14 year old son constipation

[CT79]

My son is 14 and is autistic. He is constantly pooing small amounts at a time. He is on Cosmocol as he has constipation. He leaks as well in his pants. He was disimpacted on the advice of bowel nurse. He had 4 sachets and it made him sick and he was unwell in it. Although it did seem to do the job.

He poos throughout the night as well. Sometimes he doesn’t sleep at all due to this. It’s really taking its toll on me and him as I sleep in his room as he needs to be watched as he will come downstairs. He is semi toilet trained ( still needs reminding for poos )but he’s getting there.

Does anyone else’s child poo constantly like this particularly through the night? He does it more in the school holidays as he’s constantly eating and out of his routine. I have also put him on a gluten free diet to see if it helps. It seemed to at first and there is less leakage now. But it’s the constant pooing.

Thanks

[Yaleamanda]

You couldn't have reached disimpaction on just 4 sachets, were they paediatric or adult sachets? Him passing stools at night is a clear indication he is both withholding and still impacted.

[CT79 in reply to Yaleamanda]

Hi they were 4 paediatric ones. He was having constant diarrhoea and I was told it was working. It was too much for him and he was vomiting so I didn’t continue with it.

I’m going to speak to the school nurse and bowel nurse again to see if there is anything else he could go on.

[Daisy_Green]

My autistic son is 10 and has similar problems. We disimpacted him with Movicol sachets. Got up to 12 a day until he was pooing water. It really helped. He's still on a maintenance dose (this was a year ago) and dulcolax at night. Due to the autism and a condition called PDA, he still won't go to the toilet, but the routine we've got him on with medication means he poos while he's sleeping or first thing in the morning. We can handle that and it means that he's not doing it at school (he wears pull ups and would just walk around with it in his pants all day rather than change). The specialist we went to see to rule out anything physically wrong with him, before the ASD and PDA explanation, suggested a dairy free diet. He said it would be the first thing he would recommend to anyone with poo issues. We tried it but it was clear after the diagnosis that wasn't our son's issue, but it may be worth asking your son's doctor about it?