8 year old son on Movicol for 7 months - no progress

[Caligirl38]

Hello,

I’m struggling with my son who turned 8 in April. He has been on Movicol since xmas (varying amounts) and there seems to be no improvement. Have tried disimpacting several times but never sure if we quite got there fully. It also doesn’t help that he wants privacy when he uses the toilet and has been hiding accidents. Sometimes I ask him to try and use the toilet after a meal and he will just pretend to do so! I don’t know how to help him if he isn’t honest with me.

Please help because we are both getting increasingly frustrated and I worry if he still has this problem in secondary school. GP doesn’t really provide much support apart from prescribing Movicol.

We have watched the ERIC videos together and he understands that accidents aren’t his fault but I still struggle with getting him to be honest with me.

[Starryeyes2000]

I’m sorry to hear your son is suffering. My daughter suffers from chronic constipation. I thought I disimpacted her in October and again in Feb, however, following each disimpaction within a couple of days we’d be back to square one. Maybe 2 poos a week, one with a suppository and the rest of the days she’d spend hours on and off the loo needing to go but unable to. Eventually in May, I decided to disimpact her again and this time, once we hit 12 sachets of movicol, I kept her on that dose for a month. Slowly, I’ve been decreasing the dosage, she’s now on 7 sachets a day and she always has 5 ml of Senna at night. She goes every day. It’s still like a 5 or a 6 on the Bristol stool chart but the key is, she’s going daily, her tummy doesn’t hurt now and she’s not wasting hours on the loo. My I would speak to Eric, they are great. I’d also keep the higher dosages for longer to allow the bladder to recover. I could tell from the sweetcorn test that it was still taking a long time to travel through her system - 14 days instead of 1-2. My daughter has other health complications but clearing her bowels has meant she physically feels better, has the strength to do exercise and isn’t having sleepless nights in pain. Wishing you all the best. It is such a tough time xxxx

[Tiger4]

Hi I found with my daughter that we were not getting anywhere with the Gp and insisted we get referred to the hospital where there is a excellent constipation clinic. It may be worth seeing if your local hospital has one. I would never go to a Gp again about my daughters constipation. Also my daughter was taking sodium picosulfate alongside movicol which really helps to clear her out. But do not give to your child without the say so of a professional and a clear plan. A good routine is also essential. My daughter is not longer chronically constipated but she still takes movicol once a day and we take her to the toilet 20 mins after breakfast, lunch and dinner. She also drinks plenty of fluids everyday. Good luck