Nearly 6 years old and going backwards. On Movicol

[rvc123]

Hi All

I'm new here. I have a nearly 6 year old, who is in her first year in primary school. When she was 3 years old, she got constipated. It took us about 7 months to get her onto movicol, cleared out and gradually cut the movicol down to one sachet a day. In November last year, she was discharged from the consultant as she was going to the toilet every day (when i remind her after dinner, and she did go, do a poo, and all was good.)

We had a new baby arrive in March, and since this, she seems to have gone backwards. She still gets the same reminder every day, and is sent to try for a poo. but she has started to stain quite frequently. She tells me that she doesn't feel the need to poo - the consultant said the feeling would come. She also tells me she doesn't feel it when she has stained. And this i find hard to believe - this evening there was alot of poo in her pants. (its very soft)

I am scared that this is going to happen to her in school, and lead to bullying from the other children.

How do i treat this? I am waiting for a call back from the team at ERIC, but that won't be until Monday earliest, and am going to phone GP in the morning. Do i increase movicol in belief that there may be a blockage and get a good clear out again, and start from scratch?

Its by no means the worst on this forum, and in fairness I don't know how many of you cope with the multiple staining daily - my main concern for my wee girl is getting bullied at school because of this with no control over it.

Thanks in advance for any advise, and sorry for the rant!

Rachel

[Debderossi40]

My son is 8 and has been on movicol since Boxing day.. he had a good clear out and was then redeced to a maintenance dosage daily. I was told by the GP to up the sachets and down them until i found he went with soiling. So i would up the dosage for a few days and see if it improves and then lower it again. Trust your own judgement xx

[OlivesYou]

I have downloaded the Bristol stool chart, taking advice from book by Thomas Duhamill,PhD; The Ins and Outs of Poop. He says parents often stop laxatives too early and the child must be making a poo everyday for 6 months for the colon to go back to normal size. The hope is that the child begins to get sensation back in the bum to know when it’s time to go poo. Problem I’m having is getting my child with autism to sit! I think it’s sensory based now, and he seems scared as well. Last big push to make this happen! He is not very verbal so I’m making a lot of guesses with the last part.

But the DATA DOES NOT LIE and trust me, 6

Months from now you’ll be over the moon that you have the data!

[rvc123]

Thanks for the replies. I got her to the gp on Friday, he had a feel and could tell me that she hasn’t got any blockage, which I’m pleased about I think. He says if it’s soft and she is going, which it is, and she is, it could be encopresis rather than constipation, and is arranging for her to go to an encopresis clinic manned by nurses/health visitors.

Meantime, I had been giving her her movicol half in morning and half in evening and somehow we’d changed to all at once, so I’m going back to half and half. Am going to see about getting her seen privately to speed the whole process up. Yesterday was a good day with just a tiny “skid mark” as opposed to a massive stain 🤞🏻