Fairly urgent help needed - 2 year old is awake and hysterical with constipation pain, but will not poo.

[Astrophe]

shes never taken to pooing in the potty, but will usually go in her nappy. But not tonight. She woke an hour after she went to bed, screaming, and saying her tummy hurts. She has had a few very hard poos of late because she holds on a lot, so I think she is scared of it hurting again. We have tried a hot bath, cuddles, warm wheat bag, calpol...what else can we do? Do we go to the hospital? She is so upset, my heart is breaking for her.

give her juice?

and massage her tummy in an anti-clockwise directly quite firmly but not too hard

apple juice or pure orange juice

dried apricots / prunes also helpful

Brown sugar with warm water, an old remedy that works, but not used much now simply because its sugar, but IMO its better than the pain.

oranges or satsumas and warm boiled water to drink

We had success with blowing up a balloon / blowing in a straw

apparently it uses the same muscles and hopefully everything follows...

don't know if it will help in a more severe case though

oh I have also heard put vaseline around / slightly inside their anus, as this makes it less likely to tear / hurt, plus may stimulate a movement as you gently apply on the vaseline

Twig I think the massage should be clockwise, but will check

but will these things work fast enough? She needs to poo NOW, not tomorrow. She really is hysterical, and has been for a while now.

Thanks for the ideas so far btw

oh how worrying
try the tummy rubbing then lifting her knees to her chest, very gently.
I would see the doctor to see if you can get some sort of suppository.poor you and poor her

I know this says for a baby but some of the advice may be useful, and it does recommend massaging clockwise

treating constipation

sorry .. clockwise massage

will try balloon and vaseline when she is calm enough, and will try massage now.

thanks

have you tried lactose solution?

My DS was like this when he was younger. I found getting him to sit on the toilet then tickling him used to relax everything and he would go. Also I used to try to train him to push out the poo rather than just letting him sit there. Hard to describe but it worked. He still holds his poo in unless I make him sit on the loo every day and we have a chat and they he goes. Basically he's lazy and can't be bothered to stop playing and go and poo!

Hope she feels better soon.

madmarch, what is it?

Thanks for the link franny

she has calmed down because daddy let her wear her favourite skirt (to bed!). They are lying in our bed having a cuddle, so hopefully she will sleep and poo in her sleep or in the morning. Will def go to the docs tomorrow though for further advice.

Thanks all, you are lovely

Reflexology may help. Massage the soles of her feet with your thumb (firmly enough so it doesn't tickle but not so much it hurts)from the left side of each foot (ie clockwise if you're facing the soles of the feet). Mid heel height up and across the middle towards the arch on her right foot then from the arch of the left foot across & down to the bottom of her heel on her left foot. HTH

I have four, and I have found that good old syrup of figs in small quantities works wonders, honestly. DD2 had a small dose every evening for a couple of weeks and it solved the problem of regular screaming constipation and 'holding on'. You can still get it in chemists; start with a very small amount and increase if you need to.

sit her own the loo and make her blow bubbles with those litttle pots you get in party bags. Make sure she can put her feet down on a step or something so she can push down.

I have some suppositories if you want one.... In surrey...

this works best after a meal or food.

sorry - should have added - you only need massage those areas on her feet for a minute or two! Gently rubbing her whole foot may help if she wont let you get to them easily.

I had to resort to a suppository with ds. He didn't like the feeling but I'm sure it didn't hurt him and within a minute one giant poo and one happy boy.