In my days pre-motherhood I used to say “I love a challenge” but I wish sometimes I hadn’t uttered such words. With Little Bean it was (and still is) her picky eating which drives us crazy, with Beanie Boy we struggled for the longest time to wean him from breast to bottle and then we struggled with getting him to sleep through the night and now Jelly Bean is presenting us with a new ‘challenge’ we haven’t experienced before . . .
Ever since I stopped breastfeeding Jelly Bean a year old and he started to eat more solid foods he has struggled with his bowel movements. I don’t think he understood the sensation and so has gone through periods of constipation or an upset tummy. He has been on courses of Movicol which initially made him really loose and gave him a sore bottom but now he seems to have got used to it has started holding his poop in. We thought he was straining to do a poop but we have now realised this isn’t the case and instead he was trying with all his might to hold them in. It has now been over a week since his last bowel movement, his tummy is the size of a small football and rock hard, yet if you press it (I have been doing baby massage on his tummy) you can feel big lumps of poop in his abdomen.
Last night I ended up taking him to our local out of ours Doctor who gave me suppositories for him and has told me to increase his Movicol dosage but so far it hasn’t worked. He is refusing most food as a result of his tummy ache and is hardly drinking anything. Yesterday it got to the point that we were having to syringe water into his mouth under protest which obviously upset both him and us. We tried giving him Fig Rolls (didn’t like them), we tried cups with straws, fancy cups, ice lollies, you name it we have tried it.
Today my poor little man has exhausted himself crying out in pain, as I type this post he has managed to pass one very small poop but not enough to make a difference. He never ever falls asleep anywhere but in his bed or in the car and perhaps the odd occasion in his pushchair but for him to fall asleep on the lounge floor, I know he’s poorly.
Have you ever experienced anything similar with your children? What did you do to help/stop the problem? Obviously this is an upsetting issue to be dealing with so all comments/advice would be gratefully received.
Poor Jelly Bean! I don’t have any wise words other than my friends little girl has always had trouble ‘going’ and even now at 12 years old she can sit on the toilet for an hour waiting for it to happen. If you don’t have any success in the next day or so I’d take him back to the doctors and try to get an ultrasound to rule out a blockage that might be causing the problem.
That was my worry, I was so frightened he might have had a blockage. I’m keeping a very close eye on him at the moment x
ohh bless you this is never nice xx i have this a bit with my eddie and to be honest i give him Fig syrup fairly regularly (every few days) to make him more regular. When I’ve got desperate before i have given him half doses of adult laxative which has worked ….. i know its not recommended but it really does make them so poorly. i encourage eddie to poo wherever he likes – he will often stand up ….. or will a bath relax him enough. xx bless you xxx please note if he gets to the point of being sick (and it really smells) he is basically full and you need help xx bless him and good luck
A few people have recommended Fig syrup to me now so we may give that a go. We had been giving him lactulose but the Doctor at the hospital said that it can actually cause a build up of wind which of course causes more pain 🙁 I kept trying to get him in the bath but he wasn’t having any of it tonight. Thankfully he has now had a pretty good empty out so fingers crossed he won’t do it again but I’m sure he will. Thank you xx
Thank you Phillippa, I had read that online about him being sick with it and was a little worried as he had been sick but thankfully he was ok from that point of view. He still isn’t right but the docs have increased him to two Movicol a day so seeing how that goes for now xx
I had EXACTLY the same with Big Sis – got so it bad that she was about to start school (she started at 4) and would only go poo in a pull-up nappy. We managed to stop that just in time but then she continued to hold it in because she wouldn’t go to the toilet at school. I didn’t even know such a thing existed!!
It became quite a psychological issue with her. We tried everything – pleading, bribing, ignoring it, reward charts, having big talks with her about it. We tried suppositories and movicol and prune juice and tummy massage. It just seemed like nothing was ever going to work.
It all came to a crux one day when she’d refused to go all day at school and we got home and she didn’t make it to the loo in time. It might sound really harsh, but I just sat her down and really told her off, and told her enough was enough, and she couldn’t keep doing this.
But… it worked, and she never did it again. I think she was also embarrassed about having an accident, and that made her realise she couldn’t just choose NOT to poo, simply because she didn’t want to! But in saying all of this, she was obviously older than JB – it’s so much harder when you can’t reason with them.
I hope you find your solution soon!! xxxx
It is so much more common than I had realised. I had heard of lots of children who would only poop in a nappy or a pull up but not to refuse to poop at all. Thankfully since publishing this post, he has now opened his bowels three times and gave me the biggest smile with the last one and said “tummy not hurting” so he must have felt so much better. I really hope this doesn’t keep happening though xx
I’ve written about the Little Man’s poo problems here – http://bodfortea.co.uk/2014/03/does-your-child-cry-when-they-poo.html – essentially he’s still on the Movicol now over a year later and our doctor said that’s just fine as the most important thing is that there is no pain whatsoever when they poo as that can cause them to withhold. We’re down to one sachet every other day now but I’m in no hurry to stop the dosage. Just read your last comment and so glad that he’s going again but just wanted to comment anyway in case it’s useful x
Thank you so much for this Michelle, I have popped over and read your post. He did well with his pooping yesterday but we haven’t seen a thing today and he hasn’t stopped eating. I think we could be in for a long haul with the Movicol but as you said in your post, I don’t want to keep seeing the pained face of my baby boy x