Can someone explain how a stimulant will work on top of movicol?

[123555]

My daughter is 3.5 and been withholding since she was a baby. We got her to a point where she was pooing every day without soiling but we are back to soiling again but still doing normal poos every day. I don't think shes blocked up as I can see sweetcorn/kidney beans in her poo the day after eating (sorry tmi) also the poo soiling isn't runny its just like normal poo. I think she's just doesn't tell me when she needs to go so some poo comes out. We've also had a lot of changed in her routine lately (new nursery, new house and baby brother) She has a maintenance dose of two sachets of movicol and I've seen loads of suggestions of senna so I'm considering asking the GP for it.

What does senna actually do? When do you take it and how long does it take to work? I don't want her to have more accidents by changing the routine.

I really thought we had sorted this so it's really disheartening to take a step back. Thanks

[Yaleamanda]

Senna is a stimulant laxative and will prevent the witholding of stools. Some people find giving it at night works best as you then get a timed AM poo. Often a stool softener isnt enough especially of you are dealing with a witholder and soiling. Timed toilet sits also help after every meal.

[123555 in reply to Yaleamanda]

This is what I hope to achieve from giving her senna. She will do a poo every day eventually but if we need to leave the house or go anywhere she starts soiling again.

[Frustratedmum1]

A stimulant basically contracts the colon so it moves the poo along where movicol you are adding water to the stool.

[123555 in reply to Frustratedmum1]

Thankyou

[gaomeile]

Could it be perhaps that you reduce the maintenance dose instead?

If she isn’t impacted and the sweet corn is zipping through maybe she doesn’t need 2 sachets and would be ok on 1.5 or 1.

[123555 in reply to gaomeile]

Thanks for the reply. We did try to go to 1.5 a few months ago but after about a week she found it easier to hold it again. Maybe it's time to try again

[Bambie83]

You’ve pretty much just described what’s going on with my daughter!

We’ve just been prescribed senna to go along with her 1/2 sachets of Laxido so I can’t tell you if it’s worked yet, as we only did it yesterday!

However, what we hope it will achieve is give her the urge to go so she can feel a bit of control back - rather than continuously having to be bugged to go.

We are continuing the regular sits after meals however, she’s a stubborn little 5 year old and what’s to do it herself!

Let me know how you get on if you decided to go for senna.

[123555 in reply to Bambie83]

Hi thanks for the reply. We just got prescribed the senna. GP was reluctant to give it to us but we agreed to try half a dose of senna with her two sachets movicol. She explained that is might cause stomach aches so if that's the case we should stop taking it and think about something else. I really want to see if this will help her go regularly every morning rather than trying to persuade her to go after her soiling. They are so stubborn!How has the senna worked for your daughter so far?

[Bambie83 in reply to 123555]

So far not a lot of progress - we’re on holiday so out of our usual routine and even though we’re still trying to get her to sit after meals there’s still a lot of fighting us! They are so stubborn!