dd due to start reception september but will they help with health problem!

[miarosemum]

really worried about 4 year old dd starting school next month as she is suffering from chronic constipation with an impacted bowel and somedays has to have many changes of pants due to soiling, in every other way she is happy and healthy. somedays she is fine and no soiling occurs,then she can have bad days, we are waiting to see a specialist at hospital but my main concern at moment is what help and support will she receive at school?

First of all don't panic - as a reception teacher we are used to dealing with these kinds of medical problems. Any half decent school will want to support and help your daughter, however you do need to talk to them! Do they know that she has chronic constipation? If they do then you should have a health care plan which will state who is going to do what and what support she will have. If they don't know please tell them asap, I'm sure there will be someone in the office over the holidays picking up messages etc. This will just allow them to begin to put those plans together for your daughter.

Hope that helps a bit.

Make sure they know there is a problem before it happens that way they know how to deal with it. Discuss the situation with the class teacher your daughter won't be the first child they have had in class. Sometimes schools don't have the facilities if there is a "big accident" that requires more than baby wipes and a change of clothes work out what to do if this should happen.

She will be fine don't worry.

This was my DD 5 years ago.

Whilst in Reception the hospital started her on Movicol. This led to quite a lot of evacuation of impacted poos for several days/weeks. I must say the school did a marvellous job of cleaning her up and being discrete.

With negotiation I started sending her into school in a pair of pull ups which then caught the worst of it (first poo fo day) then they changed her into clean clothes for rest of day as required. I used to send in a bag with change of whole clothes as often it went everywhere.

I have to say she is 10 now and been off the Movicol for about 18 months now. With the occasional lapse her constipation is so much better.

Do make sure that they are aware of the problem and suggest the best way to deal with it. Make sure she has plenty of changes of clothes and wipes if she prefers to clean herself up.

My DD is also starting reception next month and has a few health issues including problems with toilet behaviour. I met with her teacher and school senco before the end of last term and they were able to reassure me that they could help DD in a sensitive way without any problems.

As others have said your school will no doubt be able to help out but you must help them too by letting them know the problem. I am beyond caring what other parents think about my DDs toilet habits and how it may or may not reflect on me and so thought it best to be honest with school from the outset.

Good luck with the school and getting things sorted out. I know from bitter experience that constipation and overflow is no fun

my ds is starting in sept. He has been on movicol since july last year. He goes through phases and at the moment is trying to withhold wee with inevitable consequences. When I mentioned it to the teacher last term at the drop in day she said we'd be called in to clean him up if he soiled at school. Obviously this won't work for us as we both work. I'm just hoping he's not going to soil at school. The movicol usually works very well but he has his ups and downs with it.

know that you won't be alone, though :)

thank you so much for your replies..made me feel much more positive and assured about dd starting reception. sorry for late reply but dd actually been in hospital all weekend as so impacted she has needed an enema and massive doses of movicol to try and get rid of some of this backlog! going to try and speak to her school if they are there, hopefully with all this treatment she has just had, she should be on the road to recovery anyway fingers crossed