MOVICOL

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Does anyone have experience with movicol my
DD has been on it for 5 y. each time i try to stop she
gets constipated. she was on it in the first place because
she held poo in and refused to go.she has a lot of soiling
at times which can make school difficult,she is 7 now

We used it when dd was 10mo and very constipated. It was very hard to get onto her but did the job eventually (we mixed it with orange squash and spent hours giving her a few mils at a time). We don't use it at the mo, but have ongoing problems with constipation and might need to use it again, but it's hard to judge whether the constipation or giving the medicine daily would cause dd more distress.

I would see the GP about it and as for a referral to the dietician.

My dd is 5 and we've been using since she was 12mtgs old. Same problem, everytime we reduce she gets constipated and very upset. How much so you use? We use approx half a sachet every other day (googled and found some have up to 3 full sachet per day!!) so I'm not too worried at present.
We've been reassured she won't become reliant or anything on it. We do try every few mths to skip a day and see how she gets on...hit and miss really, but now she is more aware of her needs she is a bit better at 'trying' every night before bed.
Also found a book called ''it hurts when I poop" really good as it explains constipation in a really easy to understand way so they can take control of their own body.

My DD finally stopped using it at about 8 or 9 I think.

I gradually gradually used less and less (over a year or so). Half a sachet was her maintenance dose level. To start with we had a year or so when she had to go back on it for a week or so when she got bunged up again but eventually she has used it less and less. She is 11 now and barely needs it at all. Maybe once or twice a year when she gets bunged up (usually at Easter after all the chocolate or when we go away on holiday).

Oh and don't miss a day when trying to reduce as this allows for her to get constipated. She must have some everyday just reduce the amount - I used a teaspoon to measure it out.

My son has been on it for nearly 2 yrs He is on 3 a day just down from 4. It's not that high unlike the poster who put exclamation marks after stating that. Not helpful to worried parents reading this. I don't think 1/2 a sachet every other day can be doing anything much though. When we started going to GOSH my son was on 1/2 a day and the senior consultant said it was a homeopathic dose and therefore useless !

My son had very bad withholding and constipation and his rectum became enlarged from it. Which meant he did not know when he needed to go.

The feeling has only come back now after 18 months of a higher dose. Initially we gave him loads for 3 days as an X-ray had confirmed his bowel was full of old poo hence the leaking.

What worked for us to stop the leaking was regular toilet times after meals (we had tried it before and failed when doing initial disastrous toilet training) . He made a fuss sometimes but we gave him electronic toys to play and relax with.

At our last visit she said to start reducing the dose but she was unclear about a timescale. We have gone down from 2 twice a day to 1.5 twice a day. When we reduced the dose we had lots of leaking but after a few days seems to have kick started him knowing when he needs to go.

Not sure when to reduce again maybe before sep. not sure long term as mine is a fussy eater which is what caused the problem in the first place. He gave up fruit & veg at 15 months and it caused awful
Constipation.
Our local hospital and incontinence nurse did not really help at all . It was only after getting referred to GOSH that we saw any improvement. He also had one procedure there to check there was no medical reason and he us due another in sep but we may be able to avoid that now the feeling has returned. She has also referred him to s psychiatrist because she has seem amazing work in getting rid if all the issues.

Also I bought all the kids books about poo & read the adult medical one too that us always recommended here. They were interesting but made no difference to my son.