Chronic constipation in toddler - I'm panicking now.

[Jekyllywoo]

dd is 19 months old and has mild cerebral palsy - she has been constipated since starting solids at 6 months - we were told to not let her go more than 4 days and to use suppositories. She used to strain and go red and try to hold her legs straight.

In the last 2 months she has stopped trying - we never see her strain, it's like her body has given up. If I give her a suppository her body melts it and it comes out liquified but with no poo.

She has been on lactulose 10ml a day for the last 6 weeks but still no joy. The only time she has pooed in when I take her for Bowen Therapy (an alternative therapy) but I can't see my therapist till Wednesday.

At the end of last week we were also prescribed Senna - 2.5ml a day. She had it Friday night and last night but still hasn't pooed.

I'm no starting to panic and don't know what to do. Should I phone NHS direct? I'm gutted that the problem has gone on for so long that her now her body has forgotten how to poo. She hasn't pooed at all for 8 days now so I'm getting to a point of real worry.

By the way, prune juice, apricots etc will not work, she has been constipated for over a year and we have got to a point where even drugs aren't working.

Any advice?

I hope the movicol works well for you.

Ds had similar doses until he produced - it wasn't pretty, we were changing his nappy every 10mins-1/2hour. PLenty of sudocreme needed. But it was such a relief for him afterwards that the one day was worth it.

We've had a poo! it was a big as her forearm. I hope there's more to come!

yeah! anyone who hasnt had constipated child will think were all barmy

well done your dd.

Hope she's feeling a lot better now

Excellent news!

Glad to see things are moving in the right direction I posted this on your other thread. Not sure if it's relevant at this point or not but in case you're interested:

jeckylwoo, my ds1 has had constipation problems since January. It developed into a fecal impaction. So once we did an enema and lots of stool softeners to get rid of the impaction we then had to go through "colon rehabilitation". It seems that the impaction stretches out the colon in that area and then it is more likely to re-occur. So he had to have stool softener for about 3 months with us reminding him to sit on the potty at regular times during the day. It has taken a long time but things are getting a bit better. We have to really watch him though and I have started adding powdered fiber to his juice since we have not been doing the stool softener anymore.

HTH and hope your little dd starts feeling better soon.