movicol - any advice from those who have used it?

[jamhead]

Just about to embark on movicol for chronically constipated DD1 (3yrs). She has been on senna and lactulose for months but not much good - now only goes about once a week and obviously very painful and upsetting for all.

Does anyone know how quickly movicol works? Any side effects?

Thanks.

OOH - you're in same position as me and my dd but we are 1 week ahead of you! Started movicol last week and worked after 2 days.

WARNING - TMI
She was going about every 3/4 days and now every 1-2 days.However, she's not used to mushy poo (tmi) and isn't always getting to loo quite in time (she's 3 too) and soiling her knicks a bit before she gets there (not poo everywhere just a little bit - not explosive which is what I was worried about happening). I am not stressing over it as she can't help it. This has happened a couple of times followed by a normal poo on toilet a bit later on. I think a more normal pattern will start soon and she'll get used to it coming more frequently and happy that it doesn't hurt.
HV following her up on Tuesday. Good luck with yours. No side effects noticed here btw.

thanks taffy

am having a bit of trouble getting her to drink it - she says her drink tastes funny. so i've been really diluting it - do you think it will still work? is DD on lactulose too? don't worry about tmi - i am so used to talking about poo, i can't think what tmi is!

We use it too for our dd. Have you got the Movicol paediatric plain? It's unflavoured and not as noticeable in orange cordial (diluted of course). We were given the lemon originally and she absolutely refused to touch it.
We first started with a high dose, reducing it over a week which flushed her out. Then went onto a maintenance dose of 2 sachets for a while then reducing to 1 unless we have a setback and then it's back to 2 again until it settles.

We've got the plain one too, just put it in her normal drink. Don't think it matters about diluting too much as long as it gets drunk. The instructions say they can drink half in morning and half in afternoon so don't think timing is too important either. BTW she's on one sachet a day atm. Stopped lactulose when started on this - also gp warned me off it (lactulose) due to sugar content

Thanks for posts.

Juuule - yes it's the plain kind. She has now drunk it without too much fuss in her apple juice.

Taffy - DD is on 1 sachet a day too. So far it's been 3 days and no sign of poo. Amazing how they can hold on, I think. Just can't get my head round why really.

We are still on one spoon of lactulose a day. (Just before bed, so I can be sure it gets brushed off her teeth properly.)

Would be good to know how your DD gets on over the next few days/weeks.

Hello,

I have just come across this forum while searching "Movicol".

I don't know where to start really!

Our daughter was a happy healthy, perfect child until after the MMR jabs when it became increasingly more and more difficult for her to do a poo!

Prior to this jab, according to my diary, she was going every day, no problem. No probs with food, diet, nothing.

We didn't make a connection with MMR it took a homeopath to do that, she told us that MMR leaves a trace in the gut which slows down digestion and that happened later on as she approached her second year and I was at the end of my tether, having seen my beautiful little baby go from happy and healthy to house bound and constipated forever wanting to pass poo and straining ALL day long, passing overflow poo.

Needless to say I had been to the doctors, been given lactulos which did absolutely nothing, on the phone to NHS direct and my own GP was completely bloody useless at answering questions.

Finally at two years old we had to take her to the hospital where she was x rayed and found to have fecal compaction. A course of movicol was diagnosed and also a regular dose of liquid paraffin to get things moving.

We were delighted with the results and as the blockage began to pass, our little girl came back to us : happy, healthy and with rosy ckeeks once again. She had her appetite back and we could go out and do things once again.

Of course, the doctor recommended that she stay in nappies as potty training was upsetting her and we were fine with that.

She is now three years old. Still on a sachet of Movicol a day as she will NOT pass poo without its influence. If her stool is anything more than squishy, she refuses to let go of it.

At our last hospital appointment I tried to voice my concerns that the Movicol was holding her back from her natural movements, but the doctor WOULD not listen!

I decided to do my own research and have discovered that Movicol is NOT meant to be used as a long term medicine at all!

However, if I stop giving it, two days later, she is back to holding her poo in and ending up with fecal impaction and overflow again.

What do I do??

I haven't read about Movicol not intended for long term use (will look it up later). However, Movicol does seem to be working for our dd. Her bowel habit is improving and she is having periods where she doesn't need it. We do have setbacks where we need to go back to it. Instances of this are when she had chickenpox and wasn't eating or drinking very much. Recently she has started to drink more milk than usual so is getting a bit bunged up a bit so we are back to one a day after an initial 2 for 2 days to get things moving again. We are adapting her diet to suit. I feel confident that there will come a point when her bowel develops more and she will be able to go without the Movicol. It has been a long term thing with her though as she was first prescribed at 3yo for compaction high in her bowel which distended and distorted it. She is now almost 7. I would keep giving it for the time being. Eventually the one sachet will make her loose and then you can reduce to half and so on. That's how it seems to work with our dd.

Any more news from movicol users? DD finally went today after 4 days (a sachet a day and upped to 2 sachets today on doctors advice.)

Still think her problem is at least 50% psychological and that's the hardest thing because it has been discussed in every way we can think of and consciously ignored too and nothing seems to help her to change her mind about it.

