Help, my toddler is now afraid to poo!!

[Cailin73]

Our 2 and three quarter year old little boy was doing fine, pooing and weeing on the potty and we were feeling really proud of ourselves.

But then he got constipated. He became afraid of pooing because it hurt, which obviously made it worse. So we gave up potty training and put him back in nappies about two weeks ago.

He's no longer constipated but is still afraid of pooing and is holding them in with all his might...stands in the corner, knees crossed and eyes squinting! Little bits do come out quite regularly, so he's now v sore and get hysterical when we try to clean him up. But obviously if we don't clean him properly, it makes it more sore and it just gets worse.

Seems we have a complete mental block on pooing. Anyone else had this problem and got any tips? We've tried not making a big thing of it, encouraging him to poo, pretending to poo with him, giving him treats when he does, taking his nappy off and letting him run around with nothing on but nothing seems to work...

he might well stil be constipated - have you been to the doctor?

you need to keep his motions soft and easy to pass - the Dr may prescribe lactulose for a short term remedy

Meanwhile increase fluid intake, water preferably (not milk, that can be constipating) increase fruit and veg, avoid banana and weetabix as they can be a bit erm binding

When you say little bits come out and make him sore, do you mean skids (sorry !!)

We had excatly this with DS2.

By witholding his poo after painful costipation he made himeslf very constipated which made it into a vicious cylcle.

you need to break the cycle by making it really easy, in fact impossible not to, poo.

Go to the Docs, get lactulose, keep increasing the does until he finally goes. keep him on the lactulose for a few months so he gets used to pooing nice and easily.

Obviously gradually you will want to stop the lactulose and just rely on natural fibre in food.

It was quite a distressing time, but staying with this regime eventually cracked it for us.

Lactulose or Movicol is what you need - ask if there is a children's constipation clinic iun your area (some have them and some don't).

Unfortunately your DS has got into the vicious cycle of constipation, knowing it will hurt to poo, withholding so it gets worse and hurts to poo and so on. You need to break that cycle - Lactulose is okay but you need to look at a longish term un til he has lost the association of opening his bowels with pooing. Movicol is best for that as it basically stays with the liquid it goes down with, keeps everything soft and so it doesn't hurt to poo. Initially it will be quite loose but that's the idea - to clear out impacted poo and prevent the withholding which causes the soreness.

Little bits coming out sound as though he is very very bunged uo and overflowing around an impacted stool so is getting sore.

See the GP or ask your HV if you can have a referral to the paediatric continence nurse.

I meant - Movicol is good because it will help him lose the association of opening his bowels with experiencing pain. Poor little boy.

Thanks everyone that's really helpful. We have tried small amounts of lactalose but hadn't given him very much so perhaps we need to persevere with that.

Boys are like dogs - yeah its sort of like skid mark, but there's also often a little bit of soft poo in it too, soft so I had assumed he wasn't constipated anymore, but perhaps he is still bunged up.

I think we might try this Movicol and see how we go...make it impossible for him not to.

Cheers everyone!