3yo witholder, toilet training

[Firsttimemummyworries]

Hi everyone! Just after some advice and GP didn’t give me an answer..
Little girl (3) is on maintenance movicol following disimpaction due to withholding. Recently started potty training and withholding again which I know is common in initial potty training. She will open her bowels but it’s like it’s never a full bowel movement and she’s still managing to hold on to some. It is probably a type 5/6. Small to medium amounts quite frequently. I have upped her to 4 sachets as I don’t want it getting hard and fear of the toilet. She knows when she needs to go and can hold it until on the toilet. GP today prescribed docusate. Do I give this once a day and build up? Do I give it with or instead of movicol? Thanks!!

Nothing useful but how does she do it? If I need to go I can't hold in it at all...I've got to go!!!

Bum cheeks of steel this girl has, honestly I don’t know!!

It's because over many months / years the bowel stretches and even after disimpaction it never fully goes back to normal.

OP from what I remember you continue the matainance dose of movicol (what she was on before you upped it) and also add the docusate, as one is for stimulation of the intestine the other is a stool softener (so makes it poo soft).

You can expect a few messy pull-up until you get the balance right.

Thanks for your advice x

No problem, good luck.

Just wanted to see how you were getting on. A year and a half on from potty training, my 3 year old is still having daily accidents but always small amounts. Feel like I’ve been to anyone who will listen (turns out that is no one 🙈) and we’re not yet any further forward. I finally found ERIC this week and phoned them and got the best help I’ve had from anyone. She was the first person who’s not been in a rush to just move on to the next person! The doctor has prescribed laxatives before but given absolutely no info alongside them so I had no idea what I was doing, why I was doing it or when to stop. So the minute he had an upset stomach I didn’t know whether to stop or not!

Really hoping on the other side of this we’re able to start from scratch but by the sounds of it the stretched bowel situation takes a while to recover from 😩 Just wishing this was over!!

Hi! So things are a long way from perfect but are a million times better (for now - ha!) we were referred to the local continence service & they were extremely helpful. We used senna as a stimulant short term, managed to wean this down & are now on 1 maintenance of movicol daily. Lots of encouragement/toilet sits after every meal & most days we get a type 4 poo. She will sometimes have small accidents at nursery as she says she doesn’t want to poo there😂 but overall things are better. I think it’s a slow and steady approach but hopefully we’re heading in the right direction. ERIC are great aren’t they? I really found them helpful. Good luck xxx

Can I ask how long you had to wait after being referred to continence service? We've just been referred by gp

She had an appt within a few weeks x