Toddler holding in poo

[Pen89ox]

I don’t even know where to start, we never had any issues at all with pooing and then he had two stomach bugs one after the other last winter and 10 months later he’s never really properly gone back to ‘normal’ for a good length of time, it’s like what he did when he had the stomach bug has traumatised him.

He’s now 2.5 and this has been ongoing for so long now, we’ve tried lactulose and we even had movicol for a while but he refused to drink anything we added it to. We do have better weeks/months but in the last month or so we’ve really taken many steps back, he’s currently going every 4-6 days and they’re huge, and I mean massive poos that will absolutely be hurting him because they’re far too big for his little body to hold. We’ve also had to put him in the bath for these to come out and 2 x lactulose per day.

We’re now ending day 4 with nothing yet again, he eats masses of fruit and veg and is constantly running around, we give him warm baths and I’ve tried warm drinks and constantly offer water all day long, I feel like I’ve tried absolutely everything. I know the dr will just advise movicol but he categorically will not drink anything it’s mixed into (or eat - I tried it in porridge once in desperation). I’m worried he’s going to do some damage to his insides. We’ve had him up with us until almost 9pm tonight in a last ditch attempt to get something out of him but nothing, he cried in the bath that he was going to poo but held it in.

We have a potty out too and he’s free to use that, he hates going in his nappy which I understand, but he also hates the potty too for pooing. When he does go it’s not a constipated poo, it seems normal, just very very big for a little toddler.

Has anyone got any ideas of where we can go from here before I tear my hair out?

Sorry no ideas just sympathy. My DD is potty trained for wee but seems to have some kind of poo anxiety thing on the go - she gets very worked up when she needs a poo, shaking and saying she’s scared etc and holds it in for as long as possible. Then maybe every other day or every third day does a HUGE poo 🤢 following in case anyone has some wisdom…

Have you tried poo goes to pooland app or story? Its about normalising having a poo for children who are anxious about it.

My sons kryptonite was a dinner of baked beans and dessert of grapes and a lot of water and within hours he would go. Never used medicines.

I dont think comically huge poos are unusual. Both of mine have been capable of blocking a toilet from being potty trained. Or even not being too regular. So id focus on the fear and anxiety aspect.

He sounds constipated and withholding is a big issue. He will probably need a high dose of Movicol to soften the poo and then maybe a stimulant to push it out for a while until he forgets it was ever painful to poo.

look at the ERIC website and FB group Movicol mummies if you need some help, lots of people there going through the same thing!

I would ring the ERIC helpline. Try at 10.00 as soon as they open. Are you sure you couldn’t get him to drink Movicol in something? Chocolate milk worked for my DD, I can also put it in her water if it’s very, very diluted and cold. Is there anything he likes as a treat to drink? Fruit shoot etc? That’s definitely the answer, large amounts of stool softener and reassurance. ERIC are totally brilliant, both the website and the helpline in my experience.

We had the exact same thing. From about 1 DD would hold in her poo and it became such a traumatic experience for her. Our whole lives revolved her pooing and worrying about her, so you have my sympathy! We tried everything!

Eventually she stopped around the same age as your LO and here's what we did that we think may have helped in case it helps you:

We potty trained at that age. She seemed to find it a lot easier to go on the toilet then in her nappy.
We gave rewards for going for a poo. A sticker on a sticker chart and a small treat (usually a chocolate button or 2). She became so excited for these that she would actively go to sit on the toilet in order to have one.

We tried grabbing her as soon as we saw her holding, but in the end her bum muscles got so strong she could hold anything!

We tried to relax about it (as hard as I know that is!) because we could tell that our stress was going to her, causing her to stress about the situation as well.

Keep up with the high fibre. Also I second the poo goes to pooland idea. We never had the app or read the book, but we told DD that her poo wants to go down the toilet to pooland to be with its friends and somehow that helped as well!

Good luck, I hope you crack it!

I agree with pp that the ERIC helpline is a good idea. The other site that is very good is The Poo Nurses. Google it and watch the video all the way through.

Oh and also to say, if you can, speak to your HV.

I actually had our 3 year review over the phone not long after DD stopped withholding, but I was telling her about it. She said we should have reached out to them as they have some specialists (including her) that would have been able to help.

Not sure what your HV services are like near you, but always worth reaching out to them in case they can help as well.

My DD did this. It was incredibly stressful. Movicol helped enormously, we mixed it into orange juice (not great for teeth but needs must). We had to disimpact first followed by months of maintenance dose to return the bowel to normal size. Please do reach out to ERIC and movicol mummies on Facebook. We used to wrap up little toys & put them in a bag, if she did a poo on the loo she got a toy. Helped a bit. Also the book Everybody Poos. Good luck.

The poor kid is severely chronically constipated. It won't be possible to potty train him like this. Fruit and veg are not going to cut it. He NEEDS movicol, probably for a few months until he can get back to normal, plus a glycerin suppository for a few days to get rid of the hard lumps of poo that are impacting him, if he can handle it.

Mix the movicol in sugar free vimto. It tastes much better in blackcurrant type of juice than anything else. You can disguise the taste really well with it.

We had the same issue. We upped his fiber to more than 5 g per day - lots of kiwi fruit. In Oz if a child is constipated they use concentrated kiwi fruit before meds. This helped clear him out. At the same time we instigated sitting on the loo for 15 mins after meal times. We would do things that relaxed the pelvic floor like blow bubbles, blow bubbles in water or try to push a ball around water with air by blowing through a straw.

It took a lot of perseverance but it eventually worked.