4yr old - suspected constipation?! Please help us.

[Alhicks71]

My 4yr old son has what seems like constipation. It came on 5mths who. He would go every 3 days and when he did they were very big for a boy his age and quite hard. We were prescribed movicol laxatives and were told to do a disimpaction which lasted 2 weeks. Following this he was a bit better, going every other day and good consistency whilst on 3 sachets of laxatives, however still bouts of overflow soiling inbetween. In the last 4 days though he has failed to do a normal poo and is now soiling himself several times a day , all of which are like porridge poos and some quite a lot!

Is this symptomatic of chronic constipation? Have other seem this happen? Should we up his dose to deal with the constipation of this porridge poo is overflow or should we reduce to laxatives to address to softer poos? Any advice or guidance would be so helpful.

We have yet to get much from the GP, ERIC helpline has been great, due to go private for advice next month but now at our wits end, it is breaking our hearts to see him hiding away to poo himself.

[MunchieMum]

I feel your pain! My understanding is that if there is overflow diarrhoea then they are still blocked up. Don't stop the disimpaction regime until you have a couple of days of watery stool, then go back to your maintenance dose of movicol.

[Alhicks71 in reply to MunchieMum]

Thank you, my feeling is that we may need to do another disimpaction 🙈 he has only just had one bless him 😭😭😭

[Yorkiegi in reply to Alhicks71]

My 3 year old daughter has been the exact same. Absolutely heartbreaking that they have to go through this. I hadn’t realised how much it was affecting her until I watched that video on here ‘through my eyes’ and realised that is 100% her and her life for the last 2 years. We’ve just finished disimpaction and are trying to work out her maintenance dose. It is really hard to tell whether the dose is too high and that is why the stools are like diarrhoea or if it is actually soiling.

[Alhicks71 in reply to Yorkiegi]

Let’s stay in touch because we are going through the same thing, even though this is all so individual, we may be able to help each other get our kids through this.

When can I find this video?

[Alhicks71 in reply to Yorkiegi]

Just found the video 😭😭😭😤

[Yorkiegi in reply to Alhicks71]

It’s so sad isn’t it. It’s good to know you are not the only person that is going through it and that actually it is much more common than you think. It’s just not something people talk about in general.