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Is your child ready for potty training at nursery? Here's the place for all your toilet training questions.

Potty training

Withholding and movicol

3 replies

AngelaAnaconda · 01/08/2014 15:04

My daughter is almost 3 and has had problems with constipation on and off for the last 2 years, she was prescribed lactulose over most of this period and we had to work her dosage up and down depending on how things were going. We took her off lactulose completely a few months ago as things were regular and didn't seem to be causing her any problems. We started potty training (our 4th attempt) 3 weeks ago and since then she has been withholding, after the first week our doctor prescribed movicol. Because we've had a bit of experience of using this in the past, and it was messy, we decided to just stick to 2 sachets a day, whilst on this dose she managed to mostly withhold her poo (with a few wee bits squeezing out) for 8 or 9 days, then for the last three days every time she's pooed it's been loads, and the consistency of thick soup or gravy! I've had to put her in pull-ups as she never tells us when she's going, I think that she thinks she can still hold it in! Anyway, do I keep going with the movicol? The last time we had this situation we stopped it, and after a week or so we were back where we started, but if I continue to give her it will this runny poo keep coming? We're at our wits end with it here and she's finding if very distressing, we would be grateful for any advice!

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snickers251 · 01/08/2014 15:31

No advice but plenty of empathy!

Ds 4 in sept has been withholding since he was 2 1/2.

Once he had a good clear out I would have lowered the dose, our doc told us to go like this

Day after poo no sachet
Day 1 no poo 1 sachet
Day 2 2 sachets etc

We have managed to successfully potty train day and night just before his third birthday and although wee is fine, poo is still an issue.

He doesn't really leak anymore (and i remember what your describing welll!)but he doesn't poo everyday (not a big eater, never has been but weight is fine) we only give movicol once or twice a week as his not so much constipated just scared now. Some weeks are better than others. A typical withholding day will involve me loading him up on water and eventually he has no choice, he's constantly peeing, so the poo just follows. Then we talk about it ie see it doesn't hurt, lots of smiling , bye poo (off to poo poo land lol)

We stopped stressing about it and despite still going through it, we're all happier.

This morning he called me to the loo to show me he had done a poo , no tears no fuss so he's getting there slowly.

I've been in tears many of times in the last year but there is light at the end of the tunnel Smile

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AngelaAnaconda · 03/08/2014 09:47

Thank you, it's good to know that there's light at the end of the tunnel! All of the leaky poo stopped on Friday night, she'd had one sachet on Fri, and one yesterday. The thing that's bothering me now is that after a couple of weeks of going to the toilet to pee with no problems, yesterday she was upset and fussy every time. I think this is because of all of the mess of the last couple of days, she'll happily sit all day in the dirty nappy but as soon as she can see it it's a big panic until it's all cleaned up! So I think she's just worried every time now. I suppose I just have to persevere until we get it right with the movicol, hopefully it doesn't go on too much longer!

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snickers251 · 05/08/2014 20:26

We did a stage with ds where we (as disgusting as it sounds) showed him the poo and described the colour and size of it. All with a stupid smile on my face lol

Someone suggested it as a way of showing him it's a natural part of the body.

Sounds so stupid but it really helped him Grin

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