22month old daughter holding her poop

[shicky4]

Hello all,

newly joined as a pediatrician we visit recommended we have a look. In short, my daughter chronically holds her poo, especially when it gets harder. She is 22months old and we've been dealing with this since she had a scary/painful poo around 6months.

Currently treating with picosulphate and lactulose but still she sometimes holds, like right now we're on day 5 of no poo. She clearly experiences the urge to poo but she somehow manages to fend it off, we've tried numerous potties, toilets etc but she still wants to hold and we're at a loss for what to do. She had a good phase for a few months on a maintenance dose of picosulphate ( a stimulant and 2.5ml a day ) but a few weeks ago began teething back molars badly and I think this is our third episode in four weeks.

We have managed to get the prior episodes sorted with baths and upping the dosages of previously mentioned medication. This usually was effective on day 3, as mentioned we're now on day 5 and starting to get really worried we'll need to take her for medical intervention.

Our daughter can speak in full sentences and seems to grasp a lot, we're fairly sure she knows exactly what's going on, she's just scared of another tear, which we cannot blame her for but know her actions are making the situation worse.

Currently she'll stand bolt upright, legs as close together as possible and she'll squeeze for dear life until the sensation goes away. She's winning every time at the moment and we're a bit scared to go beyond 5ml of picosulphate, we use 5ml lactulose just to try and keep things soft but we never noticed it helping much.

Are there any good toddler videos she can watch? we have potty time with music video on the phone, this seemed to work before but we think now she's just looking to watch the phone, she's starting to say things and make noises like she's going but nothing there and we think she's having us on a little bit.

Any books recommended or anywhere else we can go for help?

Thank you

[Mumworrier]

Sorry to hear you’re going through this too. Your story is so very similar to ours (daughter just turned 3). We’ve had some luck with things like harmonicas, a kazoo, blowing bubbles... anything that gets her taking deeper breathes seems to help (we suggest the toys after meal times when we know she gets the urge and tends to start ‘straining’ again). Saying that, we’re also on day 5 again after a few weeks of short lived success, so it’s not a long term solution I’m afraid, I hope it’s of some use though. Good luck.