4yr old struggling with knowing when he's poohed.

[Loubielou46]

Hi! My 4yr old has had issues with his bowels since he moved onto solids at months old. He never did one pooh, and as the months went on would often pooh 10-15times a day. We went to the GP and were prescribed Movichol to help him pooh. This did help but as he's got older his issues have changed. His pooh is always soft, he's never struggled with hard pooh, but he has never made any sign of pushing a pooh out. He was one 1 Movichol a day and we found this was making his pooh really soft and he would do 2-3 really big messy Pooh's a day, so we reduced down to half a sachet which made it more manageable. However now that he is 4 he shows no sign of knowing that he needs to pooh until it's too late. When we do sit on the toilet we do some blowing exercises to help with his muscles but he hates doing it. He had managed to push a couple of Pooh's out but I think we've caught them by chance. After speaking to ERIC a little while ago we were put into senna to see if that would stimulate his bowels more, it has made no difference. He still doesn't seem to recognise when his pooh is coming, but his pooh is still really soft. I'm just not sure which way to go with him. I'm not sure if he is choosing not to recognise when he's poohing (he is still alittle immature for his age), he genuinely doesn't know that he needs to go, or that he doesn't like the thought of going so won't make the effort to try. He's in a mix of pull ups and pants and is dry with his weeing. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I will add he was also 6 weeks premature, so this may have some bearing on his development, although he is a perfectly healthy little boy otherwise. Thanks!

[Frustratedmum1]

Hi ya. If they are blocked with poo they wont get the sensation to go to the toilet at all. Which can be very frustrating and hard to understand. That is a good sign if he is dry. As when they are constipated we had alot more weeing accidents. Have you tried blowing ballons, bubbles.

Also if they cant feel it you need to start training them. For example sit him on the toilet after every meal time. I think it was 15 mins to half an hour after. Place toys/books or i resorted to an ipad in the toilet to try and make them stay there. As this is the time they are more likely to poo and you start retraining the neuro pathways.

My son was in pants i had to put him back in pull ups. This took some of the stress out for it for us. We also all new where we were with things. It allowed us to have some form of normal.life when you could go out. If you are stressed and anxious they seem to pick up on it.

Good luck. You are not alone.