Trying to fit it all in

[OhBoy07]

My 6 year old was doing really well, doing large sausage type poos every other day but then 2 weeks ago, he was cramping and then have large amounts of really loose watery poo/diarrhea on the toilet. I put it down to a stomach bug as I know some school friends had been off with it. I kept him off school and he was also having frequent urge to pee too, often straight after he'd already gone. Since then and now, mostly small amounts of loose poo, but one evening there was just clear liquid coming out of his bowel. We had one day of a decent size solid round poo but nothing solid since. There is soiling in between so he is clearly severely constipated maybe impacted. I'm dreading going down the disimpaction route again for two reasons. One, I'm a single working parent, and a few years ago, it took 6 weeks to do, and I don't know how I'm going to get the time off work to do it, and two, I have always struggled to get my son to drink (which I believe has caused this) despite best efforts from myself, family members and the school, and I honestly don't know how I'm going to get him to drink all the sachets. It takes half an hour for him to drink 2 thirds of a beaker of water! He takes tiny sips and it's painful to watch. He only drinks water but not enough of it, and when I try to get him to drink more, he gets in a rage (im the worst mum, he hates me, crying, shouting, lashing out). I feel like I have to bully and threaten with no more this and no more that to get him to drink, which does work but obviously causes upset and anger which is not how I want him to feel. How do others here get a child to drink, and how do you fit in disimpaction. Do you take time off work, does someone else do it for you, parental leave? Special leave, use up all your leave? How do you do it? I cannot work from home and I can't expect my parents who are in their 70's to do it, it has to be me, but I don't see how I will get the time off work. Anyone else have this problem and what did you do?

[Yaleamanda]

Can you give the sachets in the morning sbd evening? Once you have mixed up with the correct amount of water first you can add it to anything else afterwards including food, ie jelly, gravy, smoothies etc...

[OhBoy07 in reply to Yaleamanda]

He's on 2 sachets at the moment and it's taking me all day to get him to drink them plus an additional 700 ml of water. He understands lack of drinking has caused soiling, he hates doctors and sharp things, he's embarrassed and upset this is happening but still he does not want to drink and I don't understand why it's so difficult to drink a glass of water.