Hi all,
I thought that I'd write down our story as, when it all began, I tried to find out information about the situation and only could find others with the same problem! Hopefully this will help someone else to go through this situation.
October 2011
I thought that DD#1 was constipated as she appeared to be straining to move her bowels but wasn't doing dirty nappies. We were in the very early stages of potty training. I upped her prune intake and gave her more kiwifruit than she usually has (both are favourite snacks and she has one or both pretty much every day). We were still getting dirty nappies at this stage, but not at the normal times. Normally we would get one at about 7.30am almost every day, but we were getting them in the evening after DD had gone to bed etc. By the end of October I realised that the position DD would put herself in (leaning on a table or wall bent almost over backwards with her bottom clenched) seemed to show that she was trying to hold the poo in, rather than be straining to get it out. I took her to the doctor who prescribed lactulose and I also started putting linseeds in her breakfast and tried to get her to drink prune juice - she wouldn't but it turns out that she loves prune juice iceblocks. She still wasn't going regularly

November 2011
The problems continued, and DD's behaviour changed. She became grumpy and started refusing to eat. She would also wake up in the night crying in pain. She would run away and hide and try not to poo more and more frequently. Her daycare (she went two days a week - to keep up her relationships for when I have to go back to work) picked up on her change in behaviour and also mentioned that she seemed to be isolating herself, rather than playing with her friends.
We visited the doctor again and again and the 10ml of lactulose was upped to 20 then 30 then 60ml a day. Sometimes it seemed to help. By this time toilet training had stopped completely. For a while DD was too scared to go in the same room as a toilet.

December 2011
By December the lactulose had pretty much stopped working. We were going through about 10 nappies a day, all stained with poo but no real progress. Often when I changed her nappy I could see poo right there but it was just sitting in the opening of her bottom and not coming out. DD was tired and grumpy and distressed most of the time. I tried to make her feel comfortable enough to try and sit on the toilet by decorating the room with posters and stickers, we bought a second toilet seat with padding and I tried using stickers and jellybeans as bribes, all to no avail. I took her to the doctor again and this time was prescribed glycerin suppositories. I was supposed to use these on her every day. The first time I tried ended with DH storming off in a huff and DD and I crying, with no real result. I tried twice more before giving up. DD was now terrified of having her nappy changed and keeps saying (more than 6 weeks later) that she doesn't want the medicine in her bottom.

January 2012
We started off the new year away camping with family, they all commented on her running away to strain and cry in pain - but again no one had any ideas or answers about what to do. When we came home she started getting a really high temperature (39.4) so I took her to the doctor again. This time we saw a different one as our regular doctor wasn't available. He said that DD had an impacted bowel and also said (much to my relief) that he didn't believe in suppositories for children. He started DD on Movicol at an dosage that increased every few days (the medicine comes in sachets, he said to give her 1 on day one, 2 on days two and three, 4 on days four and five and 8 on day six, he said that no one makes it to day six!) the temperature wasn't necessarily related to the poo problems, DD had tonsillitis, but it may have been because she was so run down. He also said that we were at the last ditch effort before DD would have to be refereed to a pediatrician and would have to be admitted to hospital to have the impacted poo removed.
The medicine has to be dissolved in 1/2 a cup of water and getting her to take it that day was impossible. It tasted revolting (I stuck my finger in and tried it) plus she was still pretty unwell as the antibiotics hadn't kicked in yet so I decided to start again the next day. I also talked to my Mum and she suggested buying some ribena to mix with it to mask the taste. It turns out that DD doesn't like ribena - she'd never had it before. Luckily she will drink it mixed with full strength orange juice, she has only ever had juice mixed with half water so maybe she thinks that is what juice tastes like.
Anyway, on day 1 we had 2 poos which were the texture of really sticky clay or plasticine. The next day we had 3, then 4 then one or two a day since, but really runny which usually involves a change of pants as well as a change of nappy.
The doctor has said that we have to come back every week so we have already been to see him again. He said that DD will need to be on medication for at least 6 months so that she can relearn her reaction to the sensation of needing to poo and he also said that we should not try to toilet train her for at least three months, I guess so that there is no stress for her around going to the toilet.
She is on one sachet at the moment (which is a double dose for a child) and we are allowed to drop that to half a sachet if it seems to be too much. He said that whatever we do to keep taking the medicine and not to stop without consulting him first. Apparently if we stop at this stage DD will just stop pooing again as her body is too trained to hold things in.

