Hi, my son is 7 1/2 and had severe constipation and impaction as a baby and throughout his early years. We had little support from the doctors , other than to give him movicol, but we had no clue about the problems this would cause him later on, as he still leaks poo several times a day. It’s been a very frustrating time for us all , and I feel ashamed to say that over the years we have got very cross with him, as we had no idea that he didn’t have the normal sensation to poo due to his bowel being stretched. We’ve only recently been under the hospital and understand his problems a lot better now. A big thing for him is withholding , as a baby he had a massive fear of going, and this is just set in his brain and I know he still witholds and sometimes without even realising it!
Anyway , part of out consultants regime is that he cleans himself after he has a poo accident. This is to give him a bit of extra motivation to not withhold, as the usual consequence of this is a leak.
Anyway, this has been hard for me to let go of, as a mum, I hate the thought of him not being completely clean! Now he’s going back to school next week , I need to speak to his new teacher and put something in place for him so that he can go to the toilet whenever he needs to, without having to wait for teacher permission etc. Also , he needs to be able to clean himself up if the leak is bad, and I don’t want him having to do this in the boys toilets because he’s also very shy and hates anyone knowing about it.
It would be great to know any strategies that your children have in place at school, so I can make some suggestions to his teachers on how to handle things. I really am scared that we’re going to go backwards if the right measures are not in place for him at school, so he’ll go back to withholding and leaking.
Any advice would be great !
Thank you !
Hello
My son is nearly 9 and has had chronic constipation - though he's not a withholder.
At school he has a "toilet card" so he places the card on the table when he needs the toilet. This saves him from waiting for the teacher's attention.
He's also in a classroom near to the toilets at Junior School and is allowed to use the disabled toilet to clean himself up (not that he needs to very often now). No other children are allowed to use the disabled toilet. This means he can take his time to clean himself up without other children knocking on the door.
You can disimpact more than once. Do you have a toilet plan in place?
Xx
Thank you for your reply, the toilet card sounds like a great idea, I will suggest that. I was thinking of something similar, but at least with a card he won’t have to wait to get the teachers attention, and he hates drawing any attention to himself .
He has a toilet plan in place , so he sits three times a day after meal times, and I’ve been making him check and try again as soon as we get in from anywhere if we’ve been out, so he knows he has to go straight to the toilet on arriving home. He hates sitting on the toilet , and it’s very hard sometimes to get him to do it.
Thank you for your advice
Is he still soiling regularly?
Yes, sometimes 3-4 times a day.
Well in that case there has not been a complete disimpaction. This is something I have very bitter experience of. It can take a month plus of 12 sachets a day to complete a full disimpaction. And also often you have to do it multiple times. If you contact the Eric helpline they are brilliant 😁
Thank you for your advice, the consultant examined his tummy and said not to do a disimpaction regime because she didn’t think he was impacted. I have an appointment soon so I will bring this up again, many thanks x
Argh .... consultants..... in my experience soiling equals constipation. My son soiled constantly for 3years. Now clean!!!