Does anyone else's 2 year old have real trouble pooing?

[compo]

Dd goes about once every 3 days
I give her syrup of figs
she eats plenty of fruit and veg and drinks water and orange juice
but she still cries when she poos and often I have to help her

anyone with any advice?
often she starts crying as soon as she starts to go and we have to go upstairs and push her legs up and sort of give birth to a huge bowel movement
ds was never like this and still isn't, he can poo for England!

DD2 was like this. It was awful. I tried chocolate raisins in desperation sometimes. She appears to have grown out of it, maybe a year ago so when she was three just.
Hope it gets better.

oh thanks that gives me some hope , when it is 'poo' day it marrs the whole day as she is so miserable
did potty training help?

I ended up taking DS2 to the doctor about his constipation and they gave us lactulose. It worked really well but then a couple of months later we toilet trained him and he's never needed lactulose since

It continued for a while after potty training- I think because she was hanging on and busy playing.Also she would get a bit scared. We had to impress upon her that she must go as soon as she felt the need.

Would you consider cutting dairy foods out of her diet?

My DDs are both dairy intolerant. DD1 is constantly on the toilet if she eats dairy and DD2 has trouble going.

I know of quite a number of children who had bowel movement difficulties until cutting out dairy foods.

Annoying, but could be worth a try.

My dd is exactly like this and the paed prescribed Movicol for her which has helped loads. I know what you mean about poo days. Poor dd couldn't eat or sleep properly when one was imminent.

There's a good book here that I read when dd started holding on and crying with each poo.

All sorted now with lactulose.

thanks for the replies
she still ha s abotle of milk in the morning and before bed, about 12 oz's I think
do you think that could be the problem?

Milk can exacerbate problems with digestion but in itself doesn't usually cause problems afaik. In an effort to get her more regular, reducing the amount of milk could help.

My dd was very similar indeed. Held on for days, cried and shook when she eventually went. The book I linked to above was very helpful and is available in most libraries.

The problem is that because she doesn't poo regularly, her bowel stretches to accomodate the volume and so is able to hold in more than usual. When it comes to getting rid of it there's so much that it hurts and she needs help. The not needing to go as often and associating pooing with pain and upset gets them into a vicious cycle.

I didn't want to give dd medicine every day but she needed it as she ate very well and it wasn't sorting itself out.