It has been a tremendously stressful experience and there has been very little information out there to help us. Most things just suggest a dietary change, which didn't have any effect on DD at all! Thankfully DD seems to be becoming her happy and outgoing self again. She has started eating again and no longer has the hard and bloated painful tummy. I'm hoping that we are coming out the other side of all of this!

Thanks for reading!!

I just wanted to say big hugs and I'm sorry you have had to go though this. It sounds horrible. I'm glad your DD is on the mend now. Do they know how this all started?

I am sorry your DD and you had to go through this. Something should have been done much earlier by your dr, but it all seems to be working out now.

Having suffered from similar problems from a baby myself and still ahving to control what I eat and drink due to my bowels, here are my tips to help you and your DD in the future should this problem keep arising for you:

- To relearn to go poos, sit on the toilet at the same time everyday for 1/2 hour. Eventually the body recognizes the need to empty at that time everyday. Also helps if someone sits with her to keep her company. (My brother used to sit in the hallway and chat to me, then if I ended up in pain he would hold my hand til mum got there).
- Ensure the topic of "Bowels" are not forbidden. Make it sound like talking about the weather so that your DD talks to you easily about it.
- Keep a diary of bowel movements, even if it seems its all normal. You will have it to look back at to see if anything happened at that time (stress, school camp, new food)
- Talk to your daughter about what foods are good and bad for her body. And ensure she understands its just her body you, that everyone is different. For example, I can't eat grain bread, but the message out there is white is bad for me. I have to explain that alot.

Also, I used to go off in a daze at the dr's talking about this, so the doctor took a xray of my bowels with poos inside. To a 5/6yo kid that made a whole lot more sense than his yabba yabba!

Sorry if a but of a ramble.
Good luck to you and your DD, and like I said I do hope this is the end of it for you, but if not try these to help you and her.

Your poor little DD. I can empathize, we are going through something similar except my DD hasn't got to the severely impacted state (thank goodness). We have seen a paediatrician who prescribed a sachet of childrens movicol plus 10 + ml of Parachoc a day and she will be on this for at least 6 to 12 months. And you're right, the Movicol is horrid! The only was I can get DD to drink it is mixed in strong juice or lemonade (if we have some).
My DD is doing similar to yours in that she runs away and tries not to poo - she is scared to. We now know the signs to look for though. She gets terribly grumpy and irratable and complains of a sore tummy and that her poo hurts. As soon as we hear this, out comes more Parachoc.
Anyway, sorry, this isn't about my child but just wanted to let you know that DD has in the last 2 days decided to poo on the toilet (she is just 2 and still wont wee on there)! We are very excited about this and hope this is a sign of her becoming more comfortable and maybe regular.
I hope you find the right balance for your DD. Oh and just wanted to add that we were seeing the paed in regards to her urinary tract infection and the paed said that constipated girls often have problems with UTI's. So I guess if she gets an unexplained temp or other signs, maybe get her checked out just in case!

Hi,

Glad to hear that things are looking up for you and your daughter. IIt is wonderful when you get the answers that you have been searching for.

I had a simular thing with one of my boys. He would push and push but nothing would come out. At Christmas time when we saw the doctor about something different I mentioned it to her and she diagnosed the same thing Compaction constipation. I had tried the parachoc but that made no difference and she reccomended the Movicol Junior. Same as you increase as the days go till you get progress. We had progress with lots of poo and then the runs. Please do as your doctor reccemends but we were told to stop when he got the runs. We had great progress and he is now going on the toilet and tells us when he needs to go. It really only took about 1 1/2 to 2 weeks to fix our problem. I know how hard it can be when you have tried everything. But fantastic when you get answers and results.

Good luck and I hope that your daughter makes a full recovery and the toilet training is a breeze.

Thank you for sharing your story. I'm sure that it will help alots of people that need answers and not getting them from doctors.

Once again good luck.

Your poor little DD, I'm so glad you have found a doctor who can help her x

- To relearn to go poos, sit on the toilet at the same time everyday for 1/2 hour. Eventually the body recognizes the need to empty at that time everyday. Also helps if someone sits with her to keep her company. (My brother used to sit in the hallway and chat to me, then if I ended up in pain he would hold my hand til mum got there).

Just have to say, what a sweet brother!

Do they know how this all started?

The doctor's theory is that DD did a poo which hurt and so then next time she felt the urge she tried to hold it in, and that set the wheels in motion (or not in motion!). We're not really sure.