{"id":398034,"date":"2025-09-04T19:28:17","date_gmt":"2025-09-04T19:28:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/398034\/"},"modified":"2025-09-04T19:28:17","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T19:28:17","slug":"toddler-so-constipated-his-stomach-and-lungs-were-crushed-as-he-screamed-in-pain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/398034\/","title":{"rendered":"Toddler so constipated his stomach and lungs were crushed as he screamed in pain"},"content":{"rendered":"

Doctors in Warwickshire said that at one point, 2kg of Ivan Novak’s tiny 12kg bodyweight was stool, with the constipation leaving him in excruciating agony<\/p>\n

15:07, 04 Sep 2025Updated 16:14, 04 Sep 2025<\/p>\n

\"StockElissa Novak said she was visiting the hospital up to four times a week with her poorly son (Image: Victoria Jones\/PA Wire)<\/p>\n

A toddler <\/a>was left with such severe constipation <\/a>that his organs were crushed while he screamed in agony.<\/p>\n

Mother Elissa Novak said the worst of the condition<\/a> saw her son Ivan suffering constant vomiting, weight loss and excruciating pain. A doctor later estimated that 2kg of his tiny 12kg bodyweight was made up of stool.<\/p>\n

NHS<\/a> figures show the number of children under 16 admitted to hospitals<\/a> with constipation is at the highest level in 10 years. Between 2023 and 2024, there were more than 44,000 admissions to English hospitals.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: ‘I’m an NHS GP and your bloating could mean you have undiagnosed condition’<\/a>READ MORE: ‘I lost 4st on weight loss drug Mounjaro – but it’s ruined my life after severe side effects’<\/a><\/p>\n

Ivan, now five, had his toddler years “completely robbed” due to constipation. In one six-month period in 2022, he had to be admitted to hospital 25 times.<\/p>\n

“It was horrific,” Elissa, from Nuneaton in Warwickshire, told the BBC<\/a>. “He was so frail he couldn’t lift himself up or do anything.<\/p>\n

“He was in pain all the time and either screaming or just lying there because he was too weak.”<\/p>\n

The 35-year-old mum said she constantly sought the advice of her GP, trying to get the answers to help her little boy.<\/p>\n

But at the time, there was no community service for incontinence in the county, meaning they were going to A&E up to four times every week.<\/p>\n

Elissa eventually found out that constipation was the cause of his pain, and believes he might have died if it hadn’t been treated sooner.<\/p>\n

Doctors told her that his entire colon had been affected. The organ had been pushed towards his lung cavity and that his stomach had been “squashed”.<\/p>\n

“His stomach was squashed. All of his organs were being pushed out of the way,” Elissa said. “We were in A&E for up to 12 hours at a time… just waiting for an enema of all things. It was a very horrible time. It was so traumatic for everybody.”<\/p>\n

The youngster also has genetic condition that affect his cognitive abilities, which Elissa believes may have also lead to the late diagnosis.<\/p>\n

“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 said.<\/p>\n

“It wasn’t looked into properly, it wasn’t taken seriously until he was really at crisis point. His signs of pain weren’t recognised. It was just a perfect storm really.”<\/p>\n

The charity Bladder and Bowel UK says around 1.5million kids in the UK suffer with the condition, adding that there’s been a surge in calls to their helpline as youngsters return to school this week.<\/p>\n

A children’s specialist nurse with the charity, Davina Richardson, said: “It’s a huge problem and many healthcare professionals don’t consider it a serious issue in children.<\/p>\n

“Discussing wee and poo is very un-British. It’s not something that we as a culture do.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Doctors in Warwickshire said that at one point, 2kg of Ivan Novak’s tiny 12kg bodyweight was stool, with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":398035,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[192,347,2207,12,211,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-398034","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uk","8":"category-united-kingdom","9":"tag-bbc","10":"tag-disability","11":"tag-hospitals","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-nhs","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115147683218019869","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=398034"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398034\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/398035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=398034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=398034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=398034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}