DD pooing herself!

[shakey1]

Bit of a back story.my DD (6) She's always had super rock hard poo's from young. To where she holds them in for days and because she does that obviously they comes out very big and painful. She's been on laxatives since being about 8 month old. Since her turning 6 last year she's got worse with the holding it in to the point she's partially pooing herself and leaving it in her bum to go hard , I've been to the doctors all her life they said it's nothing medical it's her being scared so now she has this fear to poo as she leaves it in so long it hurts so now that's her fear. She's walking around smelling of poo when I'm not knowing as she hides it. This has been ruled out as behavioral which I can see that as she tells me it's because it hurts. But then when I up her laxatives after she's gone to the toilet she says " oh that wasn't bad" but will still be in the rutt of not going when she needs too. I'm buying underwear every week as she's staining them, I don't know what else to do! I'm pregnant and I feel like I'm going to be wiping a baby's bum and a 6 year old as she's just getting lazier and would rather sit in her poo than while herself!

She's badly constipated and you need to use movicol or Laxido or similar and go through the levels to get rid of the impaction. She will poo until its water! Then keep giving her a daily maintenance dose. This will take months and months to wean her off needing it.

@KateyCuckoo non work other than lactose she's been on it for 5 years

How much were you using of the others? Lactulose works differently.

Hi there.
this was perhaps one of the earliest signs of my DD inattentive ADHD putting things off…. Like going to the loo! As not priority ! If you have any traits in the family may also be worth keeping an eye .
I found all the following helpful.

trampoline ( movement stimulates bowel)
running ( as above)
dedicated time sat on the loo with an iPad or book-schedule it in Each eve
prunes ( like a laxative )
flapjack ( oats draw water
in to the stool to make it easier to pass)

apple juice ( gets things moving)

The ERIC
website is good
I feel for you…. For my DD
It went on for years and years
it really gets you down sometimes
the stained underwear,the over spills , the smell, the constant smells, the sadness that they don’t seem bothered in my case !
doctors weren’t any help

I’ve literally just started a thread very similar to this. I’m also sat next to my (almost) 5 year in the bath trying to help her poo. Earlier I was crying on her bedroom floor about it.

I feel your pain. We’ve just created a new reward chart for her. We see improvement for a while but it doesn’t seem to stick. Also going to go back to the GP.

I'm sorry I haven't got anything to suggest OP but our 4yo has been wee trained for about 4 months, but whatever we try he will not poo on a potty or toilet, holds it for as long as possible and will only poo in a nappy. worried its going to last a lot longer. so kind of just here to see what others advise.

@Geckosarecool , both brothers have adhd , she's very athletic as she does gymnastics and constantly practices at home, also does alot of multi sports after school etc, I've tried prune juice and apple she doesn't like either. She has a schedule on the toilet but I have other kids which always seem to want the toilet when it's her time to sit there.

@Ismydaughtertypical I feel you too! I've had her at pediatricians for years doing food charts what not to eat what to eat etc, suppositories different laxatives since being a baby, only one that seems to work after 2 days is lactulose 13ml once a day. She took it this morning and threw up which was unusual

I agree with the poster who felt she needed a full disimpaction regime. It's generally the only thing that works. I presume you're familiar with www.eric.org.uk

@lochmaree my daughter for some reason wouldn't wear napped from 15 month and just started doing the potty with no asking, that being said she wouldn't poo in a potty or toilet. But eventually she couldn't hold it in and she screamed scared whilst it came out then realized it wasn't actually bad , that's when she started going on the potty , with my DS I used
To let him sit in it and watch tv or a poo song on YouTube that helped him not be scared!

My daughter had this too and is also likely to have adhd. As well as not going to the toilet she also didn't drink enough. We sorted it after a lot of work and referral to continence service.

@nocoolnamesleft nope never heard of it. I'll be definitely giving that a look at in a second!

@Mynewnameis how do you spread your concerns about adhd to doctors about this? They just look at you like your daft at my doctors

Hi OP, sorry to hear you're going through this with your poor daughter.

I am a psychotherapist and it definitely sounds like an anxiety problem from what you've said.

Constipation > pain when pooing > holding it in > more constipation > more anxiety about the pain she'll have when she poos > more withholding > more constipation etc etc.

A huge vicious cycle.

The laxatives will help and hopefully over time she'll learn that it doesn't hurt anymore. But it's been a long time already.. I would definitely talk to the GP about seeing someone in a therapeutic capacity to work on her anxiety too.

I think as it's such a long term problem it'll take both (work on her anxiety and further laxative use) to really help her.

Lactulose isn’t very effective. It’s such a mild laxative.

Movicol would be a much better option. First you’d need to do the disimpaction regime - fully clear the bowel out with large doses over a number of days. Then you have to taper back down to a level which produces, ideally, a soft bowel movement every day.

This website is really good. You could show it to your GP and get them agree to prescribe boxes and boxes of Movicol 😄

https://www.thepoonurses.uk/disimpaction.php

My daughter is 10 now. I've been writing notes on all aspects of her development for a couple of years. She finally had a teacher who listened and referred. Waiting list 3 years so going private. Had to ask gp to refer but as I prepared the notes I knew what to say. I have headings like this with specific examples given. (I suspect she might have autism aswell): headings were - learning, behaviour, emotions, physical, sensory, medical

I used to do this as a child, I also have ADHD.

Hadn't realised there was a link, very interesting

When things got bad with DD I started sitting her on the toilet with a film playing every night. Sometimes we would sit there for an hour before something happened (she was also taking movicol). this went on for weeks and weeks.
I don’t think your child can learn to control it until they are completely cleared out. Things then improved from this point. She started going to the toilet quicker and going under her own steam. I think when they are so impacted they lose the right feelings to control it.

It would come under procrastination
and potentially reduced inter perception …. We also had the same issue with not drinking ( adhd related) and of course this exacerbates the issue

@Jellycats4life , this is the only one that seems to work for us. Movicol didn't do a thing we tried that for a while before moving to lactulose for the remanding time

Hi just a message to everyone as some have same ideas so it would be quicker for me to answer all, my daughter is 7 in April, this has been going on since a baby sitting on the toilet, helping with certain foods encouragement laxatives doctors referrals etc, I've done them all, nothing has changed but her getting older and it getting worse , not sure my doctor will listen if they put it down as behavioral if I tell them I suspect adhd, I'm concerned as she's a very clean child likes her room cleaned her clothes face body etc. she loves thing nice and tidy, for her to sit in poo for how long and hiding it when we are a very close family and we have a good support system we talk about any feelings calmly she's a open book, just worries me as the doctor said if she keeps on doing this by 16 she will of lost all feeling in her bowel and will poo herself everytime, time to ring doctors back I think

But how much did you give her? You have to keep going up to 12 sachets a day....

My daughter didn't hold her poo, but has always been very solid. She ended up with impaction and thr bowel relaxed itself to allow faeces to flow round it. She ended up with noncontrol. Laxido/ movicol worked and a year on, she still has to have a sachet per day, plenty of water and high fibre. The paediatrician said lactulose is not good for them long term but laxido/movicol are perfectly fine . I would switch Meds, do a impaction dose (drinking lots of water) and continue a maintainence dose after. Talk tondD and explain this will stop her poo hurting but its really important for her body to poo every day.

I agree. You say Movicol didn’t do a thing but it really depends how many a sachets a day you were on, and how long you persevered for.

If a child is badly impacted it can take days and days for the backlog of hard stool to be softened by the medication.