Any parent who has dealt with severe constipation in a child knows how excruciating it can be. But imagine if a simple suppository couldn’t save your little one from suffering. Mom Elissa Novak from Nuneaton in Warwickshire, England, told the BBC that her toddler’s constipation was so bad, it “robbed” him of a childhood.
Novak said during the worst peak of his constipation, her son Ivan, who is now 5 years old, would constantly vomit, drop weight, and scream for “hours” in pain, the Irish Daily Mirror reported. At one point, Ivan was admitted to the hospital 25 times in a six-month period.
“It was horrific,” Novak told the BBC. “He was so frail he couldn’t lift himself up or do anything. He was in pain all the time and either screaming or just lying there because he was too weak.”
The stools were so hard and impossible to pass they were crushing the poor boy’s lungs and stomach.
Novak says that she spent an “unbelievable” amount of time with her general practitioner pediatrician to determine the root cause of the pain. At the time, however, there was no “bowel or bladder” community service for kids available. Novak says this, plus the fact that her son has two genetic syndromes that affect his cognitive abilities, led to her son being routinely misdiagnosed.
“It was seen as ‘that’s just what disabled children are like’. We did actually have one consultant who said ‘disabled children just scream’,” Elissa told the BBC. “It wasn’t looked into properly, it wasn’t taken seriously until he was really at crisis point. His signs of pain weren’t recognized. It was just a perfect storm really.”
Ivan’s colon was severely impacted; a doctor even once confirmed that of his 26 pounds, four of them were stool inside his body.
In the UK, bowel and bladder care is reportedly severely underfunded and underutilized, something Novak is trying to raise awareness of by sharing her son’s story. “People are falling through the cracks,” she said.
The charity Bladder and Bowel UK, states that around 1.5 million kids in the UK suffer with constipation issues.
Davina Richardson, a children’s specialist nurse with the charity, is among those who think it needs more attention. “It’s a huge problem and many healthcare professionals don’t consider it a serious issue in children. Discussing wee and poo is very un-British,” she told the BBC. “It’s not something that we as a culture do.”
Thanks to Ivan and his brave family, hopefully that will change drastically.
