Our DS suffered with something similar. He had been taking movicol on and off from 6 months old due to withholding. At 2.5yrs old we potty trained, but he would only poo in his nappy at night. At 3.5yrs old the situation hadn’t improved and he was only going once every 5-10 days. After speaking with a supportive health visitor, we came up with the following plan :
- Continue with Movicol
- Ditch the nappies (as dry at night)
- Read books about pooing, including ‘poo goes to poo land’ which must have stuck in everyone’s head as you can still hear my now 6yr old son saying ‘bye poo have fun with your friends and family’
- Keep track of his bowel motions - frequency, size, appearance etc.,
It was horrible watching him physically suffer (from the withholding) and crying with the emotional distress. He would beg for a nappy.
But after 10 days he finally went on a toilet, this became more frequent until within about 6 weeks he was going every few days.
We stopped the Movicol and there was very little change.
Now at 6yrs old he eats well and poos when he needs.
For DS it was very much his mental issues keeping him from going and not primarily a physical one.
I can understand how you must be feeling. I hope you can find a way forward, perhaps try your health visitors? I believe they cover children up until five years old. Or you could approach your GP and ask if they have direct links to a health visitor who specialises in withholding.
In DS situation, if I could go back in time, I would tell myself to get rid of the nappy crutch earlier. To force the situation would have resolved it earlier.
I hope you resolve things quickly.