Impacted or not? 4yr old: My almost 4yo is on a v v low... - ERIC

ERIC

9,022 members2,974 posts

Impacted or not? 4yr old

CheshireMama profile image
8 Replies

My almost 4yo is on a v v low maintenance Movicol & things have been good for months. She has sausage shape, perfect consistency poos on the toilet potty anything from daily to every other day to every few.

We know that being out of routine ie Xmas etc can impact things.

She passed a proper sausage poo, then a couple of days of nothing, then another sausage (good size, not too hard, no pain). Then had 2 days of nothing except small smushes. Not sure if soiling as she knows it’s happening and she goes to try etc.

Senna has been given & increased Movicol. Imaging she will poo tomorrow.

But is she impacted if she has had proper shape, size poos just days ago? Or is she just constipated and doing parts of a softer poo?

Written by
CheshireMama profile image
CheshireMama
To view profiles and participate in discussions please or .
Read more about...
8 Replies
Yaleamanda profile image
Yaleamanda

I would monitor for a few days and increase the doses if necessary. If they start soiling, or the stools are particularly foul smelling then it would be helpful to disimpact.

CheshireMama profile image
CheshireMama in reply to Yaleamanda

What dosages have you given for senna before? She always had a low 2.5 ml recommendation. Today is end of day 4 of constipation, up to 2 sachets of Movicol - sounds low but was a gradual increase, will give her 4 tomorrow I think 😞

Yaleamanda profile image
Yaleamanda in reply to CheshireMama

You will need to up the senna as per the Nice Guidelines which can be found if you do a Google search. I would be upping the movicol and disimpacting.

So we had a similar sounding “uh oh” moment during the last week of term. The GP listened and said on the account of how long the new constipated poos had been for (less than a week) she thought we could still aim for achieving regularity without a clear out by slowly upping movicol and using dried fruit as a sort of Senna substitute. And we did manage it! She’s had perfect poos all Christmas holidays.

So in a way I’d agree with wait and see with minor interventions, but maybe book your GP appointment now so by the time it comes up in a week or two, you’ll know if you’ve got it back or if she’s still struggling?

CheshireMama profile image
CheshireMama in reply to

What did you use a the dried fruit? X

in reply to CheshireMama

Prunes have been good, she still has one large one or two small ones for breakfast as maintenance but at times we’ve given them to her in the evening too. Naked bars are well received and work quite well too! Dried apricot works well but can make you windy. She also has a YoYo every day at school too, not sure if that helps or not.

I don’t think dried fruit is anywhere near enough when there’s chronic constipation or impaction, but it can be really helpful in the early stages or in keeping regularity. We found that it was much harder to get the consistency and regularity right when just using movicol.

CheshireMama profile image
CheshireMama in reply to

Thank you. It’s exhausting. I agree, the medication is needed when chronic and problematic. Will try the naked bars too xx

in reply to CheshireMama

It’s very obvious on the bars, but just to let you Naked bars contain nuts. Either not visible or really tiny pieces but given serious nut allergies are a thing, thought I should mention it.

Not what you're looking for?

You may also like...

4yr old - suspected constipation?! Please help us.

My 4yr old son has what seems like constipation. It came on 5mths who. He would go every 3 days and...

4yr old soiling

At the moment my 4yr old is soiling his pants several times a day. He’s been on movicol since he...

4 year old withholding again

Hi My daughter is nearly 5 and has suffered with constipation since she was 2. She has been on...

How to tell if overflow diarrhoea or not?

My 3, nearly 4 year old is struggling with her poos. She has been potty trained with wees for over...

Poo poo poo

Hi everyone I have joined this site for some advice and guidance really... my little boy is 2 years...