Could constipation in a child be allergy/intolerance related?

[suiledonn]

DD1 is 3. She has suffered from constipation for well over a year now and has been prescribed Movicol by the paed. It does help when we give it every day but when we try to cut back the constipation is as bad as ever. The paed wants to re-do allergy testing in a few weeks as she has an egg allergy, asthma and eczema. He said there may be an undiagnosed allergy causing her problems. She has never slept well and has a tiny appetite.
I'm just wondering if anyone had a dc with constipation which turned out to be caused by an allergy. The medication treats the symptoms but is obviously not a cure and she gets so miserable I hate to see her suffering
She had a vomiting bug recently which dh and another family member also caught. Theirs came with terrible diahorrea but her constipation is so bad it just gave her a really pale yellow poo but still really hard. Sorry if TMI.

any child with constipation needs to be encouraged to have more liquid as dehydration is the major cause. I'd also be thinking of other things like adding fig biscuits, prune juice and/or probiotics, taking away bananas and increasing the amount of exercise they get before allergy testing. If you've tried all that and it's failed then maybe allergy testing might help.

Thanks tatt. She does drink plenty of water/diluted juice.

It doesn't seem to make much difference what she eats although I have noticed too much chocolate is not good. She eats apples and the occasional banana but otherwise it is difficult to get her to eat much fruit (or anything else most of the time) but she does love her vegetables. She eats lots of broccoli, green beans, carrots, parsnips, corn on the cob etc but it doesn't seem to help.

2 of my kids had chronic constipation due to dairy intolerance but they had grown out of it by around your daughters age. It may be worth investigating, I sympathise it is a horrible problem.

sorry to hear your situation... my son is now 11 and has allergic colitis, diagnosed at 5 months at Great Ormond Street. One of the symptoms can be constipation... he is doing very well on antihistamines and dairy/egg/soya free diet. Good Luck

yes constipation can be intolerance related, it can be a sign of coeliac disease,and dairy intolerance. ask for more tests

since she also has asthma and eczema I really would try probiotics first. Then if they haven't helped try dairy free for a couple of weeks. If that doesn't help try gluten free for 2 weeks. Allergy testing isn't going to help if the problem is intolerance although you could ask for a coeliac blood test. If you do that make sure its before you try gluten free.

If she doesn't sleep well have they considered reflux as a possibility? You can get reflux only at night and not realise it but that disturbs sleep. Being dairy free, not eating for a couple of hours before bed and raising the head of the bed (with wood underneath) are non invasive things to try.

My child with nut allergy was diagnosed with "constipation" before they got their nut allergy diagnosis. They haven't had problems since. So maybe it can be allergy related but that is really the last thing to consider once you've ruled out everything else.