Need urgent help please

[Gcas]

Hi

I need some advice help.. my son will be 4 in August . He has problems with pooing. He has probably sat on the toilet around 10/15 times to do a poo. He demands a nappy and screams and cries so I end up giving him one after attempts of getting him to sit on the toilet and go. I’ve tried reading books on the toilet iPad verything . He just does not like sitting on the toilet . Just to get him in there he will scream but then eventually stop and will pretend his trying to push his poo out . I feel so frustrated has I know he can poo on the toilet has he has done before . If I do not give him a nappy he has in the past become constipated with hours on hours of screaming and running around on his top toes . I forgot to say that when he has a nappy on he has to find somewhere to hide . Any advice ? Thanks

[Mumofellis]

Hi, I am so sorry that you and your little one are going through this, you have my complete sympathy.

My son is 4 1/2 and has never done a poo on the toilet or potty even. He suffers with stool withholding. This sounds like what you are dealing with too. If your son has pooed on the toilet in the past then it sounds like this may have been triggered by painful constipation. My advice would be to give him a nappy/pull-up without any hesitation as creating anxiety will only make things worse for both of you. It seems crazy to us grown ups that something so simple is so complicated but in the mind of a child it is very different. I would also suggest that you call your doctor and ask for some paediatric movicol. My son has one sachet a day disguised in orange squash (he doesn't know that he is taking medicine). We have been dealing with this for what feels like forever and I have been through the shouting and begging and crying stages. It will get better but may take a while. I am happy for you to message me and I will do my best to help, even if you just want someone to listen. Take care. Julie xxxxc

[Evala]

Hi, sorry to hear this, so familiar but we are a year or two on (son six in June). My advice is he is still very young so try not to feel the pressure of his age/other people/starting school. Let him have pullup and relax for a good while. You can think about gentle reward/incentives when some time has passed as he is less stressed, and if he starts school needing pullups that is fine. Speak to the school early, if good they will not be worried and will hopefully have seen before. It has been a long stressful few years for us and if I could change anything it would be to have been less stressed about it. My son now uses the toilet really well, we still have some soiling issues but progress good so please keep positive and patient (very hard!) If you think his pullup poo is hard, or soft but not all coming out or frequent soiling, definitely speak to gp about movicol, but if he goes properly and regularly in a pullup just be patient and he will surprise you one day,

[Ste6106]

Hello,

Quick background, we’ve had a rough two years with our 5 year old with holding and soiling a lot due to chronic constipation and encropresis and he started school with it and we were beside ourselves we didn’t know what to do, we tried reward charts, bribes, iPads,blowing balloons on the toilet bubble blowing everything g we could, bought books then we contacted ERIC and watched a video about the movicol. Which changed everything.

Also

The hardest thing for us to understand was that our little one DID NOT know he was doing it, because he lost all sensation, once we got that it helped understand the condition

We found that we needed to up the dose to like around 8/9/10 sachets a day to get the backup cleared to get the consistency of the poo to like a gravy, for 48 hours then reduced the dose until the stools were loose, it’s a messy process. Then it was a case of reducing dose of movicol to find a dose suitable, we have also been prescribed sodium picosulphate which has helped, to find a suitable dose takes some finding a lot of trial and error. Also may I say how you make the movicol is important, after watching the video from ERIC we discovered the advice given to us about movico is rage was wrong from the local nurses, dissolve a sachet in at least 65 millilitres of water, double it for two sachets, we were told put it on yoghurt end in milk etc but it never helped, until we dissolved it in water then added that to whatever we wanted.

So we had our little one in pull ups to start school and a few accidents and trips into school to change him we were at our wits end, and thenhe slowly started to get things we had him on one sachet and he started to get into a regular time going, So we got pads for his undies which are brilliant by the way! Then he started going on his own, then Xmas came and had a massive relapse and with held, so over Xmas we had to up his dose again to get the gravy again! We did and only in the past month have we got a find the perfect dose again which is two sachets in a morning and 5ml of picosodiim sulphate, we saw a specialist who said it could take years for him to get there without movicol and the sensations fully returned, so play around with the dose between 1- 4 sachets a day it is trial and error, you will get to know when is too much and too little and it’s recgonising when they are with holding and upping the dose, for example we knew he was with holding cos the poo was like toothpaste is the best way I can describe so we knew he was withholding and that this was seepage rather than an actual poo, he didn’t know or feel he was doing this but because we knew we upped him and now after a couple of months at two sachets in a drink in a morning and his picasdium before bed, he’s now finally taking himself to the toilet, we monitor him and get a bit on edge if he doesn’t go every day we are waiting with extra mov but he’s gone a couple of days without going then has gone for a massive poo on his own, but this has been two years of stress, crying, questioning, and you do get angry before we got to this point,

I know so much how you feel and anyone else who reads this, I stress to you all And this forum shows this is a common thing and it does get better

[Wagamama]

Been here exactly the same. My first step was to get my daughter to at least poo in the pull up but sitting on the loo. It’s a compromise... then try and focus on losing the pull up..... good luck