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.

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?

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??

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.

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