Movicol question - how long to work?

[squizita]

Posted similar in potty train ing but also posted here for traffic.
Have anxiety so avoiding "Dr Google".

2 year old with chronic constipation as a result of being a slow digester + potty training witholding (vicious cycle ... poo hurts, I'll hold, poo hurts...). No impaction - TMI but she's a pebbly log type pooped every 48-36 hr.

So ... movicol. Told to give 1 sachet a day to soften stools ... 2 if it isn't working.
How long should I keep her on 1 a day? Gave her the first one 4pm yesterday - right now she is grumbling she "gonna make a poo soon" but haven't managed yet. Parps and gurgles can be heard (yep I massaged her tUm and listened).

Being the anxiety type I don't want to jump the gun and end up in a poonami.

My 22 month old has had chronic constipation and poo problems from a young age. He does (or did) have impaction. We were told 6 sachets a day to clear the backlog and then reduce down until poo is of milkshake consistency. Impaction now cleared. We give 2 sachets together in the morning and only if needed another 2 together at dinner time. This is working really well for us. We saw a consultant paediatrician. Hope this helps and your DC is ok

It can take a while, so I'd leave her on one a day for 3 days, then try her with 2 (or one and a half) on the fourth day.

Thanks all.

BigGranny luckily mine isn't impacted - so the GP was promoting caution as the other way (loads of liquid poo) might scare her into more witholding iyswim.

I think i'll go to 2 Thursday or Friday if no improvement... even without she would have pooed anyway by then usually!

Good luck @squizita my poor DS has been dealing with this since he started on solids and we have been out on multiple medications and tried cutting things out his diet etc... movicol is the first thing we've had that works, impaction and fischers happen really quickly, I'd take poonami over pain any day! I hope your DC gets past it soon

She just had a big "sausage" of poo followed by some custard liquid half an hour later (I don't think leakage - think it's what was left in her gut). Phew! It works!
Though I think maintaining will be half to one pouch every 24 hr. If 1 pouch clears her so well.

It would have taken LOADS of lactulose to do that! It's a movicol miracle!

Movicol is great. My son needed it from just turning 1 to 2.5 years.
It can take up to 24h to work, but as you've seen can work quicker than that.
I'd probably keep her on one a day. If she struggles drinking it, I used to put it in my sons porridge in the morning. As long as it gets in her, and make sure she drinks plenty.
The last few months I went down to just half a sachet a day to keep things moving.
A couple of times I tried to get him off it, but he became very constipated very quickly. So be prepared for her to potentially need it for a while.

Keep plenty of fibre in her diet.

• whole grains
• fruits like apricots, prunes, pears, peaches, plums
• vegetables like peas, beans, broccoli

And as for drinks go for more water based drinks than milky drinks.

HTH

My daughter has been using Movicol. I find I can take 2 or 3 days to week. Good luck!

My daughter started using it and after 2 days it wasn't better. Anyway, by the third day her stools were quite messy. So it worked well!

Mine struggled today - I think because her body isn't used to going until she's absolutely desperate! Tried to poo but it was painful and she withheld which surprised me after yesterday. Rang GP and they said give 2 sachets (1 morning and 1 night) and wait 24hr. She was being a bit of a madam about drinking - cottoned on mummy really wanted her to drink so turning her nose up at water - wanting squash, milkshake ... Basically party time only drinks! We got there with constant sips.

shooting Hopefully mine is like yours! I don't mind mess - I hate to see her parping fruitlessly poor thing!

You can mix Movicol into squash no problem. In fact I'm amazed she can tolerate it in water - it tastes FOUL.

Two sachets is still a comparatively small dose so don't worry about that.

Movicol helped my DD loads. She was with-holding too.

She has 1 sachet every morning, dissolved in squash, disguised in a fruit shoot bottle.

I hope you find the right dose to help your DD soon. It took us a good few days to get it right.

Squash it is! She will think it's someone's birthday.

Oh, to have a child who thinks squash is a treat! My kids would rather drink nothing at all than drink water

Looks like a sachet morning + a sachet night = a big soft one as part of bedtime routine.
So far so good.
Will keep her on a couple of months then contact GP again (or ERIC) about whether to go to 1 a day if they seem really "mousse-y" - today's were properly soft.

TBH you need it to be soft long term. Mainly because it's difficult to withhold. Then once you've broken the association of poo = pain = withholding, you can think about reducing. But at the moment you just need to keep on with soft daily bowel movements because that's ideal.

Yeah that's what I want to do - keep them v mushy until she is totally used to potty poo.

Today she asked at the playground to do a poo. It took a few minutes to find a secluded spot and whip out the travel potty - she then "performed" perfectly again! Phew! Bagged and binned in the doggy poo bin I'm afraid - very AIBU I'm sure ... but she asked and I had the lined potty ready. I'd like it that soft long term frankly, she can control it still but it's painless.

We she did 3 (controlled - went to potty) smallish poos yesterday and then a huge sloppy one overnight.
She doesn't seem dehydrated or unhappy, but 1-2 a day is optimal isn't it?

Maybe 1 1/2 sachet a day for her for the long term - keep it soft.

She shouldn't be dehydrated because Movicol contains rehydration salts to counteract the water that gets drawn into the gut.

Three isn't excessive, anyway. The fact she did a big poo overnight suggests she may have been trying to withhold a little during the day, hence the two small "incomplete" stools earlier in the day.