3 year old was impacted got better but very poorly again after having lots of poos daily

[Ejcrossman1]

Hey,

I had to take my 3 year old to a & e 3 weeks ago due to severe pain in his tummy and being sick. The doctor said he was impacted so prescribed him movicol. For a week he was in agony walking round the room holding his bum area with chronic tummy pain. Finally though a week later he started to have a good clear out and was then the happiest and energetic I’ve seen him in months. He was eating really well too.

Unfortunately this all went downhill last Thursday evening when he said his tummy was hurting him again, he seemed better Friday morning but when I picked him up from nursery in the afternoon was in agony again and has been all weekend. Last night was awful he didn’t sleep a wink.

I’ve been giving him a sachet of movicol a day for over 2 weeks and he’s been having lots of poos daily but the doctor has told me to increase to 2 a day?? I don’t understand how it has gone downhill again so quickly after having lots of poos, he’s had bad diarrhoea today too. Has anyone else found this with there little ones? It’s very distressing to see him in so much discomfort and pain

[14crosstitch14]

When my daughter came to us with direah i gave her diralyte which helps replace what her body is loseing and helping to pooh let looser bowels.. Movicols list of symptoms is what you describe. She don't need movicol now we eat a high fibre diet. Hope this helps.

[Le15]

Getting the maintainance dose of movicol right after a clear out is really difficult. We give our son 2 sachets a day - one in the morning and one in the evening and have done since the summer when we had to do 3 movicol clear outs over 8weeks. Sometimes poos are normal, sometimes runny, but until he’s older and knows how important it is to poo as soon as he needs to go, we will keep him on it to stop the constipation coming back.

Are you sure the impactation was completely cleared? Did you get to brown water? We had to do it a 3 times in 8 weeks over the summer and just last week my son’s tummy pain was back, the aggression was back, he had no energy and then the poo and wee accidents started. This is all despite the fact he poos DAILY! But I just know the signs so well now that we can address it really quickly. We did another clear out this weekend to try and sort the issue (again!)

If I were you I’d do another movicol clear out - until you’re sure its brown water - which can take days and is so messy. And then keep on the maintainance dose of 2 to stay runny until his bowels recover in a few months time. The biggest mistake with movicol is coming off too early from what I’ve read so they could be on it for 6m plus. It won’t do him any harm to have overly soft poos but the constipation could.

Hope that helps! Best of luck

[Yaleamanda]

Because you havent fully disimpacted him, one or two sachets per day will not clear him out unfortunately. You need to work upto the maximum doses for his age which is 8 sachets per day and stay there until you reach watery stools with no lumps in consistently for three days before you start to reduce the doses down extremely slowly, i.e. one sachet every three days until you reach a suitable maintenance dose to remain on. Fluid intake is key, lots of water, regular toilet sits after every meal if they are potty trained.

[Lewhm]

If he is having runny poohs it doesn’t sound like he needs more Movicol. Have you seen the video from “the Pooh nurses”? It’s really helpful.

The tummy pain and constant poohs might be the cause of something else. It might be worth going back to your GP and asking for a referral to a Gastroenterologists.

For two years, my daughter was told she had chronic constipation and kept being put on Movicol (plus lots of others things like suppositories and high fibre diets, it just made her worse)! Nothing worked and she was in so much pain. She then collapsed with the pain and was rushed to hospital where she had several tests and found that she wasn’t constipated, but had Coeliac disease. I’m not saying that is what your son has, but GPS are too quick to say it’s constipation when it could be something else.

Hope you get some help, nothing worse than seeing little ones in pain.