constipation in 18mo, advice/help needed

[lucysmam]

my 18mo dd has been constipated pretty much all her little life, we've spoken to 3 different health visitors, every pharmacist locally and our gp for advice. the latest thing to be suggested is lactulose to help 'clear her system' but this is having little effect at all. Does anyone have any other ideas than plenty of fruit/veg which she is always munching, weetabix for brekky which she now has every day and plenty of fluids which she also has because all my gp keeps saying is keep giving her the lactulose which we have been for months and is not helping much.

She gets really tense when pooing and her entire body goes rigid and she screams, which is unpleasant for us/her and can't be nice for a complete stranger watching either but i don't really care about that.

I just don't know what else to do other than take her back to the doctor next week and demand that they do some tests of some kind, but what would i expect them to do.

TIA for any advice

Hi lucysmam, have only read OP so sorry if this has been said - but have you considered taking your lo to a chiropractor - worked wonders for DS1 when he was constipated for a week following a really high temperature. Literally 1 hour after the treatment and things started moving . The chiropractor we saw said that once children start using lactulose their bowels become dependent on it and it can become difficult for them to have a poo without it. HTH

tokentotty, thank-you, I will add probiotic yoghurt to my shopping & see what doc says about movicol. I didn't realise it was so common! I have no idea when it started though, just seemed to always have been a problem.

firststeps, I will look into chiropractor or ask dr about them because we're skint atm. Can see how they would become dependent on laxatives though to help.

Thank-you both, interesting reading (odd thing to say I know but it was) and hopefully helpful

And thanks to Firststeps I'm taking DS to see the baby osteopath this afternoon as I thought it was such a good idea !

hi tokentotty - how did you get on with the baby osteopath - hope it worked for your lo

how weird - I had lunch with an old friend today and she has had exact same problem with one of her twins and it seems that he has been deliberately holding in his poo. As far as she knows, he got constipation when he was young, it hurt to poo so he held it in, so it hurt even more and just got worse and worse.

She said a book called 'With holding something or other' by Dr Cohen (I think) has been absolutely brilliant and he finally is able to poo normally.

He has had months of movicon etc too to soften up the stools so that they don't hurt.

If you can't find it on amazon, then let me know and I can email her. Obviously this may not be your DD's problem at all but your OP sounded almost identical to what she told me about her DS.

cheers spicemonster, I'm off to library on Monday to have a look for a gardening book so will have a look on their system for it or something along those lines while I'm there.

I'm amazed by how many people have the same problem and have been 'fobbed off' to some extent when obviously there is a problem!