Just started on our laxative journey

[Octopus-shark]

My 3.5yr old son has been withholding his poos for about 8months. It has taken us ages of trying everything and not really understanding what we should do to this point. He is not toilet trained and just always says he doesn’t like poo. He wears nappies but mostly will only do a poo in the bath, very very occasionally in his nappy, he hates the idea of the toilet. He tends to go about once a week roughly. So we have just started on movicol laxatives one week ago, he has been having one sachet, but today we gave two (although he probably didn’t actually drink a full two sachets). We are still experiencing a lot of withholding and he is really miserable. It has definitely made his poo softer but he is still managing to hold it, albeit with a lot of soiled nappies. Any advice would be amazing, feeling a little in the dark about the thing and not really knowing if we are doing the right thing with laxatives. He is such a super little guy, but he just seems so confused about poo. I hate that he only poos in the bath as it means he sees it and then gets even more freaked out by it. Since having laxatives there seems to be more poo in the bath which is getting him even more distressed than usual. So any advice or reassurance would be great, thanks x

[ERIC-Charity Partner]

Hi sorry to hear your son is feeling miserable and becoming distressed with pooing.

From what you say he sounds constipated and would benefit from doing a 'disimpaction' using the Movicol medication. Macrogol laxatives such as Movicol, Laxido or CosmoCol are a first line treatment for constipation in children and work by getting more water into the bowel, which keeps poos soft and easier to pass. Disimpaction means to give the Macrogol medication over the course of a few days, gradually increasing doses until the child has passed brown or rusty coloured water as this means that the bowel is completely empty of all the poo build-up.

From that point, it becomes a little bit easier to find the right daily dose to help him do 1 or 2 soft poo’s a day which is the purpose of laxative medication and then stay on that daily maintenance dose so poos don’t build up again. Without the clear-out this type of medication could seem to make things like soiling worse, as the poo is being softened but not enough to stimulate the bowel to empty fully. Giving him a warm bath is a great way to help him relax, at the moment the warm water is relaxing the muscles in his bottom which is why the poo is appearing as his bowel is full of poo.

For instructions and information on how to do this please go to eric.org.uk/how-to-treat-co...

eric.org.uk/blog/the-differ...

If you would like to contact our free Helpline and talk to one of our advisors over the phone we will be happy to chat the process through with you. We are open Mon-Thurs 10am -2pm.

Kind regards,

Amy

Helpline Advisor

ERIC