constipation !!!! PLEASE HELP

[bhk3]

my dd 6.5 mo is severely constipated. it has started since the day i've started weaning, i changed her formula to follow on milk too. i dont know if these may be the causefor her constipation she really screams her head off when she opens her bowels which she does every 2-3 hours in a day & its rock hard like marbles. its really causing my lo great discomfort. my gp has prescribed her lactulose which she's been taking for last week but it doesnt seem to work. cud anybody help me with any opinions.

Poor thing .

I gave DS a couple of teaspoons of orange juice when he was a bit constipated and that seemed to help.

Or you could maybe mix a little bit of mashed prunes in with some other food.

You need to make sure she drinks plenty of fluids. The doctor told me that Lactulose works by ensuring more fluid goes to the bowel and therefore the stools are softer and easier to pass.(Lactulose does not purge the system and make you go like other laxatives) Does she drink plenty of water/diluted juice during the day as well as having milk and solids?

I always found movicol way better than Lactulose but I'm not sure if she's too young.

DS got constipated from being tiny but since he's been potty trained, he's been fine.

Could you swap back to the first milk? - follow on can be constipating due to the extra iron. The first milk is suitable for the whole of the first year anyway so it wont be detrimental to your lo's health to switch back. Do you offer extra water along with the solids? Prune juice/prunes are also supposed to be good for easing constipation

thanks so much to all of u. yes i did manage to give her diluted orange juice each & every day but its the same anyway i'll switch back to the old formula milk & try giving her prunes.

IMO second stage milk is just a marketing thing and totally unecessary.

Keep her on the first milk.

If all else fails and it's really awful and it's been days, there are glucose(?) 'pellets' that you stick up your baby/child's bottom.

They work a treat. REALLY fast.

But, they obviously aren't the longterm solution. The do solve a big 'blockage' (apologies!) very swiftly.

Got them once for my son when he was about a year old, very cheap too, from our pharmacist.

suppositories ?

bergentulip - you must be a european MNetter! Us brits are too uptight to even mention those

DD2 got horribly constipated at around that age. I tried everything to help- masses of dried apricots, prune juice, bran, oilve oil etc. Then I read a post on here by Mears who said that follow-on milk could cause constipation. Changed back to first milk and the problem as solved, never to return.

You got me on that one....

However, this was a UK pharmacist. I was surprised too. And I would certainly not usually resort to those awful things!! I would not take to kindly to someone sticking something up my bottom, so can imagine it's not too pleasant for one's children!!

Gave birth to DS2 over here on 't continent, and they made me take his temp 4 x a day in his rectum. Poor baby! No wonder he screamed blue murder. I insisted I could take it quite capably without resorting to this, but was met by a scornful glare of 'yeah, right'. I dutifully complied.

Get her off the baby rice its a bugger for causing constipation....just give pureed veg and fruit.

Pureed veg and fruit also cause constipation! BenandGerry helpfully pointed this out on another thread-
"They don't have to make any effort to chew so the food slips down easily and they end up having more fibre than their system can cope with."

Finger food is much less likely to cause constipation so you could do this? My BLW DS has never had constipation yet quite a few puree-weaned babies I know had constipation.

well i've seen my gp this morning she's increased the lactulose dose to 5ml twice a day. i've given my dd that & prune too though she dint like it at all &'ve also switched back to the previous formula milk. lets see if it works. last night she was straining all night but cudnt open her bowels she was screaming all day today pushed hard but cudnt open her bowels, not feeding well too. i'm really upset letrs hope for the best

feel for you, I really do as it's awful seeing LOs g0 through this. I would definitely try the suppositories..they really aren't that bad. My LO had constipation when smaller than yours and nothing would shift it. Eventually had dr send her to a paedriatic dept after her x-ray showed bowels to be distorted because of it (thank goodness only temporary). They gave her a supp in hospital and it cleared the whole mess out. I used them about twice after that at home. One thing about them was that they coated the inner rectum a bit and I suspect my LO had got a small fissure (tear) through all the straining and hard faeces so every time she had tried to go it stung (hence her screaming). Do you think this might be a problem with your LO? Btw, LO is now 7 with no problems whatsoever.

things have become worse today as my little one is bleeding with her bowels. her rectum is sore & she's screaming so much when she opens her bowels. i took her to the dr she's been given senokot & ater she took it she vomitted . i really cant make out wats happening with her. she dint feed well or had any solid food all day today i'm really concerned.

my now nearly 3 yrs old son suffers too and always has done, the suppositories did work when he was small but useless now. I read that children can not digest cows milk and within 2 wks of changing to soya or rice milk or even lactose free the problem in 70% of kids can be solved. I am trying it now. Doctors hopeless tell me that I have to realise that 'constipation is not an illness but a condition' but it is a worry as my little one also gets grumpy about it. Lets see if it helps!!!

absolutely even my gp is still sticking on giving her lactulose. anyway i did see a paedetrician today & had a check up of my dd everything is fine though she is screaming when she opens her bowel coz its still hard & it hurts her back passage terribly.