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Poop withholding 2yo

6 replies

Blessedbethefruitz · 30/03/2024 22:19

Dd has been prescribed movicol for most of her life, since about 9 months. Also glycerine suppositories which we use extremely rarely. She is not physically constipated - what comes out is soft - but she can hold it in for many days. Typically, she'll do the poop dance for several days before finally going, and goes once per week, even with movicol. She gets very upset about it, asks for a new nappy sometimes several times before going, and cries during (because she's withholding still). She's desperate to be changed asap after, even if she's not finished yet.

The Dr just says to keep going with the movicol, but it's not helping the issue really. Her diet is good, lots of fruit and veg, and she's on breastmilk rather than cow (she won't give it up...). I don't think she takes enough fluid though, and do allow squash and ice lollies as well as water for this reason.

Does anyone have any tips? Would potty training maybe help? She loves doing wees on the potty and the toilet, does a few every day, self initiates, etc, and has for a very long time (unlike her big brother who was a very late bloomer...). I would have already switched her to pants if it wasn't for the poop issue. She loves wearing them.

She's so uncomfortable, so often, it's awful for her. She's excellent with her words, but she is a recent 2, and I'm not sure she'll be able to vocalise why she doesn't want to go beyond that she doesn't like it or doesn't want to.

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Whyarepeoplesoweird · 30/03/2024 22:44

My child would hold it in for up to 9 days. He was placed on movical because he was deliberately holding it in. He'd do the dance aswell and weird body movements as he needed to go. Your saying it awful but ita not really. Its more awful for them doing a poo after 9 days of holding it in. It's also psychological and she will grow out it. Our child was embarrassed so we used books, rubbed his lower back as it seems to make them go.

your child is too young to understand. They can have up to 4 sachets sachets day ....I often do 2 to 3 sachets per day.

Oh....and he's 10 now! He's been on it since age 2 and the hospital said he should stay on it for as long as he needs and that some peoppe are on it for their whole life.

What I will say is without the movical and holding it in for that long can cause (like my son) an anal prolapse. So for that reason, we don't want to bring him off it.

Blessedbethefruitz · 30/03/2024 22:50

Oh I don't mean we'll stop the movicol at all, we've already increased it as per the GP. I mean, we need to do something else as well, as she still wants to hold it in.

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Hungrycaterpillarsmummy · 30/03/2024 23:00

My son has been a witholder for 3.5 year and I'm sorry to say it is likely you are in for a long road ahead dealing with this.

I imagine she had a bout of constipation or even a slightly harder poo that made it sore and now she is scared to poo. It's psychological.

She needs to do many soft poos before she starts to trust her poos won't hurt her anymore.
We use lactulose 1ml and 4mls picosulfate a day. My son has not done a solid poo in years and he is still scared :( but we have definitely made progress.

Use ERIC as a source of information.
Increase fluid intake my any means possible - water/drinks with straws, watermelon, cucumber, ice poles.
Once she is potty trained you must do sitting time every day at the same time.
The more she holds, the more her bowel stretches and the more she can hold. It takes double the amount of time for bowel to shrink than what it took to stretch.

Buy books on pooping. Animal poops, humans poop, open door policy.

Whatever you do do not reduce laxatives to zero because as soon as it wears off, they go straight back to witholding. You need to find a dose that works and then once you're in a rhythm figure out a maintenance dose. Only then, can you maybe start to reduce laxatives.

It's a bloody nightmare. Good luck.

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Hungrycaterpillarsmummy · 30/03/2024 23:02

Also it does sound like potty training may benefit her. If she's so keen to have her nappy changed then she would surely prefer to do her business on the toilet.
We bought a new toilet seat that has a child insert as part of it. It's soooo handy!

SophieB0012 · 30/03/2024 23:05

My DD withheld her poo from 6 months to about 3ish years so I feel your pain. She was on movicol daily too and she was referred to the paediatrician to make sure there was nothing else going on which thankfully there wasn’t!
I really struggled with it as she would get herself in such a state trying to hold it in and I would get in a panic myself - when it got really bad I would plonk her in a warm bath with lots of distractions and sometimes that would be enough to get her to go.
I would say toilet/potty training could also definitely help. My DD still had her moments after first training but gradually she just started going normally and as she got older could actually tell me if she was worried it was going to hurt or be big rather than just holding it in.
She is now 6 and has no problems whatsoever and hasn’t needed movicol for years. When we were in the thick of it I honestly imagined it never ending - it was so stressful.
Good luck with it all and just try and keep telling yourself it won’t last forever! (And even if it did last for a while - when she gets older you’ll be able to discuss it with her and she’ll be able to tell you how she’s feeling which makes everything easier!)

Blessedbethefruitz · 31/03/2024 08:18

We have the built in kids toilet seat (big brother), and as for open door policy, I've not managed to go by myself in 5 years 😅

I don't want to make her afraid of the toilet/potty by pushing it when she has these issues (Oh crap traumatised ds). I think we will give it a go though.

And yes, we do have poop accidents in the bath.

It's not a huge thing in the grand scale of things i know (her brother has so many health issues) but it's a huge thing for her.

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