Enema?

[Angel_adel]

After a week on 8 sachets a day of movicol followed by a week of picosulfate the hospital have felt my daughter tummy and say she is still impacted. They want us to try 4/6 sachets a day of movicol over the weekend then may do an enema on monday. Thing is my daughter is refusing to drink that level of movicol (hence why they gave us the picosulfate) and I thought it took a few days to take effect anyway so surely it wont have had a chance to work by monday anyway?

Also does anyone have any experience with enemas I have no idea what to expect - they said they would sedate her.

I feel this whole experience has made the witholding problem much worse - before she would poo and now she tries to hold even gas and urine and says she cant remember how to poo and wont. They said we need to start getting her into a routine but with that level of movicol there is so much overflow that she needs nappies and last time it made her skin really sore and broken which also made the problem worse.

I feel like i am constantly trying to get her to do something she doesnt want (in general) & i am worn out.

It looks like the continual pain she was experiencing was due to a uti and not the constipation anyway!

[Luella19]

Really sympathise, what a situation to be in, it’s tough on you both. It is hard to get children to drink that volume of movicol as it tastes quite horrible. A way I used to get it into my daughter was in jelly. I replaced some of the quantity of water needed with the movicol mix. My daughter would happily eat this.

Also I used to mix the made up movicol mix into milkshake. That seemed to mask the taste better.

Once the impaction is cleared it’s a case of keeping things moving (easier said than done I know) as it involves a certain amount of cooperation which certainly from my experience was hard to get.

All the best for Monday...

[Luella19]

I meant also to say I have no experience of enemas but my daughter didn’t mind at all having a rectal examination which I was most surprised at! The doctor was so kind and gentle with her. She was 5 at the time. Hopefully your medical team will also be very gentle and sweet too.

[Angel_adel]

The trouble is, having been so unwell with the uti she is still not eating much and she got to a point where she was so fed up being made to drink things take different medicines she started to refuse anything in case it has the movicol in it - she says it makes her tummy hurt.

I am finding it hard to keep fighting her all the time - i have been unwell myself for a few months now, its just me and her and she (like most my family) is incredibly stubborn & tbh just stronger than me!

[Angel_adel]

Like the jelly idea tho!

[Lmd12]

My consultant told me you should not really have a stimulant like pico without a softener have you tried lactulose?my son refused movicol to he was hiding it and pretending to take it.i had to wait for our next appt so the consultant was able to manage to persuade him to take lactulose along with pico as well

[Luella19]

I agree lactulose is another option and very sweet and more palatable than movicol which is not nice. I find lactulose causes bloating and wind but obviously will have different effects for everyone. It’s cheap from chemist too and safe. Also stewed fruit with brown sugar is good softener and tasty. Hope you feel better soon. Dealing with this is quite exhausting, I really empathise and send virtual support x