Feeling sorry for my little one

[DisheartenedMama]

Hi everyone, I’m new here and I’m hoping I can feel like we’re not alone. Im feeling a bit upset over our most recent hospital experience.

Our little girl (3y) has suffered with impaction probably about 5-6 times now over her life from about 20 months.

She’s even until now never been more than 4-5 days without going and the last 2-3 days in a cycle like that I can’t go to work etc as she’s in SUCH a lot of pain poor thing.

At first even though it was awful to see and heartbreaking I didn’t think it was unusual and thought she just had a big poo, and of course was uncomfortable so took it as it came. Tried to contact our GP to discuss constipation but they didn’t come back to me so I tried to manage the situation with her diet which took work but seemed to work fine with exception to 1 episode.

However she’s had 3 episodes since the start of winter, 2 of which being in the last 10 days or so. Both the most recent times I’ve ended up taking her to children’s a and e because the pain she was in was worse than before and I just couldn’t bear for her, it broke my heart.

The first time we were seen quite quickly and prescribed movicol to disimpact (I think I’m using the right terms) but that she just had to pass the large poo herself (which she did). However I never managed to get her to accept 8 sachets a day in that week’s treatment and never got to the watery diarrhoea they said she needed to reach (although they never explained why or what the goal was).

After 8 days of only being able to get her to have up to 4-5 sachets throughout the day in her drink I stopped (we were advised we didn’t need to continue going forward) as I just couldn’t get her to have the max. I was intending on leaving it a few days then contacting the GP (if humanly possible) but she ended up unfortunately with tonsillitis and was very unwell in that time and had amoxicillin instead which took precedence.

So of course (I know now in hindsight it was obvious it would happen due to her bowel recently being stretched from the last time), she then ended up with another impaction which was the most painful yet. I took her to a and e again with the pain and they were I really think just awful to us, she was screaming and crying and I was begging them to see her sooner and said she needed higher pain relief. They said they ‘don’t do’ any other pain relief for children other than paracetamol and ibuprofen and that they had her down as constipation and wouldn’t change it. Were really rude to me when I was clearly in distress with my poor daughter. When eventually we were seen after 10 hours wait…they said that they didn’t want to do an enema etc as it’s traumatic as she’s little and prescribed some gel to help numb her bum and advised to take movicol going forward. Thank goodness she’s had the bowel movement now but it was DAYS of absolute agony for her.

(If you’ve read this far you are amazing)

2 things -

I am so angry with myself for not demanding help sooner, I didn’t know this could be so painful and so awful and I’m worried my little one is damaged physically and/or mentally from this whole thing and it’s my fault

I am so angry with the hospital! I cannot believe that they don’t do ANY other pain relief, she was screaming! What if a little one had (god forbid) chopped an arm off, do they just give them calpol?? And I’ve not had any proper explanations or suggestions of referrals. No end goal, no plan. Not what to look out for. Im in the dark and I have no idea what to do! I’ll be TRYING to contact my GP again and ask for a consultant referral - is that the right thing to do??

I’m just a bit sad and new to it all, anyone weighing would be very welcome xx

[Fruitsalad]

Sorry you and your little one went through this. I can only speak from my own experience but I think the guidance would be for her to stay on movicol if it’s a recurring problem. My little one has been on it for three years, each time we try stopping she gets constipated again. I think your little one may have an understandable fear of going now so something to keep it soft and moving for a while would be good. I hope you can get in with your gp. Maybe look at the nice guidance on constipation in children. Good luck.

[Fruitsalad in reply to Fruitsalad]

Just checked for you and the guidance for treatment is: Continue medication at maintenance dose for several weeks after regular bowel habit is established – this may take several months. Children who are toilet training should remain on laxatives until toilet training is well established. Do not stop medication abruptly: gradually reduce the dose over a period of months in response to stool consistency and frequency. Some children and young people may require laxative therapy for several years. A minority may require ongoing laxative therapy.

[trojan1]

I'm sorry for what you both went through; I have to take opiate painkillers due to a lower back injury and chronic pain. Keep on going with the laxatives, Laxido is very good but bear in mind that you must drink plenty of water/fluids to get the best results, as Laxido/macrogol take water from other parts of the body and use it in the bowel to push out a turd. Think of it as a pressure washer pushing along a poo.

I have to take strong pain medication which causes chronic constipation, it's a nightmare in terms of the bowel.

I can 100000% agree with how painful it is, it's the worst pain I've ever experienced, I've had major spinal surgery and a different procedure in the pain clinic and it's still the worst amount of pain I've ever been in.

I often get backed up which causes absolute agony!!! It was so bad I thought about cutting my own stomach open and taking the poo out of my bowel.

Now for the hospital part: Again, I'm sorry you both had to go through all of that, however if they gave your child anything stronger the type of painkillers they use will make her even more constipated. But I do agree with you, I have no idea why the hospital would want watery diarrhoea. You really need to get that GP appointment to get the process moving if it's necessary and to make sure the laxatives are being prescribed.

I have a solution for you my best advice is: Use the Laxido or macrogol (same thing) as instructed AND USE Bisacodyl/Dulcolax, this is what I have to do, or I'll suffer the face of the agonising bowl pain. They both work in 2 different ways which will greatly increase the. chances of pooing for England. Taking a daily 1 or 2 laxatives should help reduce the risk of it happening again which you 100% don't want.

The antibiotic amoxicillin doesn’t have any interaction with macrogol so you can take both.

A high fibre diet will really help settle things down and get the bowel process moving along.

Don't be angry with yourself you did the right thing. Kids are much tougher and stronger than we think they are, she’ll be fine.

Going forward the plan needs to be getting a GP appointment and discussing suitable laxatives probably more than one and go from there. If things don’t improve make another GP app and ask about a referral.

Again, I just want to add that the key for using macrogol is making sure plenty of fluids are being drank.

I hope this helps, please reach out to me if you need help or anything else! You’re more than welcome to update me. Again, this isn’t your fault at all so don’t be angry with yourself; seeing and hearing your child in horrific pain is more than enough to make anyone upset.

Please take care.

Matt

[14crosstitch14]

Sorry to hear this, it sounds awful. Hospitals won't risk pain relief for certain things. Best you can do is lots of fluids and fibre and try prunes/ juice or puree can be used with food. Flax seeds i'v recently been baking with has a lot of fibre in it. Light exercise like squats can also help. I have tried a lot of different things, and the prunes mixed with apple juice and pureed really works, mixed with any chocolate rolled in coconut. They'll just think its a treat. If they don't like prunes. Plenty sweet corn.