My son has been having toileting problems since he has been out of nappies at about 2 years old. He has been prescribed movicol for nearly a year, had about 6 months back in nappies to give him a break from us constantly asking (nagging) him "do you need a poo?" when he does the poo dance. Things seemed to improve but he was still only having one mega poo every 3-4 days with soiling in between. We've since realised that this is not enough, and likely he's been constipated for a very long time. He was on a low movicol dose which we were putting in porridge, and again we've only recently realised that this is not recommended (even if mixed with water first?). Things have deteriorated and we need to disimpact, but the trouble is getting him to drink movicol. He doesn't drink enough fluid as it is (I'm shocked by how little he drinks) and he screws his face up when he has "medicine water". Squash doesn't seem appealing either. If I dilute it enough so that the movicol can't be tasted, the quantity of it is too great and he won't drink it anyway. It's a real stumbling block. I've resorted to mixing the movicol water with hot chocolate but I don't think this is recommended. I really want to get this sorted/stable as I'm aware it can take months for the bowel to start working properly again after disimpaction. We have tried talking to him and explaining but I think he would rather stay constipated than have very wet poos even in the short term. Advice welcome!
4 year old on movicol, but won't drink it!: My son has... - ERIC
4 year old on movicol, but won't drink it!
As long as you mix it with the correct amount of water you can add it to anything else afterwards, including hot chocolate and porridge (its weetabix you want to avoid) Try Vimto and make the movicol wiht cold water, it more palatable that way. You can make it up and store it in the fridge and it to drinks throughout the day. It just needs to be consumed within a 12 hour period.
Thank you for your reply, it's just so confusing to hear different advice about mixing with food - why is porridge OK but weetabix not OK? Cold water is a good tip - I'll try that, thanks
Weetabix acts like cement in the bowels they are insoluble fibres, not what you want. Oats are soluble so much better. You really need to mix it correctly otherwise it is ineffective.
Argh, again so confusing as everything I read says that weetabix is good for relieving constipation because of the fibre!! It makes total sense though that weetabix is really sticky/cement like and so will bung up the bowels?!
Yep that's exactly what it does. Have you ever left weetabix out and gone back to it, it's cement in a bowl, well that's what it does in the bowel. It really is the worst food for constipation.
How about digestive bran?
Hi Isabella. I’ve had two kids on movicol, both from a similar age to your son, and they have always had theirs in hot chocolate. I dissolve it in only a small amount of water first (a few teaspoons) and then add the hot choc. It’s part of our breakfast routine every morning. I think you just need to try whatever works for you rather than worry too much about If it’s the recommended way. Good luck.x
Thanks for your reply, I just don't want to make the movicol less effective - If it makes no difference I'll mix with anything he'll ingest!
My Dr said it can be mixed in with milk, have you tried that? We haven't cos my son will take it with squash, but perhaps someone else here has? Have you tried yoghurt?
I'm not sure what movicol is like as mine is on laxido which I am told can go in many drinks and in food etc.
And as harsh as it sounds, perhaps just not telling him what it's in might work as he won't be focused on 'medicine water'. Maybe a nice smoothie?
I hope you find something that works for you!
Thanks for your reply. We're a bit cautious about not telling him the truth (when he asks) as I don't want him to not trust us (or himself) if he suspects there's movicol in it and I tell him there isn't. Also, there's been a few days where he's eaten or drunk very little and I think it's because he doesn't want to risk having movicol at all - don't want to go down that route...! Having said that, he's quite fickle and has been OK having it other times 🤷♀️
Yeah I can see why that wouldn't work, the last thing anyone wants is for him to lose trust. I hope you find something that works for you both 
We mix it with water then add it to milk/apple juice/orange juice if it's a nursery day or the milk in her cereal if having breakfast at home. Seems to still work.
In terms of getting other liquids into him, maybe try homemade ice lollies or fruit/veg high in water content - won't help with the movicol but will help with getting more fluid in.
Hope you get something that works for him, understand how frustrating it can be!
Thank you for your reply, some good tips!
I mix it in a little water and then add milk and chocolate sauce to make a milkshake. He has it every morning. And it works. I was told you can put it in anything so long as you mix it in 60ml of water first. It is working for us mixed with milk, as when he doesn’t have it, he doesn’t go.
