After many months of tummy problems my 8 year old was finally seen by GI consultant peadiatrician last week and had x rays and blood tests etc. Consultant rang me today to say she is indeed severely constipated; we already have some medication but she said we will need more and to wait with treatment until we have prescription for more. Naturally I have now read everything there is to read including on here and ERIC website and I'm not sure I understand our treatment plan. She's going to put this all in writing for us but I have asked her twice today and this is what she wants us to do:
- two days of "cleanse" to be completed over the weekend; for this she told me to give senna and another stimulant laxative twice per day
- laxido for unforseen future, dose to be confirmed and adjusted with further follow ups.
This seems different to what I read on ERIC page which suggests stool softeners to be first point of call. I worry that senna being stimulant is going to result in painful cramps without stool softener, surely all that backlog of stool is going to be rock solid by now? Or am I misunderstanding how these medicines work?
She's still having bowel movements but either small and hard or diarrhoea; no soiling. I'm aware that this is overflow from being so badly constipated. I can't even begin to describe how stressed and worried I'm for her; she's sensitive and anxious soul as it is my poor lamb.
We are also now back to dairy free diet (she was dairy free as a baby and toddler, non IgE cmpa) and this has helped a lot with tummy pains. We were initially referred due to suspected IBD (very high calprotectin and mucus in stool, plus frequent tummy pains and bowel movements as described above).