Stool withholding/constipation - help

[Firsttimemummyworries]

Hi. I have a 3yo little girl. She had a bad bout of constipation when she was smaller and has got in to a habit of crossing her legs to hold her poo in now. This last week I have changed about 10 nappies a day, some times every 20 minutes - all with varying sized soft/mushy poo in. She has movicol every day (1 sachet) and this usually works well despite her crossing her legs every time she needs a poo. Spoke to the GP as I was worried she might have a hard bit of poo stuck. They said it’s unlikely that as she knows when she needs a poo as she is purposely holding it in, so it’s not as if it’s leaking out and she doesn’t know. She advised me to half the movicol dose as to take a gentler approach and not cause her to get to where she doesn’t know she needs to poo? I’m just a bit confused.. how do I know if this is overflow from impacting or just soft poo coming out and she’s still managing to hold the rest in..

Will she sit on the toilet/potty?

Hey thanks for replying. Yes she will. Until she needs to do something then gets a bit stressed but will sit. I just don’t know how to know the difference between withholding and overflow. GP wasn’t helpful. I’m pretty sure it’s behavioural though as she acknowledges the need to poo!

Is she at nursery? If so, what happens there and what do they say about her?

She goes in a pull up at their request as not 100% toilet trained. Sometimes she will do rabbit droppings they say and sometimes massive poos..

Each time she has her legs crossed regardless of amount/consistency