4 year old withholding again after 2 years

[ivory_47]

My 4 year old daughter had faecal impaction as a 1 year old as a result of withholding. We finally cleared her out when she was 1.5 years and she has been on maintenance dose movicol for almost 2 years. She is starting school in September.

She had antibiotics last week, which gave her diarrhoea so I reduced the movicol down to nil (she only had 0.5-1 sachet a day anyway and been doing brilliantly) and within one day she got constipated (I don’t even get how that is possible). I upped the movicol and added some lactulose and she eventually passed a hard stool under a great many tears and is now withholding despite being on 4-5 movicol plus lactulose for the last three days.... she says her bottom and tummy hurt, she is really tired, cries at times and lacks appetite. She’s also started hitting and has a lot of anger outbursts. I am really worried, as there is no reasoning with her at all and don’t wanna go back to where we were 2 years ago.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

[SallyCal]

Hello, I am sorry to hear you are in this situation as it is exactly what we experienced with our daughter at 4 but without the previous episode earlier in life. Diarrhoea, followed by constipation and a painful episode nd starting to withhold. This is then a vicious cycle as the longer they hold it, the bigger and harder it gets so it hurts when they eventually go reinforcing their fear. We didn't have the previous knowledge of Constipation and Movicol so tried for a year to resolve it with increased water, more fibre and reward charts! None of which really worked. When I eventually found this forum and ERIC and got my daughter some Movicol if changed everything. We didn't need to do a disimpaction but increased Movicol dosage until we had a couple of days of cow pat type poo. This did take about 4 days to come as she was still trying to hold it in. We then reduced the dosage really slowly until we got to really soft sauasges and every time she went we made a big thing of praising her when ahe went and asking if it hurt and when she said no saying how great that was and that she didn't need to be scared anymore. Your daughter won't remember the earlier incident of Constipation but in her little life now she can remember the most recent one and doesn't have the ability to see that if she doesn't hold it will get better on its own so she will need help with the Movicol to physically make it not hurt for a short while. We got it under control quite quickly and stayed on a maintenance dose for a year. I hope this helps.

[ivory_47 in reply to SallyCal]

Thank you for sharing your experience too, this gives me hope and reassured me that we are doing the right thing. Fingers crossed the movicol will do it’s trick soon xx

[flowerlov]

Sorry to hear this news, I would just increase Movicol, my daughter only drinks it in Hot chocolate, it still works, just keep it going until all big bits of poo come out. I notice when my 4 year old starts soiling, I know poo is wanting to come out, when she is sitting on toilet, I get her to blow bubbles with her bubble wand, I distract her by trying to pop bubbles, she totally forgets she is on the toilet, relaxes and out comes the poo. It does take time, but it works. My health worker told me about it, I didn't think it would work, but it does every time. They forget, relax, and the with held poo just has to come out. Take care, my daughter had to have MRI which really saved her life, she was totally impacted at age 3, she is 5 in couple of weeks when at school. It took 14 months of old rotting poo to come out, it was so bad even the dogs left the room. When she is angry, aggressive, it could be toxins, and frustration. My daughter was just the same. Take care, try and get it sorted before school, she wants a happy first day. x With love, you are doing great, it will get sorted because you are a great mom. x

[ivory_47 in reply to flowerlov]

Thank you so much for your response. It sounds like you experienced something very similar to us, as we only had our daughter diagnosed by x-ray (after paying a fortune in private gastroenterologist fees), before that no-one knew she was badly impacted, we thought it was food interolerance, allergies for ages and tried so many elimination diets.... I think that’s why I panic sometimes still now, I worry that she is impacted and that it will be missed again somehow.

She has had runny poos for a few days now, so we are now trying to find a balance with the movicol again which we always find difficult but hopefully we will get there soon. She certainly is a lot calmer and happier again.