6 year old

[Dad222]

Our son is 6 years old and recently was admitted to hospital with stomach pains and vomiting. After a few days the doctors diagnosed imp action and we were sent home after 3 days on a drip and taking anti sickness medicine.

We were prescribed movicol and are now on day 6 and 12 sachets a day. Our son doesn’t have much of an appetite and has been sick on 3 days out of six- he still gets stomach pain mainly at the end of the day. He is pooing 3-4 times a day - it was quite watery but has now got a bit more solid. I can’t get him to drink enough water which is troubling plus the stomach cramps and occasional vomiting.....he is also on Senna and has been since he started the movicol. Iwe are wondering if this is causing the cramps and am thinking of taking him off of the senna to see if the cramps improve. He didn’t eat for a week and is painfully thin- I’m trying to get some weight back on him but then he vomits it all back up again - is this normal?? Thanks

[Yaleamanda]

No dont him off the senna it's doing its job. Keep going, you won't reach disimpaction otherwise.

[Tiredmum_]

Hi, I don’t have much advice but that sounds so painful not only for the child but also for you as a parent. I think you should consult a doctor again cuz whatever he was prescribed, it should have made him feel better.

[ERIC-Charity Partner]

Dear Dad222 , We are so sorry that your son is clearly feeling so poorly and uncomfortable. When disimpacting, you can often see some runny poo and then some more solid poo. The bowel is very soft and poo can build up and form bulges, and pockets of poo. As you go through the disimpaction, some of this more solid poo becomes dislodged, which it sounds as though that is what you are seeing. It seems as though you are going in the right direction, although we completely understand that it can be difficult to persevere at this stage.

You can vary the times that you give the senna. It is a stimulant laxative and takes 8-10 hours to work. When there is hard poo in the bowel, the stimulant can cause some discomfort. You could try reducing the dose slightly, or giving it at a different time. It's ok to give some appropriate pain relief for these cramps too. This should ease as the poo gets softer.

The benefit of the senna is that it does stimulate the bowel to squeeze the poo along, thereby speeding up the disimpaction process.

I understand that your son's appetite is decreased. This can partly be because he's so full of the movicol, and also so full of poo, as well as being uncomfortable. Warm baths and gentle tummy massage may help. Make sure he's sitting down when he wees, as he is more likely to realise that he needs a poo, and he needs a step so that his knees are higher than his hips. It might be worth trying to add some of the mixed movicol into his food, so that he is drinking less of that and might feel more like having his other drinks too. You can make jelly with the movicol and ice lollies etc.

There are a couple of links below which you might find helpful:

eric.org.uk/podcast/episode...

eric.org.uk/how-to-use-macr...

eric.org.uk/how-blowing-bub...

Best wishes

ERIC