my 19 month old stops himself pooing

[Remsie]

Hi
When my 19 month old was about 14 months old he suffered with constipation and when he finally went it really hurt him and made his bum bleed. After that he trys to stop himself pooing.
He clenchs, goes very red in the face and dances on the spot. When I check his nappy he's only done a skid mark.
I have been backwards and forwards to the doctor but nothing has helped.
Just wondered if anyone else had experienced this with any of their children.
thanks

yes. same reason - constipation. DD used to hold it in until desparate.

solution: more drinks, more fibre in diet and one cup of orange juice a day.

also, however smelly the results, be very pleased about it.

I had a long post typed out and the computer ate it...

You haven't said in your OP whether the doctor has given you any medications for your DS. Assuming not, please go back and try to get Lactulose on prescription. It's easy to add to drinks like juice.

Try deep warm baths when you suspect he's due to have a poo. It does mean poo in the bathwater but I have always found that preferable to the alternative (i.e. another day's worth of poo to add to the logjam)

By all means try to get more fibre and fluid into him, it can only help. The problem is not that his diet is deficient, but that he is holding back on poo until it has become bulkier, firmer, and a heck of a lot harder to pass. My DS has suffered with this since he was about 9 months - he is now 2.5 and still afraid to poo. If I had known that this issue would not resolve itself (as I had vaguely thought) I would have sought medical advice right away. I feel so guilty that my ignorance has caused my DS to suffer the discomfort and trauma for so long

My DD (now 4.5) was an absolute terror for this and she is perfectly ok now. It started at 2 and 2 months of age. After she held her poo in for 10 days straight, I took her to the docs who prescribed Lactulose. This is a drink that you can mix with juice. Doc also recommended sneaking flax seed and flax seed oil into her food. If I recall correctly, we kept this up for 10 weeks. After this, she became much better and lost her fear but she was still not wild about pooing. Then we used a bit of psychology on her and if we thought she needed to go, we'd say "I'm going to be first one to do a poo!" and we'd all race off to the loo and she'd tear off too and would be very triumphant at winning by getting to the loo first and pooing. We also gave her a choc button whenever she did a poo and again, would get her running to the loo by saying "I hope you're not after one of Mummy's chocolate buttons!". It was a gradual process but we got there in the end. Even now, we all put a positive spin on her poo and if she does a big one, we all gather round to admire her "Mega poo"!!! And she is proud too! I'd start with the Lactulose straight away, and take it from there. Cheers and good luck

My 2yo Ds does this too.
He has been prescribed Movicol which he takes 3 times a day now to try and keep him regular.
He held for so long that his bowel is now stretched, so if he holds for too long when he finally goes it can be like passing a tennis ball

We have to keep him so loose that he physically cannot hold it in, and hope that as he gets older he'll learn that it doesn't hurt to poo.

Everytime he goes I make a huge fuss of him and how clever he is!
We even show him his poo to see its ok, tell him to 'let that stinky poo poo out' etc!

We need to try and sort it out, theres no way he'll be potty trained anytime soon...

When he goes red faced could try sitting him on a potty, with lots of positive attention- read a story, or distraction- Cbeebies and see if he'll go. It's so much easier to poo in a sitting/squatting position. I do this with my DD, she hates to poo even though not constipated. I think she must have had a painful one once, like your DS. Once the poo is on the way it's irresistable not to go when sat on the potty ! HTH

Izzybiz, my DS has been prescribed Movicol too but it isn't fully soluble in liquids and he's reluctant to drink anything with visible bits floating around in it. How do you get your DS to drink his - is he OK with it or have you found a way of making it more palatable? Sorry for hijack OP...

thenoodlesincident I used to put my dd's Movicol in her warm milk - it always dissolved in that.

remsie Go to your GP - tell him you want Movicol - nothing else!! My dd used to do this too - we tried all the laxatives, all the fibre (although her diet was excellent) nothing worked - she just held it in more than ever poor little mite! Movicol sorted her out now she is regular as clockwork.

I just hide it in his juice the noodlesincedent he hasn't noticed the floaty bits as yet!
He actually asks me to put it in his drinks now, calls it his 'milkshake'!

He hasn't noticed? Bless him... I shall have to keep trying with the Movicol, but it isn't as easy to blend in as the lactulose, and some days my DS doesn't drink very much at all. As a guide, his nappy gets changed three times or sometimes twice a day (24 hr cycle). He just doesn't seem to get thirsty much. He has drinks available to him all the time but I can't force him to drink if he doesn't want to. I'm well aware that this will have an impact on his bowel too, which is depressing.

Thanks for your reply, it's always a relief to find others sharing the same difficulties.

I have read on some threads on here of some people making like a really concentrated 'shot' of movicol.
If you search the old threads I'm sure you'll find some more ideas.