Young toddler in pain when having a poo

[Domino1]

My DD has had problems/discomfort when having a poo for the last few weeks, leading to constipation & a horribly swollen bottom after a bowel movement. We are now at the 'seeing how it goes' stage with daily prescribed laxatives. Her poo is softening but I think she is trying to hold it in & getting herself into a right state - for nearly 2 hours today - before she couldn't fight it anymore. Any ideas how I can help her thru this as obviously the pain=poo association has been made & I HATE to see her in this distress.

[PacificWerewolf]

Constipation in children

Stay as calm as reassuring as you can.

Encourage drinking lots of fluids.

Don't stop the laxatives as soon as she is doing comfortable poos; reduce the dose gradually and eventually stop if she contiues to go without problems.

My top tip: consider giving her Glycerin suppositories once a day to help dislodge the hard and painful 'stopper' and allow softer to poo to come through. This is what finally helped DS2 to overcome the hard poo/pain/holding in/even harder poo/even more pain/etc etc spiral.

You are right, what she has to overcome is the poo=pain association and you can help by being positive, but calm.

I also found that bribery and corruption rewards for a successful motion helped ...

How old is your DD?

[PacificWerewolf]

Oh, just another thought: sometimes withholding poos is not about pain/constipation, but about control/power/asserting the child's own will. This can be a problem in toddlers.

Not sure whether that fits your scenario??

[Domino1]

DD is 21 months and although extremely wilful I don't think that is what this is about. I think she is understandably freaked out by the pain she has been thru but is too young to realise the vicious cycle.

[PacificDogwood]

I am sure you're right . Was just another aspect of the whole thing.
Good luck!