Hi, pretty much from birth my daughter has had trouble passing stool, is now 14 months old and on Movicol. She has 1 sachet a day and this works, she starts going regularly and the poo becomes softer, but then she starts pooing 3-5 times a day. Is this normal?
When this happens I then either cut down to half a sachet, or stop as I think that maybe she is cured, but then of course she gets bad again and the stool becomes hard and painful to pass. So in a vicious cycle of not knowing the signs to stop the medication. I worry 1 sachet a day and going for a poo 3-5 times a day is a lot, and at each passing there is quite a bit of poo and it's like a mash potato texture (sorry if too much information). She has plenty of fruit of veg, is very active for her age and lives a healthy lifestyle. Any help or tips please 🙏 thank you
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Shannon-1
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It sounds as though you are indeed stuck in a bit of a cycle, but you can definitely move things forward.
Firstly, has your daughter ever had a physical examination to rule out any underlying conditions (rare but do need to be excluded)? Poo problems from birth do need to be checked out, she needs a tummy feel and an anus check by your GP.
What you're seeing with the pooing 3-4 times a day is the backlog starting to move, but people often see this and think it's diarrhea and that they are giving too much laxative.
When constipation is diagnosed and laxatives are prescribed, you need to clear out all the old poo, by completing a 'disimpaction' eric.org.uk/childrens-bowel...
After this, you can then find a daily dose of the laxative which keeps your child doing a Type 4 Poo (have a look at this advice sheet on constipation, there is also a poo checker on here, type 4 poo is the 'perfect' poo eric.org.uk/advice-for-chil... ) ideally every day or every other day.
When clearing out the old poo, you need to keep going with the movicol until your daughter has passed rusty water with bits in (the bits will be undigested food) on two occasions, then you know that the backlog and blockages are cleared.
The movicol needs to be mixed with exactly the right amount of water so that it can work effectively. The powder binds with the water to create molecules which are then too big to be absorbed back into the body. This means that they stay in the bowel and get absorbed into the poo. This is why you will see the poo become runnier and runnier. Have a look at a recently recorded video about disimpaction on our facebook page.
You will also find a recording of a recent webinar entitled 'Talking about Wee & Poo' Where we explain how the bowel works and how constipation affects the bowel and is treated. This webinar can be found on the page here eric.org.uk/helpline/
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