Soiling again

[DJC1102]

Hi recently went through disimpaction with my 4yr old who has just turned 5.Never seemed to get to 'rusty brown water despite 3 weeks of movicol. He just seemed to be losing weight.

Have given it more than a week now, but he's still soiling(not as much as before) and never seems to sit on the toilet for a poo( except once after soiling) have no idea now what to do. Worried if I start Movicol again he'll lose more weight. We did see Dr prior to staring this a while back who felt his stomach and didn't think he was constipated, after a period of soiling. He did stop for a while but the soiling started again. That is when I thought maybe we should try disimpaction.

[Helen36]

If he’s losing weight I think you need to go back to the doctor ASAP. Reading your posts I think he is probably constipated and needs another disimpaction and then you need to work out the maintenance dose of movicol which you will need to keep up for 6 months at least. He’s probably scared the poo will hurt and is holding it in which is very natural behaviour in a 4 year old but compounds the problem for them! A maintenance dose of movicol will help them overcome this behaviour by keeping poos nice and soft. By the way, doctors can only feel poo in certain parts of the tummy and just because the doctor couldn’t feel it, doesn’t mean he isn’t/wasn’t. Much better to go by how often he is pooing, soiling, colour/smell of the poo and the ‘poo type’ when it comes.

However your reference to weight loss worries me and there could be other factors going on which need proper medical review. Movicol will never contribute to weight loss or impact absorption of nutrients from the bowel so if he is losing weight you need to get to the bottom of that.

Good luck xxxx

[DJC1102 in reply to Helen36]

Thank you. He hasn't lost loads of weight, just worried that whatever he's eating is going straight through due to the diarrohea like poo.

Yes, I do think he needs another disimpaction and as for the maintenance dose, the Dr didn't even mention that!

[Helen36 in reply to DJC1102]

What’s his poo like now? Colour? (Light or dark?) Is the smell normal or really bad? How formed is it? It could be ‘overflow’ rather than diarrhoea going around a blockage. Have a look on the Eric website and read everything you can about constipation, disimpaction, and finding the right dose of movicol. There’s lots of good info on there xxx

[DJC1102 in reply to Helen36]

The soiling is very dark & sticky, a bit smelly .He hasn't sat on the toilet to poo for ages, only once after I changed him as he had soiled his pants and the poo seemed very loose and runny.

[Redxmas]

Hi

I have a 4 year old and completed a disimpaction over Xmas. I was advised that even following disimpaction there would be spoiling for a while as her bowel would need time to go back to size as it will have stretched through the constipation. After a few weeks we had a great run of 2 months with no soiling. Unfortunately we had to complete another disimpaction (which I’m told is very common) last month and she is starting to be more regular with little accidents.

In terms of doctors feeling tummies, I found that they couldn’t really diagonose (they even acknowledged this) . 3 docs felt daughter’s tummy and said wasn’t constipated but I paid for a scan and it showed blockages.

[Robinia in reply to Redxmas]

Can I ask what type of scan please and how you went about it? Would be handy to know thanks x

[Redxmas in reply to Robinia]

It was an abdominal x-ray. Our doctor told us it would be six months before the NHS would see her so we paid to take her private. We paid for the consultation and they did various blood tests, wheats intolerance , stool samples. They then sent her for the x-ray.

[Bambie83]

I agree with the other posts after disimpaction they should be on a maintenance dose of between 1/2 and 3 I think. If the poo is dark and sticky then that’s definitely backed up poo coming out.

It may need another disimpaction or at least a pretty decent maintenance dose to get it soft enough to encourage him back on to the toilet at regular intervals (normally after meals etc).

Though the weight lost is worrying as all the Movicol should do is add water to the stools to make them easier and less painful to pass not affect the digestion of food.