Movical and soiling

[Eb72]

My daughter is 4 and has struggled with number twos and passing since I started training her when she was younger, spoke to hv for advice and no joy! She has been movical on and off for the past year and back on it again, 2 sachets every other day and increase if necessary. Being given this dosage, just wondering if it’s normal for soiling all the time, even at school ( embrassing a little) she seems to be just doing bits and doesn’t let me and will sit in it!! Hence sore bottom and thrown away knickers. Any help on what to do next!!

[SallyandPaul]

It sounds like she needs a disimpaction,instructions are in the box. Also have a look at the pooh nurses video,it's very helpful,the link is on the right here under pinned posts. I also think a maintenance dose should be at least one a day and maybe a small amount if sennakot would help too. Good luck xx

[Trascal]

Hi I’ve been there with my daughter who is now 7! She did a sore poo during toilet training when she was 3 and I had 4 years of soiling and holding in her poos, she was on lactulose twice a day. Fingers crossed we are nearing the end of this now she still occasionally needs lactulose when she gets constipated but here are some of the things we have done to improve the soiling, appreciate every child is different so what might work for one won’t work for another but if it helps another family improve the toilet/soiling situation it can only be a good thing!

1) see your GP to let them know of the soiling situation and get some medication to soften the poo - we were on lactulose twice a day 10ml - ask to be referred to a child constipation clinic at your local hospital - we had a 4 month wait but was really good to get some advice from a consultant who knew what they were talking about rather than my gp

2) establish a toilet routine! We were guilty in my house of rushing for work/school/social events so now we get up earlier so my daughter has plenty time to use the toilet after breakfast and does not feel rushed - an article from the ERIC website helped me get a routine going with my daughter. We also make sure that she goes to the toilet after dinner too! we call it “toilet time” I’m strict with the routine to the point now my daughter tells me it’s toilet time after breakfast or dinner! If she hasn’t been for a poo in a couple of days I sometimes do a lunchtime toilet routine at the weekends when she is not at school!

3) find out what gets your child to sit on the toilet for 5-10mins for toilet time - ours started with colouring in, reading, I stayed with my daughter initially to build up her confidence and showed her that it was ok to sit on the toilet! We used to have fun together and play games so she would get distracted and do a poo without noticing. She now wants to be in the toilet on her own so we now let her use a kindle but we limit the usage on it and try and keep it to toilet time - she will quite happily sit there for a longer period with the kindle

4) reward for completing toilet time - normally a sticker on a reward chart does it in our house regardless whether she has done anything and if my daughter does do a poo I give her a penny which she saves up to buy something with

5) we provide my daughter with a footstool and padded toilet seat (Disney frozen theme) this has helped her sit properly and find it easier to do a poo

6) diet - we start the day off with a fruit smoothie consultant said this was good for keeping the poo soft! Rest of the day I try and give my daughter food with a good fibre content and cut right back on dairy! She only has milk with cereal (weetabix), I buy 50/50 pasta so she can’t see the wholewheat, popcorn for snacks (quite high in fibre) and loads of water to drink

7) fluids - my daughter has never been the best at drinking fluids but we have competitions at the dinner table to see who can finish their glass of water first - works every time as she doesn’t want to lose so will drink all the water

8) we leave the car at home whenever we can and walk, go to the park, swimming etc to make sure she has plenty exercise to get the bowels going

I’ve read the book recommended on here called the in’s and out’s of poop! Would definitely recommend it my daughter had been soiling for so long I think she had forgotten how to push a poo out the book helped with some wee techniques to get her going - I also discovered that a party blower or blowing up a balloon on the toilet has helped too to get the pushing situation going again!

I hope the points I’ve listed above help your daughter it’s only when you start talking about it you realise what a common problem it is!

Xx

[Eb72]

Thanks very much, just at my wits end. She struggled with doing poohs when toilet training would gladly do it in her knickers! The problem that I’ve found is when given the movical, none tells you what the poo should be like at the end when all is cleared, someone kindly on this site told me it should be watery and watch the poo nurses on YouTube which was very useful and then how do you get them to do a proper poo! She is soiling her knickers at school and at home. Going to see the health visitor Friday to see if I get some where. Hopefully I keep my cool!! Stressed not the word. Thanks again for the information shall try and see if they work.

[Trascal]

Hi it is stressful but try and not show it to your daughter. My daughter used to get upset when I talked about it so I started writing notes for the doctor so he kept them on record when I had to go back for more advice! It also saved me having to talk about it in front of her.

If you haven’t already speak to the school about it - my daughter used to soil her pants at school and I’d panic that other kids could smell it and could pick on her! The teacher was really good and had a little chat with her saying that she could go to the toilet whenever she needed too which helped

I’ve never had to do a disimpaction but I found once I got the routine going and she realised it wasn’t scary to do a poo I managed to get her going regular to stop her being constipated all the time

Good luck - x