3yo constipation

[Elllieuk]

Sorry if tmi. We’re having trouble with our 3yo daughter's constipation. She drinks lots of water and eats lots of fruit and foods with fibre including an inulin supplement in her water. She does eat veg too but we’re trying to get her to eat more of it. She was prescribed movicol (orange flavour) but she can’t stand the taste so won’t drink it, so we’ve been using Lactulose. It works a bit but makes the poo very sticky (and not a lot of it) and if we cut down on it she stops being able to go or just has overflow. Is there anything else we could try or a flavourless stimulant / laxative?

We’re not sure if she’s had a proper clear out in a while and says daily that her tummy hurts and she feels sick :(

Ideally you need a stool softener not a laxative. You can mix movicol in other drinks. Just follow the instructions for making it up and then add to another drink. We add it to hot chocolate.

Have a look on the ERIC website for advice on constipation.
https://eric.org.uk/childrens-bowels/constipation-in-children/

We used to add the orange flavour movicol to actual orange juice, it tastes like normal orange juice then. You could try using a half dose and building up to the full dose.

How much is your DD moving around, the more exercise the better. Swimming and soft play always had a positive (and immediate!) effect for us!

If she's been constipated for a while, she's probably withholding because of how uncomfortable it is to pass hard poo. You really need it to be as soft as possible to stop her thinking it will hurt and to break the cycle. Even though you're giving her lots of fruit, veg, water and high fibre foods, give her more! Home made ice lollies, ice cubes, home made fruit smoothies, humus, make muffins with a bit of bran in them, porridge, flapjacks with chopped up prunes, give her juice if she'd prefer that over water.

Glass of prune juice in the morning.