Withholding / disimpaction / chronic constipation

[Mercier1]

I really hope someone can help us.

My son is 3 since feb. Over the winter we have moved house had a new baby and had a lot of stress at home. During this period my son woke up one day and said I want to wear pants so we followed his lead. He did really great with wee’s. He did one monster poo (like a tennis ball) that I can recall around this time and since the last four months I don’t recall a normal poo.

He is chronically constipated. 4 x GP visits. I’ve been trying a lot of things. 4 x Movicol, adding lactuose/senna and now something else as and when.

He does overflow liquid poos in his pants or nappy. (We’ve been going back and forth and following his lead on him wanting pants but he’s back in nappies this week) in the last ten days things have escalated and now he only poos in his sleep which I feel is the most depressing thing ever. The only time my child is relaxed enough to poo is asleep :-(

We have tried the apps, reward chart etc. Etc. We are now following the advise of Eric and disempacting him with 8 x doses a day. Except he’s still not going. I’ve done this for 2 days and tonight I have 10ML senna and nothing.

Does anyone have any experience like this. Is there light at the end of the tunnel? I feel this is having a huge impact on every family member now. Any advise or experience is great. Thanks

[roundligament]

I have to take 8 sachets of laxido (movicol) at the moment for my constipation as I have basically got stone sized poo stuck in my lower bit. I can feel it through my vagina.
Codeine did it.
I did 2 days of 3 sachets no action
2 days of 4 sachets small poo hard and some goop
1 day of 8 sachets lots of poo but not water
Finally went properly today which I would say was the poo but no water

The suppository just made me fart at that point

I am pregnant and weigh 52 kg at the moment
So if you think of it like that to see how your son might be

Baring in mind I had to go sit on the toilet and make an effort to go this morning this wasn't poo falling out of me

Before I had to have 3 days of 8 sachets and then still an enema in a&e when I was impacted
It was fucking awful

[starbrightnight]

Glad things are improving, OP. Don't forget that pre and probiotics added to his diet might ease things over the long term.

[AlphaMama]

Hi, my daughter is five and we've been dealing with chronic constipation for three years now (she's an extreme case, please don't panic).

I recently discovered a book - It's No Accident by Steve J Hodges. I cannot recommend it enough. Reading the book not only helped me (and those around us - grandparents, teachers, etc) understand what's going on so much more but also made me breathe a sigh of relief that we're not alone. I photocopied sections for the school and they were so grateful as well.

The other thing I'd say is the GPs are hopeless. They don't understand chronic constipation and the long term issues it can cause for a human in enough detail. Get yourself a referral to your local hospital to see a gastroenterologist. I had to really push and push to get this referral - my GP even called me a pushy parent to my face and said I was doing DD no favours, that "she'd get it in her own time". But when we finally started seeing the gastroenterologist last summer everything started to change.

Gastro. put her on x8 sachet of Movilcol a day and another type of medication that is a bowel stimulant (obviously this is what was right for my child - every case is unique so please don't suddenly up your son's dose on my advice!). It took four months of that medication for her to finally pass the impacted stool (as I said, we're an extreme case, please don't panic) and we're finally now into the maintenance stage as of just last week. So we're now slowly week by week reducing the Movicol and it'll be another six months before she's down to maybe one or two sachets a day.

Chronic constipation is a marathon, not a sprint. You won't see results (in our experience) over night and you have to be patient. If there's holding behaviour as a part of it, that also takes a long time for children to unlearn and relearn good habits.

Stay strong. You're far form alone. Reports are now suggesting that this affects up to 30% of children, but most of those are undiagnosed because it's not widely talked about.

Just get yourself a referral and stop relying on the GP :(

Good luck!