Constipation and vomiting

[Icyblue]

My dd has not been well since Sunday. She has a stomach ache and been vomiting once or twice daily, mostly in the mornings after having a few sips of water. She was first seen by a doctor who said it's a stomach bug. She is still vomiting so I took her to be seen again yesterday. This time the doctor agreed it's a stomach bug but because my dd has not been passing stool since Sunday, he said this could also contribute to the vomiting. He has prescribed lactulose and this is the second day of taking it. My dd has been passing runny poo which I think it's leaking around the hard impacted poo. I am giving her lots to drink and going to put her in a warm baking soda bath. What else do you suggest? Please help. I'm not too sure if it's a stomach bug as no one in our family is affected so constipation is more likely.

I didn't want to read and run. Your poor dd, how horrible!

Our situation is a little different as my dd has ds and suffers from chronic constipation. If she gets very blocked up she can suffer from "vomiting constipation" which certainly sounds like your dd. We used to be on lactulose but found it didn't do much. We take movicol which can be used as a medicine for fecal impaction (I think that's the phrase) to induce a big clearout.

Is she eating and drinking? Diluted fruit juice can help constipation too. My gp checks dd's stomach to see if she's constipated. I think if she doesn't go properly soon you might need see an ooh to get something different.

A warm bath often works for us as does going for a walk/being active, if she's up for it.

I hope she feels better soon, my dd cries and can't sleep with constipation, so it can be really miserable.

Lactulose is not effective enough, IMO, especially when a child a badly constipated and there's likely to be a large blockage.

Movicol is much better. Shame you weren't given that in the first place.

If the blockage is right at the exit, as it were, a glycerine suppository really helps (it's unpleasant, but it works very quickly) but it shifts the blockage and allows the rest of the backlog to move easily.

Thanks for your replies. My dd has been passing a bit more stool so I think lactulose is working. She's eating and drinking more.

Last time when she had constipation, our GP said he didn't want to prescribe a stronger medicine so prescribe lactulose instead. He said to bring her to see him again next week if she's not better. I may ask for Movicol then.

I think movicol irrc is a salt which holds more liquid in the bowels to make the stool soft. We use it daily as dd has poor muscle tone and doesn't eliminate efficiently. However, if we get a backlog we up the dose. It does work!

You might want to get her examined to make sure that there isn't a blockage, as you said, it can leak around it but not actually have gone.

Hope you sort it soon.