constipation and withholding

[Anonymous]

My 21-month old daughter is having a terrible time with pooping now. The Prevacid that she’s been on since 2 months of age made her constipated, and we were a long time getting that under control. We think she developed some anxiety after a couple of really hard poops. She takes 5 ml of milk of magnesia twice a day to keep her stools very soft. In the process of finding the right dose of the MoM, she had a bad diaper rash for a couple of weeks that further increased her negative associations with pooping. Now we seem to have found the correct dose, but she still rarely poops without drama. It took me and the GI nurse months to figure out that now she has become aware of the urge to poop and does everything in her power to keep it in (we couldn’t figure out why she was still acting constipated even though the stuff that came out was very very soft). She will run around crazily, trying to distract herself from the feeling, until she either goes or the sensation fades. Some days she’ll do this off and on for hours until she finally poops. It affects her sleeping and eating, too. First we tried giving her liquid glycerine suppositories when she acted uncomfortable, and they work, but we got to the point that we were giving her one almost every day and of course that only added to the negative associations. Now we’ve added a small amount of a senna-based stimulant laxative in the morning. It helps, but three days after introducing it and three days after increasing the dosage, she figured out how to fight it, too. So we’re still giving the suppositories. I bought her a little potty to sit on but she doesn’t really seem ready to train. I’ve tried talking to her about how it’s a natural process, she’ll feel better after she goes, her tummy is telling her it doesn’t want the poop anymore, etc. but I think that’s only made her more aware of what’s going on. Everything we try only seems to make the problem worse. GI and OT are out of ideas, although OT did say that she has low tone in her core and might benefit from some PT to strengthen the muscles. Passing gas is accompanied by a similar amount of drama, at least overnight. All the standard tricks like bicycling her legs and using a thermometer dipped in petroleum jelly never worked for her. Has anyone had a similar experience? Are we missing something?

[Anonymous]

Hi, I am so sorry your little one is having such trouble!! Constipation is hard to know what to do with. My children have not suffered a lot from it but I used to a lot.

My children stay very regular as long as they take their supplement of probiotics and digestive enzymes. But about a year ago my 4 year old went on a “pill strike” and was hiding his pill, putting it under or in his napkin, or walking around holding it. And then…. he got very constipated!! he cried and cried and couldn’t go and could hardly eat. Then is struck me… his pills! I explained to him that if he would take his pill, he wouldn’t get stuck poo poos! Worked like a charm!! 🙂 No constipation since!!!

But I know that what works for one, doesn’t always work for the next one. But I would highly recommend that you start your little one on some probiotics and digestive enzymes. They are good for all of us to take really! I will gladly explain more about why and how they can help if you are interested. I just don’t have time this moment. Also you can learn a lot about them on the home page of my blog.

Sadly, a lot of children with digestive problems developed a feeding aversion but also sadly… they can develop a pooping aversion. 🙁

I just discovered the other day that white grape juice is great for constipation. I always thought apple juice was the best juice for that but a friend was here and I served white grape juice for breakfast. They were leaving that day and were going to be on the road for many hours so she didn’t want her children to drink too much. We don’t have juice much around her so my 2 year old was totally impressed and wanted to drink it all day long. I gave her several cups full and she started having to go poo poo quite often. It kept getting softer and softer and about the 4th time, it was totally brown water. 🙁

I truly feel very sorry for you and your little girl. I hope you soon find the right things to help her.

[hellbennt]

please help this board! I’ve done so much over the years & it saddens me that I can’t do more!

please post an update! tell your story!

let’s get this board going again!

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