Thanks for your reply, good that it's still effective when you mix with milk
And in the drinking, my son drank literally nothing all day and any liquids made him gag. (Aside from chocolate milk). He’s older, but when I had him at home during lockdown I trained him to drink more. He drinks cordial, not water, but I’m ok with that. He has gone from 0 to two litres. I started small by giving him one small cup of cordial every couple of hours and saying he could do xyz activity once he had his drink. I had a chart and he got rewarded for drinking. We tracked drinking, peeing and pooping and bed wetting and he eventually got on board. So, I added more and more until we got to - drink this 1.4l bottle by lunch time. His body got used to drinking and then wanted to drink and now he drinks a couple of litres a day. But one year ago, he drank nothing, not a single sip.
Wow , that's amazing! Well done for achieving that with him - have you noticed an improvement in his general health? More energy/ less grouchy? Dehydration is bound to have a negative effect?
Yes, though more the signs that were screaming at me. His wee went from dark dark brown (literally so so dark) and smelling absolutely awful to a normal colour. And it massively helped the bed wetting. One of my (non medical) theories that I shared with him, was that his body was retaining liquid as it never knew when its next drink was coming. And that was contributing to bed wetting. He could drink 200ml in a day, drink nothing from lunch time and still wet the bed. It didn’t happen overnight but by slowly increasing the liquids and linking it to routine and reward etc, we made huge progress. I used to worry he’d end up with kidney stones by age 10! I don’t remember a big wow moment of noticing a new vitality, I think I was too focused on the reduced bed wetting and the relief of seeing normal wee to notice his energy!! I told school that his water bottle would have cordial and if they were not ok with that, I would get a letter from the consultant. I also had the teaching assistant not let him out to play until he had drunk a certain amount. So he has a drink bottle that is not transparent so the other kids don’t see it.He is still on movicol though, and when he doesn’t have it, he gets constipated. But he has recently been able to recognise that if he doesn’t go when he needs to, it goes hard and then hurts. Massive breakthrough. He had a bad experience at his father’s recently and was in so much pain after not going for three days that he now races off to the toilet when he first feels the need. He is about to turn 10 and and all the big breakthroughs have happened in the last 12 months, he is now mature enough to see connections. He happily drinks the movicol in chocolate milk at breakfast.
Hi. It is very difficult getting the quantity of movicol in them. Mine is a poor at eating and drinking and we recently tried disimpaction (never got to 8 sachets though unfortunately) .Anyway we add it to everything, he ended up having cereal twice a day as we were desperate. Chocolate milk, strawberry milk, juice. Added it to jelly, yogurt and other puddings, custard gravy etc. Mine wouldn't eat most of this so it was lots of very runny yogurt.
What did work was a game of running round the house (or anything really) with a drink each lap. My husband made it into a fun game but it was a lot of effort for a cup of water!!
Good luck. Speak to the eric helpline if you get too stuck, they are very helpful.
Did u manage to get to 8 sachets I'm really struggling and he can taste it I everything. X
No we never got to 8, we continued for 3 weeks on about 6ish sachets, eric helpline said you can do long slow disimpaction but he started eating and drinking less so knew it wasn't doing him much good. Gp said to reduce to 4. We're now back to the beginning. Sorry I can't be more helpful. I think it depends on the child as to how much you can get in them. You could try eric helpline? Good luck
Thank you- we are finding the most effective way is to be playful. He pours the drink (in whatever form!) from cup to glass to teapot to shot glass, he has it warm/cold, drinks it with various different spoons... he's all about the novelty factor and it's a slow process but as long as he drinks it and poops I don't care!
Yes it can take months. You need good clear week or 2 at home, routine of going toilet after all meals. Sweet corn and high fibre diet, as for fluids i get my girls small cartons or orange snd apple juice and small bottles for school, my step daughter is hard work and stubborn. She'll eat soreen and corn on the cob. She dosen's have movicol never really needed it. She just needed encouragement and has a fidget toy in the toilet. If he think you'v put something in his drink he won't drink it, give him drink options. My girls drink milk shake and love yoghurt drinks. Fibre bars. He needs to be relaxing when useing the toilet, music helps.
I used to put it in bittles of ready made empty fruitshoot bottle. I'd fill it. Shake it up. She thought nothing of it, we don't like fruit shoot but she kept getting them from her mum's so just, put in his favourite drink or a ice pops. They think just a treat.
Try fibre and lots of it. Peanuts, pop corn soreen . Will he have a fruit smooti. Ice lollies/pops he's getting fluids that way, dosen't realise and will also help. Maybe a frozen slushy? Raisins/prunes if you eat it he'll eat/drink it.
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