluids and be patient. Don't do rewards / charts etc - complete ignore the fact they haven't poo'd - and don't make a big issue of it.

You will both come through this - BUT it will take time!

Good luck!

My ds has had alot of problems with bowels long term which has resulted in constipation, he has been under hospital for a while and movicol which helped but not completely. Eventually hosp decided to send out community nurse who give lots of common sense advice, but the main thing was she asked if his feet could touch the floor when he was on the loo. I said no and she explained that to be able to push you need something to push against so to use a stool for his feet. So next time I went to the loo I tried it and put my feet in the air and it is actually very hard to poo when your feet cant touch the ground(sorry tmi). Now using the stool for his feet along with movicol has made the world of difference he is so much better. I wish I had been told earlier

Going through the same with DD. She is coming up 2 and knows to hold it in,leading to constipation.Last week it was 4 days and it broke my heart seeing her in pain. Used Lactolose and it freed it up but with potty training looming I feel this will be a regular occurance. Strangely I remember doing the same as a child as I knew it was going to hurt. I think it took till I was about 10 till I got over the fear. Want to nip this in the bud as soon as.

tried a step yeterday and today ..... I cant believe the difference, he didnt cry or scream when it came out. I told him to put his feet on the step and push generally when his poo poo was coming.....he swwm so much more calmer.

Thank you for this tip, I also have not made a big issue of this jigging around, I just told him to let me know when he needed the toilet and he just seemed so much more calm and in control!!!

When ds had this we found he was much better on the potty, wonder if it was because of the pushing thing. Hmmm.