Any withholding success stories?

[Summ3ers]

My little boy is two and a half and has been suffering from constipation and now withholding since he turned one. He has been on Movicol for most of this time and although he is no longer constipated, he still withholds. We have tried everything from increasing fluids, prune and pear juice, adding more fruit and fibre to his diet, eliminating dairy, adding chia and flax seeds to his food etc.
I think it’s a sensory issue as unless he’s really loose, he clenches and stops himself from going. His Dr has just put him on Senna but he’s still withholding. I have looked at the ERIC website and googled so much but I’m out of ideas. Increasing his meds affects his behaviour and hasn’t really addressed the withholding.
Also, although he has finally started speech therapy, he has quite a severe speech delay and can’t tell us when he goes or if it is hurting etc?
Today has been particularly bad so I’m just wondering if anyone else has experienced this and if their child outgrew it at all?

Thank you xx

www.familyspeech.com/blog/whatisinteroception

My son used to do this, it has improved as he has got older and can recognise feelings/sensations better.

An OT might be able to help.

Our daughter did this. I think we had probably started potty training too soon (she went to nursery at 2.5 and they wanted them out of nappies but she really wasn't ready...) and it started a cycle of anxiety about going.

Anyway, we still have occasional problems at 4.5 but very rarely. It's been pretty good for the last year. She still has a tiny dose of Movicol in her breakfast drink each morning (less than a teaspoon) and occasionally still holds but I think mainly now just because she is distracted or busy doing something else rather than because she is anxious.

I think the main thing we changed was just really not talking about the toilet at all. The only thing we insisted on was going and sitting on the toilet before going out but we made no comment on whether she did a poo, tried to make no comment about poo in pants other than to encourage her to tell us as soon as it happened so she didn't get sore, but changed her with no fuss or stress. Basically just tried to make it all a non issue.

But I think in the end it was probably a mixture of interoception and anxiety and just took time to resolve.