24 month old daughter on lactulose - still trying to withhold

[Apip90]

Hello,

My daughter has been withholding for about 4/5 months now, maybe longer as we initially thought she was just constipated often. I took her to the doctor's and they said to give up to maximum dose of lactulose (10ml twice daily) to ensure she is going once a day at least. I am having to give the max dose but she is still very concerned when she gets the feeling of needing to go to a poo and gets very agitated and will still try to hold it. She talks ankjt going to the toilet often throughout the day and km so sorry it's impacting her day to day life and enjoyment. The doctor told me that lactulose is like a dietary supplement and not to worry about giving it long term, have other people have been advised this too? I'm going to go back soon for a review, but I'm just really worried about when this might end and how we are going to get through potty training. She is a twin and luckily her sister hasn't yet followed down the same withholding path.

Did anyone else have a child who started withholding so early? Did you ever manage to get it in control before they got older and older? Any tips would be much appreciated.

Thank you.

A x

[mpblan77]

My child started withholding at age 2 as well. Lactulose made things worse, in my opinion, as the sugar it contains gave him stomach cramp. Try to speak to your GP and ask for Movicol, as it is by far the best option. You should be offered information on how to disimpact your child, and there’s obviously lots of info here. It was a life-changer for my son, and the good thing is that he was so young things are now on track. Hope this helps!

[Apip90 in reply to mpblan77]

Thank you for responding. That's so good to hear that things are back on track now. If he has potty trained how did that work with the Movicol. I am going to call for an appointment today to try and get them to prescribe Movicol instead. I think you could be right about the stomach cramps and the reason she is complaining about going to the toilet so often is because it's cramping in the build up. Poor thing! Thanks again

[mpblan77 in reply to Apip90]

Hello! We were in the process of training my son when this problem started. After failed attempts with the GP, I took him to a pediatric gastroenterologist, who advised we postpone potty training while this was getting resolved. Not sure if this helps!