Are laxitives the answer?

[Piercewright]

Currently my daughter is on 2 sachets of laxido a day. Why is she still doing 7-9 small porridge consistency poos a day? Before I give more laxitives should I get to the doctor? The incontinence team don't have the answer. While at school she's coming home so sore. To add she's never toilet trained and has Global Development Delay.

[Yaleamanda]

Have you ever disimpacted her?

[Piercewright in reply to Yaleamanda]

We have done disimpaction once. I suppose thats why I'm questioning is laxitives the answer. I'm going to ring the doctors today. I think we need to speak with a bowel specialist. Thank you for your reply.

[Yaleamanda in reply to Piercewright]

I would say that laxatives will help and for a while after the dismpaction. When you disimpacted did you achieve rusty water looking poo, stay there for a few days before reducing the doses down very very slowly i.e. 12,12,12,11,11,11,10,10,10 and so on until you reached a suitable maintenance dose? Often multiple disimpactions are required.

[Piercewright in reply to Yaleamanda]

I actually managed to get her to the doctor today. He's had a feel and thinks she has a blockage. I've started disimpaction tonight!!! Last time we followed the direction of the incontinence team. This time I'll wait until we get watery poo before reducing. I am wondering if she needs a higher maintenance dose of laxitive to acheive less soils in a day. Thanks for your help its nice to know I'm not alone with this.

[Jellyfish0]

I’d try disimpacting her and possibly adding in a stimulant laxative (e.g. senna) to try and get it all out in one poo a day. Th e reason why you need to disimpact is that there may be a blockage that the soft poo is gradually going around (hence ending up with multiple accidents).

[Piercewright in reply to Jellyfish0]

We have done disimpaction previously. Rather than assume there's a blockage I would like to know if this is her problem. Thanks for your reply.

[Swangirl in reply to Piercewright]

In the absence of an X-ray you have 2 options at finding out what’s going on in her bowel. You can do a sweet corn test or you can start the disimpaction process. The number of sachets it takes until she reaches the brown rusty will indicate whether there is a backlog of poo. If she gets there quickly then she wasn’t backed up, the longer it takes the more backed up she was.

Even though she isn’t toilet trained I would still encourage her to have a sit on the toilet (feet supported, knees higher than hips), 20-30 minutes after every mealtimes as this will help her empty her bowel.