Chronic toddler constipation

[Tgilaura]

Hi all,

I would really appreciate any advice or experiences to do with baby/ toddler constipation.
My 14 month old has been what I would describe as constipated for a couple of weeks.
She does go to the toilet almost every day; but it’s always not a lot and generally quite hard balls. (Sorry tmi). She will quite often poo in the bath in the evening.
She had covid, and after that she stopped eating fruit; I have managed to get her back to eating a bowl of strawberries and usually a prune or pears purée a day but she still remains constipated.
i know I need to get more liquid into her, but she is the worse drinker ever. 😞 I m working hard to try and improve this. She will drink very little during the day; but is still breastfed last thing at night and during the night.

My question is: at what point should I involve the GP? It feels like I d be wasting their time at the moment because she is going to the toilet, but it’s little and often.

im hoping soon I will be able to bribe her to drink. 😫

any advice gratefully received.

We had the same issue at a similar age with our child. They told me they prefer to tackle it early and get it tackled as it can lead to worse problems later.

a year later, she still takes one sachet of laxative a day. Otherwise she struggles/holds it in because she’s now scared of the pain. And she eats a fair bit of fruit/veg. Very fussy tho, we try our best! Drinks a lot more now thankfully.

last time we tried to wean her off, the problems came back.

My son struggled with constipation. You have a twofold problem - getting rid of the current 'backlog' and then establishing better habits going forward.

I don't know if she's too young for lactulose but that's a good stool softener and might help her pass some of the stool that's blocking her up. You may need to get it okayed by the GP but my DS had 5ml each day for a few months to help out. She's too young for raisins etc. but what about making some apple puree with nice sweet eating apples?

definitely go to the doctor and ask for laxido. it is a stool softener. Get it into her any way you can, you can even put it into jelly if she likes that? definitely worth dealing with sooner rather than later, constipation that goes on can stretch the bowel and cause ongoing problems.

Definitely get it sorted sooner rather than later as pp have said.

The best laxatives in my experience are the magracol ones such as Movicol or Laxido. They don’t taste great so you’ll need to hide it in something. You have to mix a powder with water then to hide it I made smoothies, mixed it with very thick yoghurt or added to milk.

We were given lactulose initially but it needs a good fluid intake to work. My DD was a drink avoider so didn’t work for us.

go asap. My child started with constipation at 12 months. Went to gp and got laxido a few times. By age 3 she had to be referred to continence team as so bad and needing lots of medication. It created physical and psychological issues. Aged 7 and almost weaned off medication but it’s been a long 6 years and prob still a year to go. Definitely go asap. Even if you have to go a few times it’ll be on the system then in case you ever need to be referred to the continence team

Definitely get laxatives - my son used to get so constipated even with laxatives it would be agony for him!
he ate loads of fruit and veg but turned out it was a wheat and dairy allergy! Xx

My son struggles with constipation. To begin with, some lactulose over the counter helped, but it got worse and he ended up at the walk-in centre due to such a distended tummy and him screaming in pain. They prescribed him Movicol and it cleared him right out.

He has a sachet every morning to keep him regular. If we miss a sachet, we know about it! Poor little bugger went from Thursday to Monday this week with no poo, screaming in pain. Just awful. From one missed sachet.

Some weeks, we have to give two sachets a day if he becomes a bit backlogged but then go back down to one.

The doctor told me there's no harm in him being on it long term, so we're okay with this approach at the moment.

(He's 3, and been suffering for around the past year.)

Agree with others to go to the GP. But also have you tried a daily bowl of porridge made with whole oats (not the instant stuff)? I've found this to be the magic cure for my toddler's constipation. Provided he gets his daily bowl of porridge he's fine, but without it he struggles.

Something to do with it bulking out the poo I think.

Thank you everyone. I m surprised at the responses! I was expecting to be told I’d be wasting the doctors time.
I will see if I can get an appointment today, but also implement as many of your suggestions as possible. Thanks for taking the time to answer, I ll let you know what the doctor says.

Just to update for anyone searching the threads.
i spoke to the doctor and he said it can be a change in the bowel which causing ongoing constipation, rather than her lack of drinking as I was getting lots of liquid in other ways.
m he prescibed lactulose for three months. A higher dose until she is sorted, then a low maintenance dose.

it took three days, and touch wood seems much better.
thank you to everyone who commented and pushed me to go to the doctor - things are much better now!

I hope you continue to see improvements. If the Lactulose begins to wear off, ask for the Movicol. It's much quicker acting, and lactulose is pure sugar so not too great for their teeth long-term xx

Thank you, I hope that it doesn’t but can see you had an issue with it.
The doctor did initially suggest movicol, but when I said about her being a poor drinker he suggested the lactulose instead.
If you need to can you hide movicol in something else to disguise it? Or do you have to drink quite a lot?
Thank you

Hi @Tgilaura ,

You mix each sachet of movicol with just over 60ml of water, then you can mix this solution into something else to disguise it. You don’t need extra fluid with Movicol, it works by binding to the water you dissolve it in which prevents the water being absorbed by the body. The water then travels to the bowel where it can soften the poo.

Lactulose works by stimulating the bowel to draw water from other cells in the body into the bowel to soften the poo, so you need a well hydrated body for it to work well.

I did take a while to find ways of disguising the Movicol that my DD2 would accept.

hope this helps x

Exactly as Geminio describes :)

It works really well for us. I mix his sachet with the 62ml of water and add into his morning milk. If he needs an extra dose when he's particularly bunged up, I mix the 62ml of water, then add it to a cup of sugar free cordial. We just let him sip on it throughout the day as he would his normal juice cup and it takes effect.

It works so much better for us than lactulose x

I mix one sachet of movicol with water and then with chocolate milk for my 3 year old (started on 2-3 sachets)