Help me break the cycle . . .

[lucysmam]

My almost 3yo has suffered with constipation since birth. However, she no longer struggles and goes regularly. Or so I thought. . . . . In reality, she's been holding it in rather than pooing & I can't think of a way to help her to break the cycle so she can go comfortably without being afraid it's going to hurt her.

Does anyone have any thoughts or ideas I could try to help her?

TIA

[GrimmaTheNome]

What are you doing so far to try to alleviate the constipation? Don't want to tell you what you already know...

[lucysmam]

She eats loads of fresh & dried fruit, drinks water by the gallon, brown bread with seeds on the top.

She's going through a phase of fresh figs and oranges at the moment which she enjoys.

We were told to give her lactose free milk & cheese & yogurts for awhile but no change.

She's so frustrated it's unreal, she'll wee on the loo no problem, but she screams for a nappy on as soon as she wants to poo sh we're going through nappies and pants at a rate of knots.

I have to go, got midwife in 5mins but will be back in the week. Thanks for anything you can offer, I'll try anything to relieve the frustrtion & tension it's causing in our house xx

[GrimmaTheNome]

Sounds like you're doing everything right dietary.

Yes, it can cause huge frustration and tension. My DD suffered from constipation, which resulted in 'leakage' and dirty pants until she was about 6 and it was awful. She had lactulose prescribed by the GP which helped somewhat, but the one thing that seemed to really help was when I realised that this was not something I could control, and that I had to back off and not get tensed up about it. Easier said than done!

With this in mind, my gut feeling is that if at the moment your DD is more comfortable pooing in a nappy, then don't even try to make her use the loo or potty for it. Perhaps if you could leave some pullups in the loo that she can just put on herself when she needs one - no screaming, no stressing about it - that might help? Don't forget that some 3 year olds are still not even dry.