4 year old dd and poo, not sure I agree with Dr. What do you think?

[Indith]

I don't seem to make children with very good bowels. Don't know what it is. They all have good diets (typical day would be wholegrain cereal or porridge plus fruit, fruit snack, lunch is school or nursery or CM in week or at home soup or eggs then fruit snack plus biscuit and dinner of stew/bolognase with brown rice or pasta, lots of lentils or beans in stew pudding fruit and yoghurt)

my ds1 has had constipation issues. No longer medicated but still on a strict routine for post dinner poo and still wets a bit, especially if he hasn't done a poo one day. So we know a fair bit about constipation.

dd is 4. She has always seemed to have a sensitive bowel. Eg whenever she is the slightest bit ill she reverts back to soiling. Sometimes she seems to be triggered by something else, maybe something she has eaten (the only thing we have pinned down for certain as setting her off is sweetcorn) and she will poo seemingly uncontrollably for a few days then it tails off but still not great. It can take weeks to settle. Then you have to prod and sticker chart her into good habits again so it can be 3 months or more before she is ok. Then she gets a cold. Or eats sweetcorn. Or something.

Latest bout we decided to take her to the Dr as it was pretty sudden and bad. 4-5 big, loose stools a day at least. Some just a bit loose, some very runny. Mostly in her pants, running down legs etc. Each time it would be a large amount of poo. The loose, squishy ones were like weaning poo with bits of undigested food clearly visible. This went on for around 2 weeks. She seems to be settling down again.

She too has a decent routine as we tend to send her to the loo after dinner like her brother and she usually does a poo then even if she has done others in the day. She poos a lot. Always has done.

So dh took her to the Dr. Dr suggests it is constipation and has prescribed movicol.

I'm not sure it is? It seems a hell of a lot of poo for a constipated child! It doesn't seem like overflow, it is full poos not uncontrolled seepage.

I'm confused.

[nextphase]

We too have had to reduce the soluble fibre (ie fruit) to get a decent consistency stools. Sounds counter intuitive, but worked for us. Hope things improve soon, must be horrible for her and you.

[BiscuitMillionaire]

'She has fruit for breakfast, snack, lunch, afternoon snack and pudding at dinner.'

Maybe that's the issue. That's a lot of fruit.

[spiffysquiffyspiggy]

Hey Indith, I have a friend who has had extensive testing for digestive problems and was given a lot of information on food families which links foods (not always ones that you would think were linked) I can ask her what goes with sweetcorn, might help you narrow down some other potential triggers?

[Indith]

Spiggy that would be helpful thank you.

I shall definitely look into the soluble/insoluble fibre balance.

Maybe she does have too much fruit.

So if you cut fruit you increase veg? Are they different kinds of fibre? So I could replace fruit snacks for veg sticks or something?

I just struggle to believe that 4 or 5 LARGE stools a day is overflow you know? She seems to know when it is coming too (whether she bothers to tell us is a different matter!) and one of the things about overflow is it is smaller amount of seeping poo that they don't know about. Anyhoo there is plenty to think on.

[Lamazeroo]

I would also recommend going gluten free. In my (professional) opinion gluten sensitivity - not necessarily coeliac - is the leading cause of bowel problems in children.

[nextphase]

Yep, less soluble fibre in veg than in fruit.
Had a rapid and benifical effect. We've now let the fruit levels creep back up, and do occasionally get problems if I get something in they adore (like melon!)