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.

Aside from the medication would she drink prune juice that is presented as a squash drink?

It might not do much for severe constipation but drunk daily may help.

I've also done the disimpaction regime with laxido for my daughter and feel your pain! Getting up to the point of 8 sachets in a day felt impossible.

When we did it I made up the 8 sachets in a measuring jug in the morning then would add the tiniest amounts from that jug to anything and everything throughout the day. As you say, adding liquid to yoghurt etc is quite noticeable but I found that if I added a very small amount I could get away with it. I added it to yoghurt, weetabix and ice cream this way.

Ice lollies made of orange juice worked really well. Again they only had tiny amounts of laxido in them but we just persevered throughout the day.

I had good success with a variety of funky cups. I bought a couple especially to help with this. Crazy curly colourful straws worked well.

On a couple of occasions I took some of the made up solution out with me in a water bottle and bought my daughter a slushie then secretly added as much as I could get away with!! I really recommend this! If your daughter would drink something like that or a fancy milkshake then you might be able to get a larger amount in her. The advice I got from our bowel nurse was just don't worry too much about sugar in drinks. It's only for a couple of days and the long term benefits are worth it.

You can mix it up and put it in the fridge, have you tried doing that with some squash added and just give ot as drinks during the day?

I still have flashbacks to the disimpaction we had to do with my DC. They also refused any of the usual methods suggested for disguising laxido.
In the end the only thing that worked was using a syringe. Started with a calpol one then bought a bigger version. They'd have one syringe then a crisp/ chocolate button. It was painstakingly slow but the only way I could get DC to take it

Just to add we also mixed it with squash then used the syringe

I mix it with about 40ml of water and add to chocolate milk. It works x

You can add it to custard! Either using instant custard or custard powder and milk, I'm not sure 8 servings of custard a day is a great idea but I'd allow a couple.

DD will down a glass of fruit juice with plain Laxido in it, says she can't taste it.

Admittedly her teeth might fall out if she drinks 8 glasses of juice! But maybe it will work for a couple of doses 😊

We use different drinks, so day 1 apple juice, then the day after chocolate milk etc. dd2 doesn't normally have juice etc so it's a treat. Also using a straw or a new bottle/cup, just make it something exciting. We've also opened up fruit shoot bottles poured it in and re sealed it to make it look like a fruit shoot. Just need to find something she's excited by, something she feels is a treat/new as yes your right giving them in a boring cup of water they just won't drink it. Good luck 😊

Fresh apple juice is supposed to be good at masking the taste.

Thank you so much everyone, there are definitely some suggestions in here we can try. She just isn't motivated by food or drink at all (any types), and refuses anything different to her very limited repertoire so the novelty factor fails too. But I think some of your ideas might be persuasive enough and are worth a go! Hugely appreciated.

@riddlerdiddler I think this is going to have to be part of what we do too. Tiny bits throughout the day in everything.

I felt like I was a bit mad doing the syringing this evening so it's very reassuring to hear others have resorted to this (of course sorry you've had to though)!

To add I am trying to address the diet aspect as well, I had a bit of success today putting ground chia seeds in the one pasta sauce she eats, which she didn't notice, and think I could get away with it in porridge too. Luckily she loves raspberries (most of the time) so we'll just remortgage the house to buy several punnets of those a day perhaps!

Not at all worried about sugar content for the sake of this week - means to an end and all that!

I second the above comment regarding the chocolate flavour Movicol. My daughter sounds similar to yours in terms of diet and we spent months battling Laxido into her, until we tried the chocolate movicol and she now happily drinks it straight from the bottle. Might be worth a try!

