Stool withholding

[Elisabeth3468]

My son turned 2 the end of December and the past couple of months (particularly the last month) he's been holding in his poo.
It's awful. He goes 3-4 days and I can see him squeezing it back in and then he gets skid marks because it's forcing its way out.
On the third /fourth day his behaviour is awful and he spends the day rolling around crying and generally being so irritable. Eventually it forces its way out and he does the biggest poo I've ever seen.
He tells me it hurts and I'm not surprised.
He's not potty trained but I've tried him on the potty and he won't do it and asks for his nappy back on.
Diet wise he eats really good and has plenty of fruit and veg. He doesn't drink enough but I'm always offering drinks.
He is very active and gets plenty of exercise so it's not that.
I've started giving him prune sachets but don't seem to be helping.
Spoke to GP and they prescribed movicol but really not sure how I'll get him to drink that.
Any advice or tips? I really don't want this to become a bigger issue.
I find it soooo frustrating and don't understand why he doesn't just go (well I do understand he's not doing it on purpose).
His understanding is excellent and he tells me when he needs one but just won't do it because he says it hurts.
I stopped BFing him a month ago and the issue has got a lot worse.

I used to put movicol in orange juice. Not great for teeth of course but it was more important to stop the withholding. I believe you can put it in milkshake/lollies etc. There's a Facebook group movicol mummies that may have tips. He does need to drink lots though - does he have any drink he likes? I know water is best but any fluids are important to break the constipation cycle.

Thank you . Right after I posted this he did have a poo. It was very soft so he's not constipated. He likes milk and blackcurrant squash which I offer. He can't have too much milk though because that does constipate him. He will drink water with meals from an open cup. I'm always offering drinks but sometimes he just drink or will have a sip and then carry on playing.

Movicol dissolves really well in yoghurt and very well disguised.

We had years of this and it was hell! It also started around 2 after weaning since BM has a natural laxative effect and only ended shortly before she was 5. It was an identical cycle of withholding for 3-5 days with behaviour getting progressively worse, along with soiling and diminished appetite. Lots of tummy aches and a huge disruption to family activities because it would take hours of staying in a room to get a poo out.

The main problem seemed to be the insistence on a diaper which is logistically much harder, especially if they're already a bit constipated. It's a purely behavioural habit that needs to be broken. Our problem disappeared the moment she switched to a potty, despite the first week being rough. She was cry and beg for a diaper but I remained firm and we managed to switch over. I also realised she was never really constipated but was simply withholding. Once she realised a potty is much easier, she would go when she needed and her bowel movements were perfectly normal.

We were also on Movicol for a good 1.5 years in between. Even though it was effective, I found it wasn't a magic button. She was still in the habit of withholding and the Movicol would simply make that harder to do. Pooing still wasn't pleasant at all and it didn't solve the desire to withhold. Movicol also caused more soiling and gave her tummy discomfort. She ate noticeably less during that time. We did manage to wean off Movicol but had another year of withholding.

My tip would be to work on losing the diaper. When you're desperate you would rather they poo whichever way they want but transitioning to a potty made such a huge difference. It's the seated position with feet on the floor that's miles easier than a diaper or sitting with feet suspended on a toilet. Don't be afraid to offer screentime, bribes, anything. She was allowed to sit on the potty and play games on the iPad which eventually cracked it. She was relaxed and realised pooing isn't a painful or scary experience.

Thanks for this advice. He has laxido once a day but his withholding it getting worse and worse. His appetite is virtually zero and he sits on the sofa all day trying to hold it. Hes usually so active. It's honestly taking over our lives. I'm at my wits end. Why won't he just poo!!!!

I would up the sachets until he's unable to hold it. I'm so sorry for you. I remember the days upon days we had to stay home or if we ventured out we had to come home due to my DD withholding. I felt like I was losing my mind. Once we'd disimpacted things got better. But we had to do 8 movicols at one point per day to clear it.

Also agree with the potty a pp mentioned. my DD was better doing disimpaction with the potty.

Apologies I know this is an old thread, I wondered if you had any success with the poo withholding and movicol or something else? I'm at my wits end with my 3 year old

Hello!
Yes! Potty training completely solved it for us.
He went from withholding for up to 6 days and now he does regular poos. 1-2 times a day. No laxitives. His appetite improved sooo much after he started going to the toilet more.
We potty trained him in August and he took to it really easily. I thought the poos were going to be a massive issue but it wasn't at all.
Is your little one potty trained ? I know sometimes the withholding can become an issue after potty training but for us it was the opposite.

I had the exact same issue as previous posters with DD at 2. Her behaviour would also be awful the longer she held it for. In the short term we managed it with laxido and she would poo in a warm bath but it didn’t really resolve until we potty trained at which point she stopped withholding.

I had to get senna for my 3yo daughter to stop her withholding. It's been an absolute game-changer as unlike others on this thread potty training only made it worse in our case! She's been on 5ml of senna since March along with 2 sachets of Cosmocol which she's been on since she turned one. I'm now experimenting with reducing the senna down as she is much happier to go to the toilet.

Yes she has been potty trained for ages but only for wee and never managed with the number 2. It really needs to be sorted now though as she is in pain each time it happens, I was keeping a poo diary with the lactulose and she was on a really good run but I forgot to give it for a couple of days as I was away and now we're back to withholding.

@EdithGrantham did you have to go to the GP for the senna and cosmocol?

I am worried about things getting too loose and then I'm not sure if nursery will let her go in! I guess if I have to keep her off for a week to get her used to going then it's better than being in pain for her.

Thanks so much for replying I really appreciate it.

Yes, when she was first constipated she was prescribed lactulose which didn't really work. Then I was told about the ERIC website and the NICE guidelines for constipation in children and the drs hadn't done the right thing so I got another appointment where they actually checked her stomach for signs of impaction then prescribed Cosmocol. It worked fine when she was in nappies but she started withholding when we toilet trained so I increased the dose but that still didn't work so I went back to the GP and requested senna. I'm not sure if they would have prescribed it if I hadn't read up on it and requested it specifically but luckily I had joined the Movicol Mummies FB group someone mentioned upthread and a lot of people on there said that medicine like senna is pretty much necessary for children who are withholding (there are others but senna is gentlest so best one to start on)

ETA: when she started preschool I sent an email to explain that if she does go to the toilet whilst there it will be very loose because of the medicine she's on and it's not an indication of a bug if she's otherwise well, they've been fine with that but she is only there during school hours and doesn't tend to poop until early evening anyway so it hasn't actually happened that they've had to deal with it at school luckily!

Thanks so much! I could not even get an appointment today but will try tomorrow fingers crossed! I will mention senna to the GP as well.

Hope she gets seen and sorted soon!

I just wanted to update this mainly for myself really, I managed to get her to go by using a combination of lactulose and a very small dose of adult movicol ( I could not get a drs appointment to get kids one) this has been working and she has been going every day since last week, hurrah!

Today however she has not been at all and now I am panicking as I don't want her to get impacted again.

Those who gave movicol did you give it every day or just every couple of days? I feel awful that I have had to take it into my own hands and give her the adult as the doctors are just impossible to get an appointment with but I just can't see her going through this pain so the adult one it is for now until I can get her seen.

So I think the children's one is just half the adult one so I give my DD two sachets a day but if I only had the adult one available I would just give one sachet. And keep giving it consistently every day for a while yet, when you try to reduce it do it very gradually over the course of weeks, we haven't managed to reduce yet and she's been on it 2 years, in fact we've had to increase from the amount she was initially prescribed.

Thank you so much 🙏