15 month old constipated!

[coco111]

Just before Christmas my 1 year was constipated. She was straining and struggling to go poo and then I noticed a little lump so contacted the doctors. They said it was normal for babies her age and said the lump was a haemorrhoid due to straining. They prescribed a laxative to take every day which worked and made her go more often and was loose. Things got better so I stopped the laxative and then the constipation started again and it's just been a vicious cycle since. Does anybody have any advice? Do you think it could be something she is eating? She eats alot of fruit and vegetables so not sure what it could be?

If they prescribed Lactulose, that's safe for her to keep taking (it pulls water into the gut and just softens the poos, they can't get dependant on it), you can get down to whatever dose they need to be on just to keep things regular. As long as your GP is aware, the NHS says it fine to take for months at a time.

I found the ERIC website handy for what to do when my LO gets constipated eric.org.uk/childrens-bowels/

Thanks for your reply! She's fine and goes daily when she's taking but just as soon as I stop she's constipated again. Wanted to get to the bottom of what could be possibly causing it?

My boy suffered with awful constipation. What worked for us was the Ella’s kitchen puréed prunes. Just a spoonful a day worked wonders at avoiding constipation or a few spoonfuls if constipated.

One of my DC had a tendency to constipation, I used to just ensure that they had a very high fibre diet with loads to drink. The other DC did not have the same problem so I think it was constitutional.

Another vote for Ella's Kitchen puréed prunes.

Half a sachet every day worked for my DD, full sachet when she's particularly clogged.

Works the same as lactulose so make sure they drink lots of water too

Does she eat bananas? If so try cutting them out for a few weeks as they can cause consultation for some little ones.

Does she eat much in the way of beans and pulses? My LO needs to eat plenty of them to stay regular.

You’re not just stopping cold turkey I assume?

DS1 was on a sachet of Ella’s prunes + lactulose every day for well over a year. Cashews helped a bit too. It helped enormously to ensure regularity!

Never did really get to the bottom of it tbh. But he now needs at least 5 large portions of fruit/veg a day (more often 8/9)

Prune juice made into a small ice lolly if the child won't drink prune juice.

Son was hospitalised for this reason. He was then on 10x movicol per day for a week which then reduced to 2x sachets a day for 6 months due to nerve damage that had been caused. All down to dehydration. They can sometimes still go whilst being impacted. He was on 10 sachets a day to literally flush it all through. It was just water coming out near the end of that before slowly reducing the dose down to 2.