Movicol and "explosions"-anyone else have this?

[jenk1]

dd has been taking movicol for over a year now.
she was on 2 a day but her paed told us to cut it to one a day and use 2 when she got constipated.

she has left sided hemi and her bladder/bowels are affected, she "goes" maybe 2/3 times a week but when she does-my word its explosive to say the least.
is this normal/usual with movicol, paed said as long as she,s going 2,3 times a week not to worry but he doesnt have to deal with it does he?

Hmmm.

No, we don't get this (also mild left sided hemi though I don't know if that's relevant) but we are on waaaay lower doses. She's on 1/4 of a sachet a day atm and we don't get bombs. Unfortunately, we do get those tar-like poos that stick to everything (and everyone ) instead.

We've only been on it a few weeks though. We do get explosions, but of the spit-it-across-the-kitchen variety - any tips on how to get it in them? DD1 is brill with drugs generally, but not this.

i put it in her milk with her cereal or failing that in a yoghurt, i put the lid back on so she doesnt know, we couldnt get her to drink it, the nurses at the hosp told me to put it in her food and that seems to work.

Ah, so maybe the question should have been... how do you get her to eat her food, lol.

Are you diluting it as per the packet first? No, you can't be, that would be an extra 60ml of water to fit in a yoghurt, and I think you might struggle with that!

Did you try anything else before movicol? Eg Lactulose? I think you would probably have to stick with non-irritating ones or it will get worse not better.

tried lactulose and senna and she had to go to A&E and have enemas so they put her on the movicol.
no i havent diluted it as the nurses just told me to put it in her food and even with one sachet a day she still only goes max 3 times a week.

jenk - as a veteran of constipation problems (both myself and dd) I think 3 times a week is OK TBH. I would say it's within the realms of 'normal'. The explosions may be because the movicol is not being dissolved properly but I agree it can be difficult. dd takes hers (the plain one) in as little water as possible just to get it down quickly but then will drink a huge glass of water afterwards.

Try splitting the sachet and giving it more spread over the day - say half in the morning and half later on. So her bowel doesn't get a big 'hit' so to speak. dd is much improved and doesn't take it so much now but at one time her maintenance regime was alternate days - 1 sachet then two sachets - always as split doses.

Hi Jenk - dd (right hemi) has movicol - we had explosions on 1 sachet a day and now at half a sachet we have up to 5 poos a day! but they are all that thick sticky clay stuff. Maybe she is naturally 'meant' to go a couple of times a week but the explosions must be awful for you and her. We also found that lactulose and senna did bugger all apart from giving her tummy pain. The one thing the doctor did say is that you can adjust the dose quite safely and experiment till you find something that suits. We also dissolve the powder in a about a teaspoon of apple juice which she readily drinks - I'm not sure it makes any difference how it is taken tbh.