Help! Poo withholding on holiday

[Sarah lo]

Hi, I'm hoping someone can give me some advice how to help my 3 year old who has just started poo withholding in holiday. He's been potty trained for a few months now except for his poos which he usually does in his nappy once a day. We haven't been able to get him to do it on the toilet yet but I figured he'd get there eventually and haven't pressed the issue.

However this week things have gotten bad and he's started poo withholding. We're on holiday in Turkey at and there's very little he wants to eat in the buffet apart from bread and hot dog sausages. And I think the poor diet, along with him not really having a private corner of the room to go to to have a poo - at home he usually takes himself away to his bedroom to do it in his nappy just before bedtime but here we're all in one little hotel room.

It's got pretty bad over the last few days, he keeps clenching his bum to hold it in and apart from a few little poops that came out actually yesterday, he hasn't really done one in about 6 or 7 days and I'm worried he's going to end up really badly constipated and/or with a poo withholding problem when we get home.

We're here for another week so I need to do something to help him. Can anyone suggest anything? I have tried giving him oranges to help him go and yesterday I managed to get a few little bits of cucumber into him but now he's refusing to eat them as well

 

[Take2]

I'd start with prunes, and maybe put him in the bath if you have one, the water can be relaxing..bit gross I know but if you're desperate

 

[Sarah lo]

Thank you for the reply. There's no prunes but they have big ish raisin type things (possibly dates?) are they any good? I just managed to get another orange into him, making it into a game of "this is my orange and I hope nobody steals it off my plate when I turn around"

We do have a bath in our room so I will give that a try

 

[Take2]

Any dried fruit will help, lots of water to, and try to keep moving, exercise gets the bowel moving. Failing this I'd suggest trying to find a pharmacy to get some stool softener..surely there is something there to help, good luck!

 

[Teri7489]

Any fruit juice will help, it softens the bowel movements if consumed slowly so encouraging him to sip it will help. A warm bath can help too. Does he like porridge? To prevent him becoming constipated he needs fibre that not only softens his poo but bulks it out to enocugae the bowel to push it along. Porridge is good for that. I hope hes OK xx

 

[AnneD]

Prunes or dried figs - soak them in water, have him drink the water and eat the softened fruit. Increase the liquid intake, if the poo is dry because he is not drinking enough, it can get impacted. Fruit juice is good, if things are bad, I'd temporarily ditch any principles you may have (such as not giving him juice or squash) just to make him drink. Camomile tea, fruity teas, water infused with fruit or veg (you can turn this one into a game, such as who can get down to the fruit first etc.), but he needs to drink lots, especially if it's hot. And yes if he hasn't been for this long, I'd have a chat with the pharmacist. For privacy, could you make him a den with two chairs and a sheet, or send the rest of the family for a long walk?

 

[Sarah lo]

Thank you for the replies
I managed to get some more fruit and juice into him yesterday and DH and I both took a turn at taking him up to the room for an hour during the day yesterday, I had no luck with him but on DHs turn with him he did a little bit in his nappy (not a full poo but probably enough to make Hhim feel a little bit better for the time being)

I'm going to try some more of your ideas today and maybe go see the hotel doctor if it's no better later. I really like the making a den idea, he was trying to hide behind the chair yesterday so I'll let him do that again and give him some toys to play with while he's in there