Constipation and potty training

[Yippieyay81]

Hi all! My 3.5 year old daughter had never been constipated prior to starting potty training a few months ago. She immediately had an anxiety with pooing in potty/toilet. Initially she would wait until her bedtime nappy went on to poo but then started withholding & became very constipated. We have finished a disimpaction regime and she is now on 1-2 sachets of Movicol a day and pooing normally. During disimpaction she became very distressed by the mess so we put her back in nappies. Does anyone have any advice on where to go from here regarding potty training? Not sure whether to leave it a few months to let the anxiety fade or is that just delaying dealing with the issue? Should we ask to be referred to paediatrician? We have tried all the tricks - reward chart, stickers, treats, trying to get her to poo with nappy on whilst sitting on potty etc but she is afraid to go so I feel we need a new approach when we try to potty train again. Any tips welcome!

[Nanakadvit]

Hey Yippieyay.. I have the same issue with my son. He is 2.7 yrs old currently. Please let me know if there is any way .. He used to get scared of doing poo and will hold even after being on 3 movicols for several (3-4) days I had to take off from my office to support him n encourage him to go for poo at least when he has urge.. anywhere he wants .. so as he gets better off from piles he got because of constipation..now after 2 months he is relieved from piles and pain.. but still on movicols.

Please suggest.. now that he is on 2 movicols per days .. please let me know what and how can we help little ones ..

[Yippieyay81 in reply to Nanakadvit]

Hi there In terms of potty training we were advised to keep my lg in nappies for a time for all the stress of disimpaction to pass. We waited until she showed interest in being back in pants and then took it from there. All was fine until she had a stomach bug in December and couldn’t keep her Movicol...so we had to do another disimpaction. But 9 months on from first starting on Movicol and we are in a much better place. Let me know if you need anymore details.

[Nanakadvit in reply to Yippieyay81]

Ok dear that gives good hope.

But in my lo case he holds the poo even he is in nappies .. he still gets urge 2 or 3 times or more a day but goes once in morning.. n resists in doing rest of times... Even morning also he tries to hide ...

And one more thing he shows interest sometimes like pulling down his pants..

From long ago 2 months .. he don't want to wet pants...

He also first time did wee on his own in toilet...

But potty resistance makes me confuse.. he doesn't want to wear anything when he gets urge but out of 6-7 urges he passes once or rarely twice..

May be it answers me whilst I was writing all above ...

Try giving one more sachet n keep back in nappies.. ( I used to use pull ups.. )

And morning evening let him poo the way he wants, without anything... at least he feel confident..

Not sure if this will work. Will keep posted..

Welcome suggestions..

[Green86]

Hi Yippeeyay81👋

We’ve been through something similar with our LG she’s 4 today! About a year ago she started wanting to poop in a pull up due to constipation. We took the approach to leave it a while and get her confidence grow. We have had another rough bout the last few weeks but we’ve now had 7-10 days of her pooping on the potty after a disimpaction. I think we’ve been lucky but the whole reason the withholding started few weeks back was because a GP told us to just stop the pull ups whilst we’re through it now and Nancy was clearly ready this time I definitely feel letting them get their confidence back is the right thing to do. Feel free to pm me if you’d like to chat more xx

[Nanakadvit in reply to Green86]

Thanks dear.. will keep it intact kid confidence is the first thing..