Although I'm sorry others are going through this, it is ...

Hi there

I'm the Mum who posted comment No.4! I've just read about your experience and wanted to update you on ours, as we've been having some success with our latest combination. We've also received a letter from the hospital to tell us our name has been added to the list for an appointment, here's hoping! We're now using 10mls lactulose (osmotic laxative) in the morning. Then 10mls of lactulose and 10mls senna syrup (stimulant laxative) at night, with 1 sachet of Movicol every third day. Our daughter, who'll be two in May, now manages to pass at least one large stool each day. (very large - an adult would be proud of it!) It usually happens in the evening after a warm bath, which seems to help her to relax and pass the stool with relatively little discomfort, certainly far less distressing than it used to be for her.

She's now sleeping through at night, probably because she's no longer so bloated and bunged up. We're still going to attend the paediatric appointment when it comes through as we still have concerns about why our daughter needs all this extra laxative therapy when she now eats a healthy, balanced diet and drinks plenty of fluids. Also we'd like to know the implications of long-term laxative use on such a young child.

We'll keep you posted via this site!

Good luck with your son's treatment. :ok:

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Well, we've seen the consultant at the hospital. She was sympathetic to our situation - which had been up and down since my last posting on this site. My daughter would go several days without passing any motions at all, even when being given lactulose, senna and movicol in varying quantities. Ironically, the night before we attended hospital, she had a huge bowel movement after her bath, so her abdomen felt soft and empty on examination by the doctor - typical!

Anyway, the consultant has suggested that we use Movicol daily, with lactulose and senna in varying quantities when necessary. She's happy with the quality of our daughter's dietary intake, although she suggested all children could be encouraged to drink more. The Consultant did say that the laxatives are perfectly safe to use on a long term basis and we should expect to be using them for a minimum of 12 - 18 months, up to 2 years +. Our daughter is now managing to pass a stool with little or no discomfort once every two days or so, sometimes daily. It still happens most easily after a warm bath, I don't know if that relaxes her tummy muscles, but it seems to help.

We're returning to the Consultant in a few weeks, but things seem to be turning a corner for us.

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Hi,

I'm so glad I found this article. Our daughter is 2yrs and 4 months ang has been consipated since she was about 6months old. She is currently taking 35mls of lactulose a day and 5mls of sodium picosulphate. Our paediatrician keeps saying to just increase the lactulose until she is going every day and that if she doesn't empty her bowel every day basically we are back to square one. We are out of our mind. She eats and drinks really well and every now and again will take Movicol but she dislikes it. To be honest I don't know which she hate more the movicol or lactulose. Anyway, we don't seem to be seeing any improvement and are out of our mind. Does anyone else have these problems?

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