DS won’t drink

[InsolentAnnie]

DS(6) is driving me to my wit’s end. He’s under the care of the paediatric continence team for constipation; he had Movicol for a year and then started to refuse it. We have tried EVERYTHING to get it in him: mixing it with juice or his favourite squash, making jelly with it, making it into ice lollies, mixing it with yoghurt, bribery, you name it, we’ve tried it. Some of them worked for a time but as soon as he realised there was Movicol in them he refused them.

It wouldn’t be so bad but he won’t drink either! He says he forgets at school, and he seems opposed to drinking more than a few sips at home. Again, we’ve tried everything. The school are supportive but they do have 29 other kids to consider as well. We’ve tried games (‘bet you can’t drink all that in ten gulps’ etc), rewards, every type of drink under the sun (except too much fizzy stuff - we don’t tend to have it at home anyway but we have a sodastream so I make him eg fizzy water mixed with orange juice for ‘Fanta’), told him we’re worried he’ll be ill... He just will not drink. He’s on the list to be assessed for ADHD and his behaviour is challenging at home anyway, which doesn’t help. He likes fruit and eats a decent amount of that but it’s still not enough. We got told off by the nurse at our last appointment and I’d really rather than didn’t happen again either!

Has the doctor tried changing the laxative?
I have a 3 year old who refused the movicol, doctor prescribed lactulose instead (it’s a syrup given on a spoon like cough mixture) and we had success with that.

What is he like with food? Will he eat what is put in front of him? There are lots of foods that are high in water content to try get fluids into him that way. Cucumbers, celery, melon, broccoli, theres a long list if you google "hydrating foods" x.

This sounds horrible for you - it's awful when your child won't let you help them.

I know it's incredibly easy to say from the outside, but I've never known a food/drink/toilet situation where extreme parental stress/anxiety has helped. If what you're doing isn't working anyway, then is there any harm in having a break from all the pressure for a couple of weeks? I imagine he's reluctant to drink because he's wary that everything has movicol hidden in it

With a neurotypical child I wouldn’t give them a choice. I have a 2 and 5 year old and would approach it like this with them and have done this about water before if they’ve hardly drank anything:

‘You need to drink this to help your body be able to poo, we aren’t doing anything else/the next thing until this is drunk’ and follow through.

Same for just water. ‘You need to drink half of this glass before we can do xyz’

But I have no idea how differently you’d need to approach this with a ND child.

Ps the nurse shouldn't be telling you off. If what they've suggested isn't helping, they need to be working with you to find something that does help.

Would Ice Lollies work?

This might not be helpful but you can buy hydrating jelly sweets that are for dementia patient. Just in case he takes those instead

https://www.jellydrops.com/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=23703525784&utm_content=&utm_term=&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=23698838846&gbraid=0AAAAACM9CXkO86MPxPyCByEqeusNy5Oac&gclid=Cj0KCQjwzY7VBhDwARIsAFtPvBQP48TJhgLYwR03YtvjBWEO67skJ8IqfvFcwrnfZWXfdOBsKeOWsDMaAkDSEALw_wcB

Have you tried taking him out to choose a new water bottle and then just not making a fuss about it?

Drop the attempts to administer movicol and focus on fluid intake.

Its likely hes picking up on your anxiety about it.

Also food with water that he will eat

Salad
Cucumber
Yoghurt
Milk
Watermelon
Oranges
Raw Pepper
Tomatoes
Grapes

Avoid high fiber foods which can make the constipation worse.

I also think he maybe refusing to drink or take any icelolly treats for fear of having the medicine in them
Possibly try offering him a 'safe' lolly option to start where he will be confident nothing has been added to it for a while maybe stick to his favorite colour lolly or juice? Just to focus on hydration, then offering other things with the movicol otherwise he will associate all things with the medicine x

This doesn't work if the child refuses.

I haven’t had this exact issue but my eldest does has had various food issues. At this point I would give him whatever he will drink, so shop bought ice lollies, Capri suns, little fruit juice cartons, flavoured water or fruit shoots, I would even give him fizz to get the fluid intake back up. Just wean him off it later, which shouldn’t be too difficult. I’ve done it with food stuffs

Oooh OP, this must be incredibly stressful for you. As a mum who has also been in your position when my son was a similar age.. I honestly empathise.

What worked for me, and my son.. was taking the stress out of it.. “ok, no more medicine hiding in food/drink/jelly” because when you’re putting it in things they enjoy, you’re taking the joy out of it.. and don’t worry I say this as someone who’s been there and understands - not from a judgemental place at all.

We then relaxed completely and let him re-enjoy his usual foods, whilst introducing more hydrating foods too, like watermelon, cucumber, grapes etc and limited high fibre foods too, once he was back comfortably enjoying a balanced diet, we reintroduced the medicine in one thing, not everything. He knew what we were putting it in, and when, and had complete control over it.

it’s a few years later now, and although he still struggles sometimes, he doesn’t need medication, his diet is much much more hydrating - which I totally understand can be difficult with ND children as their diets can be very beige.

i hope something helps, and maybe say to your nurse, respectfully - that applying pressure isn’t helpful.

This
Movicol is disgusting
They need to prescribe a better alternative

@Glasgirl92thanks, I hadn’t heard of them - will give it a go!

@MissCooCooMcgooLuckily he likes all of those things. I’ll increase his intake of them, thanks.

It’s so draining. I’m going to contact the paeds because they never rearranged his last appointment when I told them (as soon as they sent it) that we were on holiday for it. He hasn’t been to the loo properly for days and I fear we’re right back at the beginning with decompaction (or whatever the term is!) again. He’s exhausting to parent anyway and this just compounds everything.