Severely constipated dd, age 2 - desperate for advice!

[Diege]

DD2 is in extreme discomfort, and has been on and off for several months now . We've tried lots of fruit (inc. prunes) fluids, and old trusty lactulose, but to no effect. The only thing that made some difference was stopping her morning and evening cup of milk, but now seems as bad as ever . In fact most of her waking day is spent sitting in a corner 'straining' poor thing. Have to ring drs back tomorrow for an 'emergency' appointment (only way of getting an appoitment at our gps )but wondered if anyone had any advice to offer?

Posie, I think you've hit the nail on the head there, as it's been going on for months now. This is the longest she's gone without going though.
She's been prescribed suppositories over the phone which dh has gone to get.
Thanks too elliephant - some great tips . Think I'll take her for a bath now, as it can't be worse than the constant screaming . I feel so sorry for her - we can;t even go out anywhere as all she does is crouch down on the pavement.
Thanks again, and will let you know how we get on with the suppositories!

It is important to know that you must continue to treat the problem for at least as long as it has existed, preferably twice as long, in order to retrain the bowel.

Good news, she's been!!! And just before the dreaded suppositoires were brought back by dh!! A warm bath seemed to do the trick (it hadn't last night), and she actually did it in the bath too , the hardest, knarliest looking thing I've ever seen .
Sooo relieved (dd too!).
3littlefrogs, so should I carry on with the califig/movicol for a while yet then?

if stopping her milk has helped in the past are you giving her cows milk?

you might want to try switching to goats...

just a thought.

She's on soya milk, though she still has a dash of cow's on her cereal at nursery, and also the odd ice cream etc...She's not so keen on the soya (not helped by dd2 calling it 'grey milk',lol) so may give goat's a go. Thank-you

i have been told by my DS paediatrician that soya milk can cause as many problems as cows so i would try the goats (its flipping expensive though!). Apart from tasting a bit creamier its not too different from cows either. My DS loves it. Good luck.

That's interesting! Will def. put goat's milk on the shopping list

Hi Diege I'm glad that your ds got some poo out. There is probably a lot more poo that needs to come out. I would get her assigned to a poo nurse to have her started on movicol or I would at least start feeding her things that make her poo every day for at least 5 days so that she can get cleared out.

Thanks xserialshopper . She's already on a diet that should really have prevented the problem occuring in the first place, but will monitor the situation carefully rather than just treating it as an isolated incident. There have been 3 poos since, but she is still straining etc so keeping up the califig and have movicol and suppositories as backup

Dd had this when she had chicken pox at one year. I gave her piriton without realising that it causes dehydration by drying out the gut. She developed faecal impaction and was blocked solid for about a week. She ended up with an anal fissure because the poo was rock hard and huge.

She then started witholding, which is a very common reaction in small children because of the pain.

My lovely GP put her on a very strict regimen of suppositories, lactulose (this was before movicol was around) and senna and docusate.

She told me that I would need to keep it up for at least 12 weeks, but foolishly I stopped when I thought things were resolved. We went right back to square one and I started all over again. GP told me that it was vital to keep up the treatment for at least as long as the problem had existed, and preferably twice as long.

I followed the instructions religiously and we never looked back.

Diege,
Bless. Glad she's "been"!! Like 3littlefrogs' dd My dd's impaction was caused by an anal fissure and because it was hurting her to go, she was holding the poo back. We didn't realise because we thought she had chronic diorhoea (sp?)as only the fluid could bypass the impaction. It became a habit and got progressively worse and worse. It all got sorted and we were told that it was common and easy to misdiagnose (7 visits to our GP and an emergency A&E visit before it was diagnosed....)but the Movicol and the intervention of the "poo nurse" really helped.The mvicol is pretty hardcore but will shift any future blockages!
Hope it all gets sorted out for you!

Diege - would def consider taking her to a chiropractor or cranial osteopath - this is something that they can definitely help with

Many thanks, lots of great advice there 3littlefrogs, will make sure I keep the 'regime' up, though already tempting to give up as she's been so much today. Little love annouched after the 'big one' yesterday that 'I needed that' . We've actually been able to go out today without fear of her screaming in pain, but do appreciate this is the start of a long(ish) term treatment, and not just a one-off episode.
Firststeps, will deffo investiagte cranial oestepathy - helped loads with dd1's post-ventouse headache,so already a convert
Aww spub, your poor dd . Comforting to know that the movicol will actually shift impacted blockage, though touch wood it won;t get so bad again now we're 'on the case'