Maintenance regime

As we describe in the video, the idea is that your child takes a daily maintenance dose of a macrogol laxative so they are doing a soft poo every day.

The usual dose prescribed by your doctor is between a half to four sachets a day, depending on the child's age.   But the right dose for your child will be the amount it takes to produce a nice soft poo every day, so your child may need more. Note that all dosage advice is based on paediatric preparations of macrogol.

We recommend using the Bristol stool chart as a guide to working out what dose to give your child. The series of pictures of different types of poo has become a standard way of describing poo and judging how the macrogol is working.

What we are aiming for is for your child to be achieving a type 4 or type 5 daily poo.

Poo types 1, 2 and 3 are harder, drier and usually really large poos. So, that means that these poos need more water, to make them soft and easy to pass. So, in other words they need an increase in the macrogol dose.

If your child is doing a Type 7, 6 or 5 poo, it now has too much water in it .So the macrogol dose needs to decrease in order for the poo to be more formed and the child to have more control, as in type 4.

When increasing or decreasing the dose only do this every other day,  otherwise it will be difficult to find the right maintenance dose for your child.

Many parents tell us that when they started taking the macrogol, the poo became very runny and they thought the child had diarrhoea, so they stopped giving it. Please do not stop the macrogol*. Remember that this adds water to the poo, so this runny poo is not diarrhoea - it is poo with macrogol in it.  So if it becomes too runny just reduce the dose. If it is get a bit harder again or your child does not pass their daily poo, then increase.  Aim for your child to be passing a poo every day.

*The exception is that if your child has gastroenteritis, stop the macrogol and then restart when they are well again.

It might take some time to get the right dose for your child. So, play around with the dose and don't be afraid of the macrogol.

Once you feel your child is now doing a soft poo every day, stay on this number of sachets as you have reached the maintenance stage. If the poo changes, becoming harder or softer, then increase or decrease the sachets accordingly by using the Bristol stool chart as a guide.

The guidelines for doctors recommend that you stay on a macrogol until your child has at least six months of normal poo.

 

 

 

 

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