5 year old daughter : Hi everyone My daughter is 5 and... - ERIC

ERIC

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5 year old daughter

JoPit profile image
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Hi everyone

My daughter is 5 and has suffered chronic constipation for as long as I can remember, she has been on movicol for a few weeks now which seems to help. However she still spoils herself. I’m sure she realises when she needs to go as becomes very quiet and draws her legs in but won’t use the toilet unless she’s told. I just wondered if anyone was experiencing this and what they did that helped overcome this. I’m desperate to help her and hate feeling like I’m failing her ☹️

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JoPit
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Nanoiu profile image
Nanoiu

I have a 5 and a half year old boy who withholds. He will either lay on the floor or stand crossing his legs and stiffen his body. We are dealing with soiling (encopresis) since he turned 4. We have him sit on the potty after his morning meal and dinner and always stay with him in the bathroom, talking or usually playing cards, reading to him. If we just tell him to go to the toilet, he most likely will ignore. I have just started reading the book The Ins and Outs of Poop. I recommend it. The withholding becomes involuntary. Don't expect your little girl to go to the toilet on her own. It's a phobia.

Nanoiu profile image
Nanoiu

Paraphrasing - The phobia in this case is the fear that passing poop will hurt. You treat it by repeated exposure to the situation that evokes the fear. The constipated child's fear of pain decreases little by little each time he passes stool and does not experience pain.

The author believes that education is the first critical step to successful treatment. One needs to understand constipation to treat it.

Quoting from the book: 'For a child to be able to stop withholding, he or she must be able to pass large quantities of stool every day without pain or discomfort. For this to happen the stool must be very soft. Laxatives are almost always necessary.'

In our case, we haven't found the right laxative maintenance dose and so we are still struggling to achieve a soft, large poo, every day.

JoPit profile image
JoPit in reply to Nanoiu

Hi

Thank you so much for finding the time to reply x it’s so appreciated. We figured our little girl was afraid to use the toilet to poo because it hurt so much when she did and it took so long to get anything out, she’s been on movicol for a couple of weeks now and it seems to have made a huge difference. We’re still trying to manage the dose but she’s now passing quite easily and doesn’t seem in much discomfort. Struggling to use the toilet at School, although does do wees, she’s now using the nursery toilets and seems much happier. Thank you for the book suggestion, I’ll definitely check it out x I hope your little one finds the right balance of medication, it’s so difficult to watch them suffering and feeling so helpless ☹️

We recently purchased the family toilet see which has the child seat incorporated in it and it’s been a big success, she feels safer and grown up using a regular seat 👍

Nanoiu profile image
Nanoiu

We have the family seat too but our little one quite often uses a potty because then I can inspect the poo - if it goes in the toilet bowl I often can't tell if it was big or small, how soft etc. (I keep a diary and record relevant info about his bowel movements, sitting after meals, if there was no soiling on a given day. ) We can't play card games if he's on the toilet seat, we'd have to bring a table in or something. He can sit up to half an hour on a potty but only about 10 minutes on the toilet seat.

We have used Movicol (under a different name here in NZ) for over a year now. I didn't know how it works and always was reluctant to administer it and quick to reduce the amount. That's until I watched the Poo Nurses video. Please google it.

So if you are getting results, keep your daughter on Movicol. The video will explain why.

We are also using Senokot tablets, and that's a medication I also worried about and still do! Because I don't understand what it does and how it can affect the body long term. That's another story.

In regards to wees, I was told by a nurse and a paediatrician that constipation can cause the wee accidents, since a distended rectum presses on the bladder.

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