Witholding and pants

[Basicilly]

Our 4 year old started withholding last Sept after a bout of constipation. After thinking it would go away itself for some time we finally did a full disimpaction in June and she has been on a maintenance dose of 2 sachets of movicol a day since. She is still in pull ups but since the regular dose we have had some success with pooing in the potty in our regular potty times. (up to 50% in the potty but sometimes less). She has mentioned wanting to wear big girl pants this week so we are trying today. She has done one poo in the potty and one in her pants so far. I am just wondering if we are setting her up for disappointment as she most likely can't wear pants to creche Monday. Just wanted to see if any others had similar experiences or thoughts

[Kayleigh28]

The best thing that helped my 3yr old withholder was swapping the stool softer (movicol) for a stool bulker, we are using optifibre at the moment but have used inulin fibre in the past. We do use senna nightly too but are reducing the dose.

The fibre softens and bulks up the stool giving the feeling of 'needing to go' more often, this has stopped my sons leakage and he has one big poo most days.

Before we moved on to the bulker he could hold on to the loose movicol poo for dear life, even with senna and/or pico he would go atleast a week holding it in, but with the stool bulker he seems to be able to get the urge to go more and doesn't seem to want to hold it in anymore.

As for the pants, would she accept that she can wear big girl pants at home but not to nursery for a while, the pants might make her more aware of when she is going so it's a great thing that she wants to try, hopefully that will follow on to her been in them all the time. She could also wear big girl pants over her pull up if that would help her feel a big girl.

[Basicilly in reply to Kayleigh28]

Thanks a lot Kayleigh. Will try the pants at home option and always looking for ways to up fibre. Good luck👍