Don't worry too much about the psychological side of things at the moment. We found that once the physical side was becoming easier the psychological side just righted itself. Although dd did still get a bit uptight if she began to get a bit bunged up - so we dived in with an extra movicol. Even this is much better these days though.

i am a nurse and would just like to say that movicol plus increase in liquids and change in diet is a great way to relieve constipation and helps get them over the whole cycle of poo = pain. Lactulose is not so good in my opinion as it tastes awful (have any of you tried it?!) and doesnt "make" you go, it only adds moisture to the faeces to make it softer.

To help your little one not associate movicol drinks with being able to poo, i would give it every other day for 2 weeks, then every 2 days for 2 weeks and so on, so they are still getting some as they will become alittle anxious but will hopefully come to break the cycle of poo=pain=constipation. If in any doubt, always contact your gp.

Movicol seems to be good for DD - she has gone at least 4 times this week. But she hates the taste - has detected even the half sachet I've been using in juice, squash and milk. Even refuses milk on cereal if it 'tastes funny'. Any ideas?! DH said put it in soup but think it probably shouldn't be heated?

I was also looking for opinions about Movicol.

DS has been on it for months now (after Lactulose failed) and it doesn't seem to have really improved his problem. We give it to him in his milk (or in his weetabix) and he still suffers from painful back up and then has a HUGE runny poo explosion (sometimes 4-5 in a day).

If we don't give it to him he suffers a little bit with painful pooing but at least he isn't suffering with the mega sore bum he gets from having wet poo in his nappy nearly all day!

Doctor has recommended he will need to continue on Movicol until potty training....which is prob another year away at least.

I'm just not sure what to do for the best...Does anyone know if there is a natural alternative (I don't mean prunes apricots etc...we have tried all those)

I came across this thread when researching movicol for my dd aged 8 months. I wanted to ressurect it to get some more experiences/opinions.
She's suffered badly with her digestion all her life...now at 8 months she is on 2 sachets a day of movicol, which is working, but if she misses just one dose it really affects her.
I'm really concerned that she has to have a laxative every day, especially one that's not normally prescribed to under 2's or recommended for long term use.
She is already very mobile, crawling since 5 months and now on her feet most of the time. Eats lots of fruit and veg, drinks plenty of water etc.
Also very concerned about the MMR and what effects that is going to have on her digestions. Previous imms really upset things for weeks at a time; so very worried what the MMR could do.
Any advice/thoughts/experiences from others out there?

Hi pip, I just saw your post whilst googling adverse effects with movicol. How is your dd now? My ds (13 months) started on movicol last weds (1 sachet a day) and has been so ill since friday that we stopped it. He was being sick and the diarrhoea was something else, I was so frightened he was getting dehydrated we stopped giving it. He still has diarrhoea so it may be a bug and it's just a coincidence so will see how things go but apparently these side effects are common (10% of users according to the NHS website). I agree that I don't want my ds to rely on laxatives to 'go' but we were running out of options as lactulose, prune, apple juice, loads of water and fresh veg (he won't eat fresh fruit at all ).

Let me know how you're getting on anyway.

i knowthis is an old post but im scouring google for information for my son who is 20 months old now and suffered from constipation ever since we started weaning him. I took him to see the nurse who said give him prune juice which was great if not too great if you catch my drift, took him about after getting sick of feeling like a midwife having to wait till he stands in some funny position crying trying to hold his poo in/ or push it out im not sure which but literally screaming his head off so I had to lie him flat pull hi snappy off and bends his knees and push them back until eventually hed pass a massive stool that had the consistency of "un worked" modelling clay. id go through this every 4 days or so. so I got lactulose prescribed which seemed to do the trick but if I missed a dose, id sure pay for it, or should I say son would. so yeah I went back to see a dr this time who said it couldn't be any twisted intestine etc and prescribed movicol. my only trouble is its chocolate flavour and he will not drink it in his milk however weak I make it so I think im going to have to ring back up on Monday and ask if they do it in plain or lemon and put it in his squash instead. the only nightmare I have there is that son has a twin sister and they just pick and choose a cup so the chances of sister getting it are pretty high.
nightmare and its really starting to stress me out!

Hi Kasal. Just looked up Movicol and found you on this thread with twins. I have today been given Movicol for one of my twin girls who are 30 months (not yet potty trained). I'm really nervous about starting on a cycle of Movicol where we could end up reliant on it. I wondered how you were getting on with it (we have been given the chocolate version and our girl is very sensitive to horrible tasting medicines-antibiotics are my worst nightmare!). Also wondered how you were fairing giving it to one and not the other. I'm still amazed at how different poo can be in two little people who in essence have pretty much the same diet! The only difference being my constipated LO still drinks some milk before bed and the other doesn't. Also she's not a great drinker.

For anyone who finds this on google (I know it's an old thread) I've written about our movicol experiences here: www.bornready.uk/blog/the-mechanics-of-chronic-constipation-and-how-to-treat-it/

It was a confusing time for us and hopefully this will make someone else's life easier.