Why does a child get chronic constipation?

[SixImpossible]

Why does an otherwise healthy child, who eats a good varied diet with plenty of fruit and veg, have chronic constipation?

How can this child have chronic constipation if they are pooing most days? Pooing painlessly.

[Donki]

Not drinking enough?
Holding on at school so much that it becomes a habit?

How do you know they have constipation if they are pooing regularly and painlessly?

[Donki]

Not drinking enough?
Holding on at school so much that it becomes a habit?

How do you know they have constipation if they are pooing regularly and painlessly?

[littleducks]

I think holding on at school or when out as the toilets aren't clean (or another reason). Or not drinking enough are the main reasons.

Some children can just have a slow working bowel that takes time to mature too I think.

[Sundaedelight]

Kiwi is good at getting things moving & have used it for constipation successfully with small child.

[Twighlightsparkle]

I think a lot of the time the medical profession do not know.

Things like food intolerances can cause constipation.

[SixImpossible]

He has been under investigation for some time because if chronic nausea, tummy aches, and soiling. He's had blood tests and stool tests. Today he had his tummy examined, and the GP said that he could distinctly feel something that indicated constipation.

AFAIK he has no issues 'going' anywhere.

Could possibly drink more, but does drink and eat wet foods.

Bewildered.

[pudseypie]

An xray will show any poo build up. You can still poo and have a blockage as the poo goes into overflow mode and passes around the blockage. I'm not sure how the gp can feel the poo though as my ds has chronic constipation caused by another condition and only one or two paediatric surgeons have ever actually been able to feel anything and even then the best way to see is an x ray. I really hope you get something sorted.

[ilovemonstersInc]

You can feel the poo when a child is really constipated.
My ds suffers from constipation and other gastric problems. Thr longest hes been without passing hard stool os 12weeks! He was passing overflow which stopped him from becoming ill.
Pears are good to help with constipation.
What meds is he on?ds is on docusate, movicol, lactulose and liquid paraffin to keep his constipation controlled.

[incywincyspideragain]

have you looked into food intollerances?

[SixImpossible]

Just started movicol.

He's dairy and soya intolerant, and we're trying a coeliac diet, even though he's not coeliac.

[incywincyspideragain]

good luck - I've no experience myself of children with constipation but a friend whos seen an improvement on wheat free diet, might be worth looking at probiotics too?

www.amazon.co.uk/Biocare-Childrens-Strawberry-Acidophilus-Powder/dp/B009DG4DPK/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1398291928&sr=8-5&keywords=biocare%20probiotics&tag=mumsnet&ascsubtag=mnforum-21

[miarosemum]

You can feel constipation through the tummy but definitely shows up on an X-ray, 7 year old dd had chronic constipation three years ago with the classic soiling caused by overflow. The only thing that worked for us is a hospital stay involving three enemas, and once the blockage had cleared maintenance dose of movicol to keep things moving for 2-3 months afterwards. She very rarely gets a flare up but I know now to treat it with movicol if I see any symptoms occurring.

[miarosemum]

You can feel constipation through the tummy but definitely shows up on an X-ray, 7 year old dd had chronic constipation three years ago with the classic soiling caused by overflow. The only thing that worked for us is a hospital stay involving three enemas, and once the blockage had cleared maintenance dose of movicol to keep things moving for 2-3 months afterwards. She very rarely gets a flare up but I know now to treat it with movicol if I see any symptoms occurring.

[ErrolTheDragon]

mine had this, also bedwetting - root cause of both was probably simply not drinking enough.

Once there is a blockage it may need something to shift it though.

Good luck!

[ilovemonstersInc]

Yep X ray shows the stool too. Ds has episodes of really bad constipation to normal constipation. When he was really badly constipated last year he had 2 xrays which showed the hard stool stuck in 2 areas. H had 2 lots of bowel prep and it didnt work. I would recommend liquid paraffin which you can buy and pear juice. Its took me a while to find but I found some from an asian superstore

[deepinthewoods]

My son had terrible constipation for years. Consultants told us it was typical of gut damage caused by pertussis ( whoooping cough) vaccine.
Thankfully he has made a full recovery, but it took years.

[SixImpossible]

How does not drinking enough cause bed-wetting?

[Forgettable]

Six

Not drinking enough means a small bladder with small holding capacity. Drinking more stretches the bladder thus it has more volume, able to hold a larger capacity. Bedwetters often have small bladders and drinking more can be really helpful. It's counter-intuitive because the idea of drinking more to produce less at night is a bit at first glance!

[Forgettable]

Wrt movicol, we tried mixing with various drinks and hit upon pure apple juice, a bit £££ but worth it to get the movicol drunk, effect clearout and maintain before stepping off

Do be aware that this can be a very long term phase, rule of thumb is movicol for as long as the child has been constipated, obs each child different.

[Weegiemum]

My ds had chronic constipation as a toddler/early school age (he's now 12 and fine). He ate the same diet as dd1 and later dd2, he was struggling from 6 months old, as soon as he ate solids he got constipated.

For us it was lots of water/fresh juice, whole meal carbs and NO bananas! That helped, after he was 4/5 it stopped.

Still hard going, though. I reckon taking out the bananas was the biggest help!

[ErrolTheDragon]

Exactly what Forgettable said. Sorry, should have explained but it was past my bedtime!

[SixImpossible]

I see. Not a problem for ds, I think. He does have bladder problems, but small volume is definitely not one of them.

My eldest had problems with constipation from the moment he started solids. It was resolved by adjusting his diet, and took a couple of years to go. (he lays loo-blocking logs instead!). But his was what I recognised as constipation: dry poo, pellety or uncomfortably large, urge to go but unable, distress, pain, loss of appetite. Ds2 doesn't have any of these symptoms.

[Friedbrain]

Up the fluid intake, water especially

[KTKT]

Are you sure your child is not coeliac? My DD was always very very constipated. To be brief she was finally diagnosed as coeliac following blood tests and then a biopsy, but they can't test for coeliac unless your child has been eating gluten at least twice a day for 6 weeks so don't stop gluten if you need to be tested.

[SixImpossible]

Coeliac blood test came back negative. Ditto tests for inflammation. We're trying coeliac diet to see whether maybe ds has a wheat intolerance.