Constipation remedies anyone?

[myflabberisgasted]

My DS (3.4yrs) suffers from constipation and has done for a while.
We've been to the Doctors about it a good 3 or 4 times now and have been described various things to help - all of which just give him diarrhoea (sp?) and rather than any solid poo happening he just has pooey smears in EVERY nappy (he's still not potty trained yes I know but that's a whole other thread!)
Today I have given him a suppository (prescribed from the doctors) which has worked and we have had a solid poo which was massive so that might be it now for about a week.

I suppose my question is is once a week normal for a toddler to poo?
How often and how big (tmi I know) are your toddlers poos?

He eats a good diet with plenty of fruit, veg, beans, dries fruit and orange juice. But if anyone has any advice or remedies that work id greatly appreciate any help.

The best thing that I have found for managing long term is prune juice, mixed with water/juice a couple of times a day. We tried everything from the doctors and ended up with the same problems as you have experienced. This has kept us away from the docs for 18 months.

Don't think once a week is enough. If dc tummy is hard or looks bloated then it's not enough. My ds, 23 mths, had part of his intestine taken for biopsy yesterday due to severe constipation since birth which often ends up with him being hospitalised so feel like I can contribute to this thread! Movicol only softens the poo whereas a suppository, sodium picolsulfate, or senna will all stimulate the bowel. Maybe ask the gp to review the meds or refer to paediatrician? Best foods we've found are dried apricots, red grapes, oranges, & make sure there is lots of fluid intake. No bananas and as healthy a diet as possible. Hope that is of some help.

Both of mine have a poo once a day and always have done. His diet sounds pretty good, as long as he is getting plenty of fibre and fluid you would expect his poo to be more bulky and definitely more frequent than his is at the minute. The addition of prune juice is a great idea, my SIL had a similar problem recently with her DC and this was tried as a solution and really helped. I have no other ideas really. If it persists though, I would definitely ask for a paediatric referral from your GP. Is is causing him a lot of discomfort?

I'm sure you've thought of/tried this already, but all I can say is grapes, grapes and more grapes. And drinking fruit smoothies. These are the things that worked for DS. Hope you have some luck with it soon.

Thanks for your replies everyone.

I will get some prune juice tonight and try that.
He does eat plenty of grapes (they're his favourites!)

I will press with the GP though for referral if the prune juice doesnt help.

He does get quite bloated towards the end of the week but he doesnt complain about it.
When he does actually have a poo it's absolutley massive and as he's doing it he says it hurts.
Hopefully the prune juice will make him more regular so he has more normal sized poo's.

pudseypie I hope your DS is ok