Advice from parents of withholders

[Xomum]

Hi. My 3 year old has recently started taking laxido as he has been withholding. He's been doing pretty well so far and has had a bowel movement most days for the past two weeks, although not through his own initiative. We've found the only way to get him to go is to play a running game after dinner and get him to sit on the potty afterwards at which point he usually goes as I guess it loosens him up and he finds it harder to hold it in. I still notice him seeming to hold in during the day though and wondered what other people do in similar situations. If they're going once a day do you ignore withholding behaviour at other times or do you still encourage them to go at these times? Have you found the withholding behaviour gradually decreases as they get used to going every day? I find I'm constantly doubting myself and getting stressed on days when I can see him withholding, even if he's been going every day. Yesterday after clearly withholding for a while he then had an accident. Not sure if I should reduce the laxido dose because he now can't control it enough or whether that's needed to break the withholding habit. I'd really appreciate any advice from people who have been through this. Thanks!

[SallyCal]

Do you know why your son started to hold in the first place? My daughter did because she was scared to poo after a painful constipation episode aged 4yrs. So we had to carry on until the fear had gone. Personally I think you should carry on until he is not showing any signs of withholding as it is so easy to go back to it if his bowel situation changes for the worse at anytime. My daughter is now nearly 6 and we have been on Laxido since Jan (tried to manage it ourselves at first with diet and sticker charts!) and things have dramatically improved. We still give her a maintenance dose of one sachet every other day or when we can see her poo getting harder or she is struggling to go. I hope things settle for you soon. Xx

[Yippieyay81]

Hi! I agree with the previous poster re: fear factor. My lg was withholding because she was afraid it would hurt to go. She had to realise herself that it wasn’t going to hurt again as she was on the ‘poo medicine’ (Movicol) to help her do soft poos. We couldn’t convince her...she had to realise herself & didn’t stop withholding until she had figured that out. Good luck!

[Sam2020]

Hi, my 3 year old is also on laxido and withholds. Can I ask, does your child do the running pose while pooing? The jumping on feet is often associated with the withholding behaviour however I’ve found my son can only seem to poo by sticking his bum in the air, hands on floor and doing a running motion. It’s like he has to shake his legs to do it and won’t do it any other way. He tries sitting on loo for ages and just stands up disappointed there’s no poo. It’s like he doesn’t know how to relax to let it out and I don’t know how to teach him...