Soiling :( - 7 pairs of pants - Movicol anyone??

[FranMay]

Nightmare day, 7 pairs of pants for my 3.11 year old, soiling and needing to do a poo but just miniscule amounts coming!! I was wondering if anyone else's dc is on Movicol? We were using 1 sachet a day and poos were getting a bit too wet I thought, still preceded by a bit of soiling but were coming regularly every day or 2 and HUGE. Sorry, tmi!!! So we dropped down to one sachet every other day and now back to the same old routine of soiled pants. What do I do, up the Movicol again? Can't see an end to this. He's eating brown bread, dates, not much milk and nothing seems to work!
Thanks in advance....

if he's soiling then he must still have a blockage so liquid matter from further up the intestine is seeping round the impacted bit - sorry, I know it's gross but we've been there and washed the pants ...

who prescribed the movicol? if it's the poo nurse, you need to get in touch urgently - ours was always available on the phone for advice in between appts - obviously no-one on here can tell you exactly what you should do, but when this happened with ds2 we upped the movicol again - it might be that you need to do a really big dose over the weekend to shift everything that's stuck there, but you do really need to check this with dr or nurse

also, remember that sorting out constipation is a really long-term treatment - it took more htan 2 and a half years for ds2 to get there - and even now we still have a large box of movicol handy and have to dose him up a few times a year

Hmm, thanks Mimsum. I think we need a poo nurse definitely. It was the GP that prescribed, with quite vague dosage advice. I am beginning to believe that it really is a long term thing

Missing out a day is not a good idea. Better to do half a sachet per day. you need to keep it going daily otherwise it allows for the blockage to build up on their non-movicol day.

Sould like their is still a blockage. TBH I would increase the dose to clear it out. Soiled pants are a sign of constipation.

Well he's done 2 poos today so that's good but still a bit of soiling and lots of wet pants too to add to my joy, cumlminating in a complete change down to socks outside a station this afternoon!! He did have 2 sachets yesterday and another this morning. So we're going to keep going with 1 or 2 sachets a day over the weekend and then go back to the GP. Feel sorry for him really, and it's so hard to keep calm when dealing with the poopy pants every hour!

Wetting himself is a sign of constipation too - as the bowel's so distended there's not enough room for the bladder to expand - sort out the constipation and the wetting will go too

tbh, 1 or 2 sachets a day isn't going to clear the blockage - when we started ds on movicol he had 8-12 sachets a day each weekend for 3 weeks - only then did we go down to 1 sachet a day plus another laxative to help the bowel regain its muscle tone

ask your gp for a referral to your local paediatric incontinence clinic - you really need to speak to a specialist in this

good luck

You're right Mimsum, we need to get proper medical help with this. I guess I knew this all along really. Thanks for sharing your experience, it does help to feel you're not the only one with this kind of issue. I hope they will refer us as it would be useful to have a more thorough physical check on ds to see what's happening with his bowel. So far the GP has focussed more on the psychological causes of our problem. I know there are some psy issues which probably started the problem off at the outset. Various toileting phobias etc. However, think it's physical and psychological viscious circle now and sticker chart on it's own is not going to fix it!

I hope you get a referral soon - you would not believe the transformation in ds now he's no longer constipated - his behaviour has improved beyond all recognition and he's back to being the sunny, happy-go-lucky character he was as a baby before all the constipation problems started

and pah to sticker charts - when you've got to the soiling stage, believe me, it's physical and it doesn't matter how much ds might want to oblige, he just physically can't - he's also not getting the physical signs that he needs to poo as his colon is too stretched for the muscles to work properly

Totally agree with mimsmum,
Also been there though luckily not washed the pants as dd was just about to toilet train when her impaction and overflow was finally diagnosed.
We also had the poo nurse's help and she was wonderful. It felt like a long road at the time but 2 years on all is well and we just keep a watchful eye on dd's toilet habits....
Fran, you're not alone in this; lots of posts mention this isssue.Hopefully you and your ds will get the proper treatment and improvement in his condition soon.

Thanks Spub! It's great to hear that you and Mumsum are sorted with your dcs. There is hope then! It has been improving over the weekend with some more Movicols, 2 yesterday, one whilst we were out, which was a first for ds and on an adult loo (very proud I was)!