About to start disimpaction treatment.....

[Smoochee]

HIi, I'm new to this group, my 10year son has just been diagnosed with severe impaction, it's being going on for years and has suffered severe abdominal pain. (He was diagnosed as having IBS age 3) We are going to start Movicol soon, how realistic are the time guidelines? We were told after a week he would be cleared out yet from reading other posts I think that it might take longer.

Once he is all cleared out, do you gradually reduced the sachets or can you go from 12 to 4 straight away?

Does any one have any advice they can give me?

Thank you

[Yaleamanda]

When disimpacting you work up to the maximum dose for their age, stay there until reach rusty water looking stools, stay there for a few days then reduce extremely slowly ie 12,12,12,11,11,11,10,10,10 and so on until you reach a suitable maintenance dose to remain on. Ensure they drink plenty on top of the movicol as it doesn't count towards their daily allowance of liquid and make up each with the correct amount of water. You can add the movicol to anything else once you have mixed it correctly. Regular toilet sits after every meal too help.

[Smoochee in reply to Yaleamanda]

Thank you, thats very helpful, I don't know how long to tell school he's off for, is it a bit of a gamble as to how well it will work? Also I'm not sure what to mix it with once its made up as he only drinks water, any suggestions?

[Yaleamanda in reply to Smoochee]

You can add it to absolutely anything including food. There is a template you can print off from the Eric website which tells the school you are disimpacting and that he will need to be off school. Unfortunately, it can take time if you are to do it properly so he could be off for a while in reality. If you do it correctly, it should work well, but it takes time and commitment to get it done. You might find that whilst he is on the low doses he can attend school, it's really once you get upto the higher doses he might find it difficult or of the school is on board you could send him in with a change of clothes and request that he has access to a toilet where he can go regularly and if need be change. It would definitely be beneficial to have a chat with the school SENCO about they can support him as this is their job and they should be supporting you with this.

[Smoochee in reply to Yaleamanda]

Thank you

[Teddy500]

Hi, do you mind me asking how they diagnosed him and what his symptoms were please? I have a 10 year old son with bladder issues and a lot of tummy ache. My son will drink Movicol just as it is mixed with water, he doesn't love it but he does just drink it. Also you can make it up in advance if you need to; i.e. on a morning for the rest of the day and keep in the fridge, also handy if you need to go out and his next dose will be while you're out, just make it and take it with you. Good luck with the disimpaction!

[Smoochee in reply to Teddy500]

Hi, he was diagnosed from an x-ray, he has always had tummy problems, starting with silent-reflux as a newborn and IBS age 3 (now I’m thinking this was a mid-diagnosis). He has had tummy ache on/off for years, very bad recently hence re-referral back to paediatrics, we still thought IBS and he’ll have a celiac test next month, we’ve just finished the movicol treatment and it was successful, he suffered with really bad pain and nausea though which was a real struggle, he was off for 2 weeks. I’m hoping he’ll have another x-ray so we can see how well he’s been cleared out.

[JJM55]

In our experience with our boy it took 2 1/2 weeks. His school were amazing providing work for him just as they did in lockdown. We reduced down slowly once we got 7 on the chart Good luck

[Smoochee in reply to JJM55]

Thank you

[Smoochee]

Thank you