I don't know what to do

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Posting this on here and parenting cus I'm desperate!
My daughter is 1 next week, and since around 4 months she has had terrible constipation.
I have taken her to doctors on emergency appointments 6-8 times, and this last one has taken me demanding it be investigsted to get a paediatric referral, but it's going to take time to even get her seen and it's a problem now! She is on 2x 5ml of lactulose a day; they told me to keep increasing to this as it was the max but now they're telling me to do more! She has suppositories which traumatise her when I put them in and make her cry and scream, but nothing is working, not even the medication. She cleared her bowel on Thursday, she hasn't poo'd at all today and it's the same pattern repeating! She won't poo for 2/3 days until it's rock hard, then she will hold it in as long as she can until she can't anymore and it comes out so big she screams and bleeds, and all I can do it watch it happen. She doesn't drink enough water I don't think but even when I have tried giving her more it doesn't work, she is funny with food and I will try to give her more fibre but t doesn't matter what I do, nothing helps! She is in this constant cycle of pain and all I do is watch her suffer, it's so difficult and I'm welling up even talking about it! What do I do to help her? She needs to be checked out now! But it's will take ages for anything to happen..

Gave weak tea this morning, I will try anything! I'll get some soya milk tomorrow and give that a go from there, and probiotics I'll get too..
Got her referral through today and it's not until 15th of November so I'm desperate to help her before then as she can't go on like this, it's been 2 days again and she hasn't poo'd, so I know the cycle is starting all over again bless her.
Going to take her to doctors next week and ask for movicol too as lots of people have suggested that!

It took about two weeks of being lactose free to see an improvement, and it started out as 4 or 5 dirty nappies a day, with a tiny bit in each time. Which was a bit of a shock compared to nothing for a week or more. Good luck!

You can buy movicol over the counter. My local boots will sell individual sachets.

My LO used to suffer awfully from constipation and like yours would scream and bleed when she finally went. What finally worked for us was to totally stop bananas as that always makes things worse for some reason and she still can't eat them now and she's nearly two. What really helped as well was warm prune juice that we diluted slightly with warm water. Hope you get things sorted soon there is nothing worse than seeing your baby in pain especially when you can't seem to do anything to help

I definitely agree with the Ella's Kitchen prunes pouches. When my DD was struggling she would refuse quite a lot of foods but she enjoyed drinking the fruit pouches as she liked holding them herself so the prunes went down a treat each time. They worked very well lol.

For us is was trial and error with her foods. We noticed it was certain stuff that would cause her such bad constipation, bananas are the worst we've found so far.

Hope you manage to get some help and relief for your DD

You can buy movicol over the counter for adults, but for children you need a prescription.

In this case I would probably see if any friends with toddlers had any in, and start her off on 2-3 sachets a day. It's a completely inert substance so won't do any harm at all. Where are you? I've got a whole box full you can have if you're nearby

She doesn't eat bananas, not interested in them at all! I just got out of bed to run around the shops looking for soya milk so I'm hoping that will help a little.

I'm in Northampton, is that anywhere near you? Would be greet to get some as I'm at welcome week for uni next week so my timetable is packed of important sessions, won't be easy getting little one to doctors straight away on Monday

Ah, bit far from me I'm afraid.

If you know several people with kids between 1-4 I guarantee that someone will have movicol somewhere.

I wouldn't be saying this for any other meds, but you know what the issue is, and movicol is just substance that sits in the gut and absorbs fluid to make the stool softer. The sooner to can start it the better.

That's okay, I agree the sooner the better, will try my hardest to get her to the doctors on Monday and hope all the other ideas help too

OP, I can buy Movicol over the counter in my country. My daughter used it on recommendation from the GP for an extended period and it really did make all the difference. It is not harmful as it retains liquids in the gut to allow for a softer stool. It is not a laxative and will allow the child to regulate naturally once you wean off.

I'm in UK and have bought paediatric movicol over the counter recently. Worth a try.

Just ask your GP fot Movicol. It's much more effective than Lactulose with chronic constipation.

