Struggling to potty train with chronic constipation

[winnie45]

Hello, I’m currently struggling to potty train my 3 year old daughter.

She has suffered a year with constipation which she is on laxatives for. One week she’s fine, the next completely constipated. We have started potty training but she is now with holding her wees (from 9am until 5pm!) we encourage lots of fluid, rewards etc but nothing.

Myself and husband are pulling our hair out with what to do. I have reached out to ERIC recently hoping to get a response soon.

We are also going back to our GP with the hope they can investigate her constipation properly and refer us on.

Not sure if anyone else has encountered this sort of problem, would be great to hear if anyone has had a similar experience .

Many thanks

[PurpleMoo]

Hi, we've been going through similar with our 3 year old so sorry you are going through this too, I know just how stressful and hard it is. Our daughter has been suffering with constipation since around 1 year old but as dr's was all over the phone we never got proper advice about how to use laxatives and how the macrogol ones work. I kept trying to reduce the dose once whe was pooing more regularly which all back fired!To be honest its only in the last few months I've really got it figured after trawling through ERIC website looking for advice on withholding - she's only pooed at night for 18 months but started withholding wee about 6 months ago. I didn't realise that when on a maintenance dose of laxative they should be pooing everyday, we upped her laxative to 2 sachets a day and she started pooing regular as clockwork so might be worth looking at if you haven't already.

We've only just started making headway with the weeing and it's a bit two steps forward one step back. We were on holiday and I guess not having time pressures that we usually would helped. I really focussed on getting her to relax, piled cushions up behind her so she could lay back and we did deep breaths, silly noises with our tongues and the next thing I know she said I'm doing it! I was not expecting it to work so was amazed! So thats what we've been trying to keep doing, she is still resistant if she's not in her safe places or is too distracted so it's constant encouragement and at the moment in her nappy as the potty training went so badly she's refused but too be honest I just wanted her to wee! Really hope you make some headway soon, I've been in tears many times about it, never thought this would be an issue. x

[winnie45 in reply to PurpleMoo]

so sorry to hear what you are going through too!

It’s a bit of a nightmare. Sounds like we need to get the laxitives under control. We too kept having drs appointments on the phone, certainly aren’t getting anywhere with that now.

We have put my daughter back in nappies too as I’m worried she will get a urine infection or stretch her bladder (apparently that’s a thing too?!)

I will try the mouth techniques with the tongues I heard that relaxing the mouth can help. Getting them to blow on a wind mill etc, will give it a shot!

The worry is can we get this all sorted before school starts next year!

Best of luck x

[Tiredmum_]

Hi, I don’t have much advice but my son 4 year old holds his wee for 24 hours each time we try to potty train him. We are currently on our 4th time trying to train him and he is again doing this. One positive thing is that he now says he has funny feeling down there but doesn’t want to let it go. I’m now just focusing on making him sit on the toilet at regular intervals without mentioning wee or poo words. Because last time he managed to do that and did successfully for 3 weeks but then he started holding it for 20+ hours so we stopped. If you get any success then please do share it here 😊

[winnie45 in reply to Tiredmum_]

That sounds very stressful, I hope he gets used to using the toilet soon! Sounds like he knows the feeling I think they get too clever with letting go.

I will absolutely share any success.

Good luck too x

[14crosstitch14]

Somthing in her head is stopping her. I played a potty game with dolls for constapated s daugter. It helped. Also give her a toilet routine following you before after meals, going out going bed. Make a routine of it. Music also helped bubbles for a while. Fidget toy was only used in toilet and i had alexa on for relaxing. Took a very ling time. Were their now.