Life after Disimpaction!

[Smoochee]

Hello!

My son is 11 & we are on our 2nd round of disimpaction, the 1st we did in July and it seemed to work & followed all the guidelines, it took about 2 weeks and he was on the highest dose for about 7 days. He struggled as he suffered badly with constant cramps and nausea. We reduced and he started to feel a little better and maintained the dose of 2 sachets/day. About 2 weeks afterwards, all the symptoms came back and we’ve just started to disimpact for the 2nd time and it definitely seems to be working ( he’s going lots and we’re at the ‘porridge stage’ ) My question is ‘is it normal to have to repeat the process and other than an x-ray (which we’ve been recommended not to have) is there any other way to check how successful the treatment has been?

Also my son is tall for his age and he’s been given the paediatric dose and I wonder if he needs the adult dose-has anyone been in a similar situation? It so hard when they feel ill already and then the medicine is just making him feel so much worse but I know we have to continue any advice welcome. Thank you!

[Yaleamanda]

Often multiple disimpactions are required. A am adult dose is double the paediatric so it's not really necessary. Are you encouraging regular toilet sits after every meal? How quickly did you reduce the doses down last time? Did you get to watery stools for a few days before reducing the doses down. Is he drinking enough on top of the stool softener as this does not count towards the daily allowance of liquids.

[Smoochee in reply to Yaleamanda]

Hi, Yes he got to the gravy stage for 3 days and we slowly reduced down, he felt so rotten taking the laxido so we didn’t reduced super slowly like you suggested before and the nurse said he could go from 12 to 6, which I know is the opposite of what you recommended! He is generally good at doing toilet time, getting him to drink his daily fluids can sometimes be a challenge though!

[Yaleamanda in reply to Smoochee]

I think that's the issue reducing too quickly.

[Lewhm]

I would go back to the GP and ask for a referral to see a gastroenterologist. My daughter (12yrs) had tried all the medicines going including disimpaction, it helped for a week or two and straight back to where we were. I finally requested a referral as nothing helped and she was diagnosed as having coeliac disease (GP kept saying it was constipation, but I knew there was something else going on as nothing worked and she was constantly feeling sick and the pain was unbearable for her)