Getting laxido into a child with severely restricted diet

[SErunner]

Prefacing this with I'm at my wits end. Our daughter needs to undergo a disimpaction regime, she is so constipated. We've been battling constipation for months (undoubtedly largely due to her restricted diet) and it is a nightmare getting any medication into her. We did day 1 today and getting 2 sachets in her was horrendous. I have no idea how we're going to do this. She needs to have 4 tomorrow.

For context, she is 2yr 8mo, was very difficult to wean, has a very restrictive diet and is awaiting assessment for ASD. She is highly observant and intelligent, is an exceptional communicator, spots any manipulation a mile off, does not respond to bribery and it is incredibly difficult to get her to do anything new or different, or try anything new. She is generally not a great drinker but does drink milk and water. With milk she can taste the difference if I make the laxido mix and add it. I have to dilute water so much for her to take it, there is no way she's going to get that volume in. Today I tried mixing into squash, bribing her to drink this with choc buttons, explaining why she needs to have it, distracting with putting a video on, using the calpol syringe to squirt it in. We got there eventually but it was so difficult and stressful with lots of upset.

Any advice welcomed from people who've struggled with the same. We're having behavioural issues I think due to the constipation and she's so distressed by it, so we really need to get on top of this.

I have no answers as my daughter is the same. In the past I have found that the more I pushed the more she resisted. Can you add it to wet food like yogurt or something that the taste may be less noticeable. I have found as my daughter has got older that I have asked her if she would have her medication and some times she says yes and other times no. This is predominantly Calpol or nurofen though.

I'm sorry - this sounds really difficult. Not at all the same, but my son has never liked Calpol and refuses all syringed medicine. On the advice of a pharmacist we mixed powdered paracetamol into chocolate mousse (the fat molecules coat the powdered drug which is usually very bitter).

Would your daughter accept chocolate mousse with the laxido added? Or adding it to a banana milkshake? Generally something strong tasting with fat in that would agree with her restricted diet?

We add it to hot chocolate. Drinks with different cups or exciting straws often work in the short term. You could try making it into ice lollies.

Yes making ice lollies is on my list, need to get some moulds. Will also try hot chocolate - she wasn't keen on it when she had some at Christmas but we haven't tried it in a while.

@Recoba annoyingly with the macrogols like laxido you have to mix them into a certain amount of water before adding it to anything else, so yoghurt is tricky as the liquid changes the consistency and volume so much she spots the difference and I can't get it all in her. I suspect we'd have the same issue with mousse but she hasn't actually ever had that before so will give it a go.

@Dontknowwhyidoit it's exactly the same, the more I try the worse it gets but being nonchalant doesn't result in the desired outcome either! She does like calpol luckily, hence trying the syringe today.

My daughter also has a restricted diet and I just put the laxido straight into her milk, without diluting it. The make sure she also drinks a decent quantity of water through out the day. It's not how you are supposed to do it but it works for us 🤷‍♀️

@BournvilleEgg all the instructions say you have to mix it with the water first, otherwise it won't transit into the bowel and therefore won't be effective?

I am baffled, why do so many children have such a restricted diet? For medical reasons, or?

I know but that would never work for my daughter so I tried it neat and it worked fine for her. I'm not recommending it - I'm not medical - just letting you know what worked for us.

It's very common in individuals with ASD (which she is awaiting assessment for), for a multitude of reasons. That's not really the purpose of this thread though.

@BournvilleEgg thank you - I will definitely bear that in mind depending on what levels of desperation we get to!

@fungipie can't speak for the OP for for my daughter it's a combo of medical and SEN. Hth.

We used to have to squirt it with a syringe for our son - 10ml syringe, would take half a dozen quirts and swallows, and breaks between for everyone to calm down before the next 10ml. He hated it, we hated it, but we knew it had to be done to relieve the situation. Over time he became more accepting of the taste (we use the unflavoured version) and now he'll drink it from his sippy cup quite happily.

Op we are the exact same , behaviour issues to boot. Squash worked once for us but it was like she was hyper aware and it hasn’t worked since. Does yours take fruit pouches? I tricked mine by removing some pouch and using a calpol syringe to sneak it into the pouch. It was tedious and took two pouches but it worked. It’s so stressful isn’t it. I know my mum just does not get it as I was supposedly a great eater, but it’s awful when your child refuses most foods. And it can be so hard to disguise the stuff as like you say it changes the texture of foods!

