Should a healthcare professional give go-ahead to start disimpaction? In what form are large quantities of laxative taken?

[Turquoise3]

Hello,

I've just joined this group and new to learning about how to treat constipation and soiling for my child. I have some questions to ask please.. I'm shocked to learn how many sachets of laxative is recommended to disimpact the bowel. My son is currently taking two a day to treat constipation and soiling (recommended by our GP), and he is still soiling twice a day. I think he needs to take more.

Do we need the go-ahead from a healthcare professional to start disimpaction?

If the dosage is followed, the maximum dose will be 12 sachets in one day. In what form do children take such a large amount? I read that they don't count as one of the 6-8 cups of water a day, so..

12 sachets + 8 liquid based drinks = 14 drinks a day!!!

(My son currently takes the laxative solution in one cup with the same amount of orange juice mixed in and he find that in itself an effort to drink - doesn't like the constistency).

Huge thanks for any advice.

Unfortunately, a GP appointment is a few days away and unable to speak to ERIC. My child is 7 years old.

[Bambie83]

I was directed by Eric and the Health Vistor to disimpact as I had no idea it was even a thing and the GPS bless them had been very unhelpful.

I’m currently disimpacting my nearly 5 year old (for the 4th time) and am doing very similar doses. I make the whole lot up in a jug in the fridge and then do glasses through out the day.

Obviously drinking lots of plain water as well will help but I find the Laxido does it thing anyway so I’d just do your best.

You may have to wait to see you doctor anyway as for a disimpaction you’ll need lots of the medication so I would get a repeat prescription.

I’ve been at the highest dose for nearly a week trying to get to the tea stage! 😩

Good luck!

[Turquoise3 in reply to Bambie83]

ThankU! I got more sachets and the go-ahead from the Drs. Tbh, i'm eduacting myself on chronic constipation and appear to know more than the Dr! We're on day 7 so it's the second day of 12 sachets a day. He's knowing when he needs to 'go' to the toilet and the soiling has begun to stop. We're at the porridge/gravy stage.

Do you know how long it's ok to keep the high 12 sachet does for? (As he's not yet at the watery tea stage with bits in that has been described to me on here).

[Bambie83 in reply to Turquoise3]

We ended up on the highest dose for about 10 days but it would really depend on the blockage. You can tell if it's starting to shift things if it's lighter in colour and has 'fresh' things in it rather than gritty bits.

We've been at this around 3 weeks and only just starting to take the doses down (a sachet down every 3/4 days or so). My daughter is only just starting to prompt when she needs the toilet but most of the time I'm just sticking to a really strict toilet routine. Still the washing is ridiculous. 😩 I'm just hoping to get her to a good stage by the time she gets to school next week!

Good luck! keep going!

[Turquoise3 in reply to Bambie83]

How do you know its OK to carry on the highest dose of laxative for longer than the 2 days as stated in the chart that comes with the laxative powder and its also on the Eric website?

[Bambie83 in reply to Turquoise3]

The first time I also followed the structure of the Eric website and had to do it all again a month or so later....

I then found this site where they kept taking about rusty tea and poo soup and I was like - have I been doing this wrong?!?!

So the next time I stayed on until I got to the watery stage and its worked a bit better. The third time I also reduce the sachets very very gently and that defiantly seemed to work. I was pretty much seeing the light at the end of the tunnel at the beginning of this year after a full year of this...

Then schools closed 😭 and she started soiling again... I think its caused by stress and not being in a routine. So finally I disimpacted again. I'm becoming an expert unfortunately!

An article that will help explain it all and which helped me massively is this -

bornready.uk/blog/the-mecha...

Give it a read it might help with the poo soup stage and why not stopping it the only way forward.

[ProblemPoops]

Hi Turquoise3,

I'm in the same situation. My son is 9 and has been on 2 sachets a day since he was 3, but is now leaking poop on his underwear.

I think he should start disimpaction to clear himself out and then go back to 2 sachets as a maintenance dosage. I think I'm just going to go ahead and do it without talking to the doctor first. For 5-11 year olds Day 1 is 4 sachets, Day 2 is 6 sachets, Day 3 is 8 sachets, Day 4 is 10, Day 5,6 & 7 is12 sachets. Each sachet is dissolved in 62.5ml of water. When a watery poo is achieved that means they have cleared out and you need to go back to the maintenance dose.

Good luck, I am going to start him today and see how it goes.

[Turquoise3 in reply to ProblemPoops]

ThankU! We started the disimpacting.