Trauma and withholding poo

[Tinkerbell2011]

We still haven't mastered the holding poo. We are having to do disimpactation again for the fourth time since August. She is on 10 sachets for two days and then 8 for two. She is still trying to hold it and can't so we have had lots of accidents again. She is 8 and we adopted her and was not allowed to go to the toilet when with birth father. She was made to go in carrier bags and the wardrobe. She was locked in her bedroom for days. She has been with us three years now and this hasn't got any better and neither has her sleep. She has been awake since 1245am

[Nicky555]

Hi I’mm a foster carer and our boy came to us at 12. He had been soiling since 5 and we were told it was emotional. Dr recommended disimpaction which didn’t work so we started from scratch with referral to continence nurse. She was great and explained that over the years of constipation his bowel and nerve endings had been damaged. She explained that disimpaction needs to get to brown water before reducing to half that dose of movicol and we also used pico suppositories as he had no feeling and didn’t know when he needed to go. It was the reduction regime that was vital to give him the time to heal. We didn’t start reducing movicol until pico was stopped and then very slowly. Whole process took 10 months. It’s very tricky with children that have experienced trauma. His shame was immense and we had to be clear that so many other children have these issues and let him know it was ok to talk about things.

It’s a long road, my best wishes to you you and your daughter x