I spoke to the doctor about it, as that much water was never going to happen. Was told to dissolve in a tiny amount of water then add to a drink, or yoghurt with a normal drink on the side. The medicine needs liquid, but it doesn't care if it is plain water, mixed or from other sources. It dissolves better in water than anything else. Ds needed it for a few years and we always mixed with milk.

Exactly the same here but with movicol. DD is a teenager now and still only drinks water, milk and chocolate milk. So I mix it with a bit of water to dissolve it then I fill the glass up with chocolate milk and stir it in.
It's worth talking to your GP about different formulations. For instance, Lactulose comes in a sweet syrup that my DD liked. I'm not sure if that's a suitable alternative to Laxido though.

You can add it to jelly, if she would eat that?

My granddaughter has Movicol,exactly the same as laxido and it doesn’t have any flavouring . We always put it in her milk or yoghurt.

The only laxido I've seen has been orange, perhaps a plain one mixed into flavoured yoghurt or chocolate milk? I'm not sure if the grains would dissolve into tinned fruit in juice or other juicy fruit like watermelon/melon/ mango depending on eating habits)

Think laxido and movicol are equivalent. Lactose is a syrup from memory.

We used to put it in squash, but I think we also found you could put it into milk with weetabix. The other thing that we used was mango juice (the pulped rubicon stuff), which although horrifyingly sugary is also high in fibre so suggested by GP as something to try.

Thanks so much, this is so helpful.

@JenniferAllisonPhillipaSue yes that was how we got most of it in today but it's such a large volume I can't see how we'd do that tomorrow when we've got to do 4 sachets 🤦‍♀️

@Yummymummy2020 she doesn't unfortunately - another fiasco that made weaning even harder! It's really hard isn't it, I'm so desperate to try and get her more comfortable.

@SprigatitoYouAndIKnow thank you, that is really helpful to know and we might need to go down that route once we're up to more sachets I think.

@WhereAreWeNow I think lactulose is a lot less concentrated so I'm not sure we would be able to get enough of that into her, and unfortunately she isn't particularly driven by sweet stuff either. Thank you though.

@ThrivingNotDiving jelly is a no sadly, but thank you

@Cannotbeasked @AgnesX yes we've got the plain flavoured paediatric laxido. The taste is very mild but she is just so super sensitive.

@BathTangle fluorescent rubicon could be worth a try! Not had before but equally not declined before. Thank you.

Sympathy to everyone else struggling with similar, i feel your pain. And thank you for sharing.

Is there any juice that she likes but not allowed often ? My daughter loves ribino blackcurrent. As it has sweeteners in it she is not allowed often but with laxido we let her have it. In the past when i struggled with lactuluse i gave it to her mixed with water in a sringe..it was a big fuss.

@SErunner it might be that if she's never had the mango juice before, she won't know it tastes different: hopefully she might try it at least.

I feel your pain (2 x restricted eaters, one with ASD, both with constipation/soiling issues when at primary school). However they are now late teenage and have not had issues for years: it is possible to overcome.

DD has hers in 'chocolate milk' too - I mentioned it to her paediatrician about watering it down as I'd read about it needing to be added to water but she she said it didn't matter. I warm DD's milk, add Nesquik & Laxido sachet & stir it all in. It definitely works for DD, she's been on it about 18months/2 years now.

DD is autistic & whilst her diet is good, she doesn't know when she's thirsty so I have a constant stock of ice lollies in the freezer in a bid to up her liquid intake!

Restricted eating

https://www.beateatingdisorders.org.uk/get-information-and-support/about-eating-disorders/types/arfid/

https://www.autism.org.uk/advice-and-guidance/professional-practice/autism-eating

Little Blue Cup

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-37988508

You can get chocolate flavoured paediatric movical which is just another brand for laxido . Sorry I might have missed it in another message but does she like chocolate flavour?
Another thing I've found works well with unpleasant tasting things like that is serving it a little colder - eg from fridge not sure why but seem to find the kids take it more easily.