I had the same problem with my 3 Yr old son, he knew if I tried to hide it in any drink or yoghurt and refused to take it. Now I mix it into his porridge and add milk, his probiotic powder, chia seeds and some agave (similar to honey) and he eats it without a fuss. I also did the disimpaction and whilst it was stressful I didn't need to get up to the 8 sachets thankfully so that might also be the case for you hopefully. Now he's on one sachet a day in his porridge and that seems to be OK, still have some issues but definitely not as bad as things were! I also give him a spoonful of inulin powder which is a water soluble fibre in his porridge to try to help. It's so stressful and I hope once you've managed to get the disimpaction done managing the maintenance dose will be easier. Good luck!

I mixed it with mango lassie - so super sweet but also isn't actually a weird thing to have salty.

I found with squash / milk etc you don't want that to be salty but you can buy salt lassies + it was the sweetest thing they'd had at that point.

Hi OP, my son has ASD and very restricted eating. We did a disimpaction when he was 4 - we used these in milk:

Quick Milk Magic Sipper Straws Bundles (Assorted Pack of 4) https://amzn.eu/d/dOaKne8

I added a little bit of cream to the milk to make it less watery (as the laxido still has to be dissolved in water first). We did the sachets in pairs, so 2 per milk straw (4 straws a day at the peak of disimpaction).

We had to put it in fresh apple or orange juice it does change how juice is its a bit thicker so my daughter would tolerate it in that we had to mix it with a milk frother to get it super mixed and had to give her it when she was busy like watching her programmes. Her eating got so bad she was clinically diagnosed with arfid she's now tube fed so easier to get her meds in now

Thanks everyone. I managed to get two sachets in her this morning so only 2 more to go this evening. I really appreciate you all sharing, I felt so alone with it yesterday and the solidarity and suggestions have helped hugely. Much appreciated.

https://www.cherubbaby.com/en-gb/products/on-the-go-reusable-food-pouches-animal-set-150ml-5pk?variant=47122668355916&utmmedium=producttsync&utmsource=google&utmmcontent=sagorganic&utmmcampaign=sagorganic&gaddsource=1&gbraid=0AAAAAqk-dO7qB4yOtVEi1p1n0XBb4RDnn&gclid=CjwKCAjwl4yyBhAgEiwADSEjeDUJ8PKscTNcCkBdffGv3DD2MXRl1pNyddH-Jk9DNzaGEWlX4oz-0hoCo88QAvD_BwE

OP I had similar with my DD, it's soul destroying.

The above were a game changer. Reusable yogurt pouches, which are covered so you can't see the inside.

Make up a batch of laxido.

Separately, make up a batch of smoothie using frozen fruit (the colder the better!!)
Instead of adding the water into the smoothie, add the laxido into it.

Pop the smoothie mixture into the yogurt pouches. Keep them in the fridge.

You can use any smoothie / yogurt mix you like, I did mango and pineapple, strawberry and banana etc.

It's worth a try. It worked for us. Good luck!

Add the Laxido already mixed with water, not just the powder granules. Make sure it's all mixed well in a blender. I promise you, I couldn't taste it.

Thanks so much @DaisyMerollin that could be a goer. She's not a fan of pouches but I might be able to convince with a yoghurty one!

I have done all sorts. Added it in small amounts to my son's portions of curry, baked beans, even melted down chocolate and added some of the laxido water and then re-set it. My son is supposed to have up to 12 sachets a day and even then we can't get anywhere near it. I found the children's bladder and bowel charity ERIC very helpful - they have a helpline you can call and it's great, that's where I heard some of those tips above.

Nesquik?

No suggestions other than what others have put forward but I just wanted to send you my best wishes. I've been there & honestly felt like I was on the edge of a breakdown. I hope you managed better today & things improve soon.

I went through this with my DD a few years ago, after much experimentation she would take it if it was Movicol half lemon and lime flavour. I mixed it in a small amount of water (much less than the recommended amount) she it drank it through a straw and then immediately followed it with a big drink of water plus a sweet or piece of chocolate.

Movicol half is the least offensive tasting of these products - we tried them all! The straw means the drink goes down quicker and you can’t taste it as much. I bought all sorts of cute patterned paper straws.

I hope you find what works for your daughter.