2 year old soiling - first time poster

[Amy1985]

Good Evening,

My son will be 3 next month and is in nappies. Has not been a regular pooper his entire life (not even when exclusively breastfed). First faecal impaction at 20 months old following anaesthetic for grommets. Have been on osmolax (it's like movicol) ever since and slowly weaned him down to one dose every three days under guidance from the paediatrician. One dose every two days and he was pooing small amounts all day long. When we reduced the dosage to every three days he stopped pooping so frequently and seemed to start consolidating.

Cut to toilet training a couple weeks ago. Very first day he did a HUGE poo on the toilet. Like, bigger than an adults. He seemed surprised he had pooped. This was the last time he pooped on the toilet. Four days followed where he did no poop at all. We had to resort to increasing osmolax, give coloxyl and suppositories until he pooped out a decent backlog of poo. No, I was not aware of the 'rusty water' thing until I found this forum, but anyway.

So ever since, he's been soiling all day long. Pooping small to medium amounts every few hours. We sit him on the toilet for practice, and to blow bubbles, but nothing ever comes out on the toilet. Corn kernels and sultanas are passing through so I am thinking there's no impaction in there? I don't know. We're going to the doctor on Friday and I'm going to insist on an xray (they really dont like doing xrays on kids here in Australia) to determine if it's overflow or not.

I'm going crazy basically, changing pullups every hour, it's worse than a newborn. And he's the last in his peer group at daycare to be in nappies and I have no idea how we can even toilet train him. He withholds too, or seems incapable of pushing out poo, because even sitting on the toilet with Mr Whippy type poo half out of his anus, he can't push it out. I'm going mad and not sleeping over the anxiety of it all. We've just introduced rewards for drinking enough liquid a day (he's really bad at drinking enough) and I'm trialling lactose free diet.

I don't even know what I'm asking for. Maybe I'm just ranting. I just feel so lost and like all I think about is how to get him to poo like a normal person.

Thanks.

[Amy1985]

PS: the GP refused to prescribe a stimulant

[Yaleamanda]

Disimpact him.

[Amy1985 in reply to Yaleamanda]

How would you recommend doing this with a 3 year old who hates liquid. I manage to get 5 cups into him a day but he wouldn't do well with much more.

[Yaleamanda in reply to Amy1985]

You can add the osmolax to anything else once you have mixed it up with the correct amount of water, it doesnt have to be in a drink. Also pop it into the fridge, it's more palatable when it's cold. Make games of it, become imaginative. You sometimes have to fight to get the stimulant, but keep pushing it, alternatively you can buy it over the internet which some people do.