2.4 year old ...chronic constipation now diarhhea

[forevermore]

dd 2.4 had been constipated (not so much hard but infrequent stools) for about 4 weeks. 2 weeks we treated at home hen had to go the GP as bowel movement became more infrequent (every days). given lactulose and this worked. then last week tuesday she hadn't had laculose and she went toilet..finally phew. but no this lasted until thursday then explosive soft stools ever since. sometimes when i wipe her bottom it has a smear of fresh blood. this happened with constipation which i thought would be due to tearing but why now when no straining reuied???

she is and has always been well and not complaining throughout, but now at wits end. do i now start giving her 'firming' foods, she has been on lactulose, prune juice etc etc for week. do i now switch to bananas?

anone with this experience, it has become the bain of our lives. luckily she doesn't seem to be suffering with it.

re-posted due to so many spelling mistakes.

dd 2.4 had been constipated (not so much hard but infrequent stools) for about 4 weeks. 2 weeks we treated at home then had to go the GP as bowel movement became more infrequent (every 3-4 days). I was given lactulose and this worked. then last week tuesday she hadn't had laculose and she went to the toilet..finally...phew. but no this lasted until thursday then explosive soft stools ever since. sometimes when i wipe her bottom it has a minimal smear of fresh blood. this happened when she was constipation which i thought would be due to tearing but why now when no straining required???

she is and has always been well and not complaining throughout, but now at wits end. do i now start giving her 'firming' foods, she has been on lactulose, prune juice etc etc for week. do i now switch to bananas?

anyone with this experience, it has become the bain of our lives. luckily she doesn't seem to be suffering with it.

Ummm... FWIW I would be inclined to stick with a 'neutral' diet until you can consult your GP or HV again. I seem to remember that a child can have very soft stools despite being still consitpated - i.e. the soft makes its way around the hard. Parent info downloads on www.eric.org.uk/ may help/clarify whether I'm talking complete twaddle. I'd be reluctant to pro-actively start 'bunging' your dd up again without medical advice!

good luck.

thanks maybe you're right; i have heard that soft stools can escape around hard ones that are blocked up there.

also on a positiv note do you think it could just be her body cleaing out the backlog or would that not be possible.

the other thing i have heard about is that due to prolonged constipation the bowel becomes stretched so when 'back to normal' stools speed through the much larger space...

now blood in loose stools; what should i do? wait till GP's appointment on wednesday or go to casualty? NHS direct was no help and said i should speak to my health visitor

How much blood?

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If its fresh (bright red) blood I wouldn't worry too much. Bth ds1 and ds3 have that at the moment.

saw out of hours gp and they said she is no longer constipated (she has now backup in bowels following abdominal examination); but may be a viral infection or something ele?? what could it be.

the amount of blood is a not a lot, cannot say a little cos i wouldn't really know what a little is. its easily visible with naked eye and her stools are watery but normal colour themselves. the blood is not exactly bright red but not dark either.

they checkes her anus and no tears. unfortunately.....IYSWIM.

anyone with experience of this? she is well in herself but it will take 3 days to get results from lab

sorry she has NO backup in bowels