I have a strange question re witholding!

[tartufo]

Hi there,

Wondering how a child can be witholding their poo and at the same time have a stretched colon with lost sensation and leaking poo/soiling? I mean wouldn't a child have to have sensation of needing to poo to be able to hold it in? A bit confused...

My son is 3 and is an obvious witholder, poo dance etc but isn't this meaning that he still can feel when he actually needs to poo to be able to try to hold it back? So is this more an issue of getting him over the mental hurdle and anxiety of pooing rather than necessarily making his poos runny for months and months till his bowel shrinks after doing the disimpaction? He definitely was backed up as was having dark poos but this was only for a few days... and this was only a week or so ago, hence why I did the disimpaction.

Is this staying on laxatives for 6-12 months always needed ? ie is the bowel always stretched in cases where its obvious they can feel the poo need sensation but are just holding it in? TIA

[Yaleamanda]

In answer to all of your questions, yes. You may find adding a stimulant to the regime helps with the withholding behaviour.