My 2 year old suffered some severe constipation (to the point of needing enemas). The constipation is now sorted; however, she obviously is now terrified to poo in case it hurts like it did when she was constipated.
She is literally holding in her poo! For days! Most days she screams for hours 'poo, poo, poo'! But will not go not matter what we do. Nappy on, nappy off, on potty, on toilet, none of these options work! She ends up going in her nappy eventually once it's physically impossible to hold any longer and it's been days. She gets completely demented by it and sometimes I have to physically restrain her in a squat position until she goes, but I'm worried I am psychologically damaging her as she gets so distressed, though she gets equally distressed no matter how she ends up going. No matter what we try or how we suggest she goes, she refuses ?
Please help!
4 Replies
I'd get her in to see a psychologist, I suspect though if you could get her to poo more often she would stop holding it in. You could try getting something from the chemist that makes her go. She wouldn't be able to hold it, but I wouldn't do that without a psychologists input
My son got like this sometimes whenhe was younger and he did get constipated once I used to feed him dried apricots and prunes to soften the feaces and make him regular after a few times of going he realised it wasn't going to hurt and went back to normal.
Thanks mums. She is on something daily that keeps her regular and keeps her poo soft but she still manages to hold it. This was recommended by her paediatrician. She hasn't been constipated for weeks but is still affected by it terribly.
I feel your pain. My daughter is 4.5 and has had constipation trouble since she was born. She also has high functioning autism so she then would have a meltdown when she needed to poo. We finally got it sorted but then she was too scared to poo. It has taken time but she is finally doing poos freely now without holding it in (sometime for 7 days straight). It just takes time for her to realise that it doesn't hurt any more.