Constipated toddler 2 days, when to see Doctor?

[arandomname]

Nearly 3 yo DD is very constipated. She must have spent a good 4 or 5 hours on and off, trying to poo yesterday and only produced a bit of discolouring on her nappy, so only a tiny bit of liquid poo came out. The trying to poo was painful for her.

She was also constipated the day before. I can't remember exactly when she last pooed but I think it was the day before yesterday. She was finding it hard to poo then, but what eventually came out was runny.

Today she's still trying to poo, and in pain when she does, poor thing.

The first appointment I can get at the Docs is Thurs. If she still hasn't pooed properly by then is that too far away? At what point should I take her to the walk-in (easy to get to but will probably wait for over an hour to be seen).

Lots of water, prune juice if she will drink it.

Try home remedies first, or pharmacy may have something over the counter. Unless it's an ongoing problem, you probably don't need gp.

I second pharmacist

Movicol from the chemist to drink. You can add some orange squash to it.

Also glycerine suppositories may be helpful to help things slide out if you think it's right down in the back passage but can't come out.

There's a few different things that might cause the constipation.

Before today, she's been sick for about a week. She had a high fever and head cold, and is mostly better from that now, but still got a lingering cough, maybe that's related?

DP just had what he thought was food poisoning three days ago, but it affected him for 3 days and he had similar - very upset stomach, and needing to poo but nothing coming out - looks like it was a bug after all. Maybe DD has this? But in between the trying to poo, she doesn't seem to be in pain, and hasn't complained about her tummy.

She's eaten a lot of pizza! She didn't eat much at all when she was sick, and when she was on the mend she kept asking for pizza. I let he have it like 4 days in a row, which I wouldn't normally do, because I was just pleased her appetite came back. In retrospect maybe so much white bread, effectively, was a bad idea. (She has also had a fair amount of fruit too though).

Also, she had terrible nappy rash with the fever, especially around her bum, I expect it was painful to poo. Maybe she's been holding it in leading to constipation?

Finally - just in case it's related somehow - the poor thing has thrush on her bits too. I am giving her Canesten on the advice of the pharmacist, who said it was unusual in toddlers but was probably because of being run down because of being sick. I will show it to the Docs on Thurs.

Any advice on helping her feel more comfortable or what to do about the constipation would be great.

Lactulose is pretty effective too, we put it in DD's bedtime bottle. You need to make sure she drinks plenty to help it work.

Pharmacist, good idea, will go this morning.

Bread constipates my DD terribly, doesn't matter if it's white, brown, spelt etc, all bread does it.

If she wants to eat pizza she just has a movicol or some lactulose before bed and the following morning to keep things moving.

2 days really isn't long, so as PP said try OYC remedies like lactulose and movicol first.

Lactulose is cheap and you can buy it from the chemist. Try that first

"you probably don't need gp."

If she's still constipated on Thurs then she will have been in pain and trying to poo for 5 days, isn't the right thing to take a toddler to the doctors then, or am I overreacting?

Given enough lactulose she'll go and will be fine, it's quite normal for some people to only go once or twice a week so I don't think the doctor would be concerned at this stage.

Lactulose van be put in milk, yoghurts etc if she won't drink it, and it's us ally effective fairly quickly. Same with movicol, three does today and I'd expect her to be able to go tomorrow, keep it going for a few days til she's bsck on track.

But you should try to get something before Thursday to treat it yourself.

Doctors aren't a book it and see service.

I think PP probably means that unless the constipation is ongoing and is gone by Thursday then a gp is not required

"But you should try to get something before Thursday to treat it yourself."

Yes of course.