It's a very effective stool softener (when you get the dose right) which would mean you could stop the suppositories.

You shouldn't be able to buy paed movicol OTC. I couldn't 6 months ago.. Has it changed?

OP - I can send you the spare box I've got, you can PayPal me the postage costs once it arrives. Let me know :)

(I know the pain of constipated small ones... DS was on Mov for 3 years)

OP from the pp it's clear that you're not alone in this and constipation is very common in babies/toddlers.

My gp is an ex paediatric dr who at one time ran the constipation clinic. At 9 months after having been advised to give lactulose for 3 months and it being anything up to 3 weeks between poos dd was finally prescribed movicol. It was great, dd wouldn't take it without it being mixed with juice. We were prescribed 1/2 a sachet a day, when this didn't work we were told to up it to five sachets per day if needed. I only had to do that once or twice and we found a 'maintenance dose of 1.5-2 sachets per day kept her fairly regular with the odd 3 sachet day. We had/have the same issue around drinking, she would happily survive on the fluids in her food and nothing else! Fresh not from concentrate orange juice diluted with water with the movicol mixed in is what we did. Ensure you clean teeth well too as the orange is bad for the tiny soft teeth.

Try a big bowl of prunes, stones out and chopped up to make a big sloppy mush. It'll be messy but I'm sure, like me you'll try anything to get them into your child's tummy. Any fruit is good as it usually has a high water content. Lactulose is an artificial version of the sugar found in pears, strawberries and some other fruits so I tried to let her munch on over ripe pears a lot. Also we resorted to water/juice in a 1ml syringe, just to try and get a tad more fluid down her and anything more than 1ml would be spat back out a lot of the time.

At about 20 months my dentist was horrified that I was giving fresh juice throughout the day (it could be a full day of trying to give fluids every 15 mins) as the enamel on baby teeth is really soft so insisted I use sugar free squash. DD now 3 will rarely drink water unless it's flavoured which I'm disappointed about I don't think it's too much of a price to pay to have had her pooing for the past year 2 years.

One last thing to add. The paediatrician we were referred to said that after the poo has been compacted in the bottom it has stretched the muscles so when more poo moves down the muscles are loose and won't work well to push it out and more constipation is inevitable. If you use movicol/extra fruit or anything really to get the poo out then you need to keep it up for at least 3 weeks to let the muscles shrink back and build strength again.

Oh and dd is now 3 and since potty training 6 months ago has only had one sachet of movicol. It turns out that she was holding it in when she wore a nappy but now she uses the toilet she loves to poo. I still meal plan and shop around foods to make her poo but it's so much better now.

Good luck

I find prune juice extremely effective as a quick fix but obv need an expert opinion

I know I have written loads but it's a subject which was a huge part of my life for a long time...

...I was convinced I needed to start cutting things out of dd's diet, Her digestive system must have been reacting to something to make her so bunged up, right? Well the answer was no. My gp refused to accept that or support me in cutting out parts of her diet. At the time I spent a lot of time googling but now that we've moved past the awful constipation I'm glad I listened to him. Dd can eat anything and it doesn't cause constipation, we just have a diet full of fresh veg and fruit to keep things moving. When she was bad with constipation it felt like no amount of veg would help but I guess her digestive system has matured. When we're eating meals she often asks if a food will 'help me to poop?' If I say yes then she'll demolish it. Yes, at 3 she now loves to poo

I totally accept that kids are intolerant and allergic to foods but it could be wise to talk it through with your doctor first before cutting things out.

The point about allergies is a good one. In our case, and possibly with the OP's case, the constipation happened prior to my daughter being weaned. She was formula fed from two weeks and therefore the only logical cause for us was milk.

Constipation started very early, I was changing milk to try and help when she was only a few months old but nothing happened!
I just phoned an early morning pharmacy and the woman told me they could give me something only for me to get there and the other guy say no sorry it's prescription only, I could've had a total melt down right there I front of them. I'm not at work til 8pm and tomorrow have a full day of lessons so have no chance of getting her to doctors until after 4 and that's if they get me in that late rather than complaining I didn't do it earlier..
By which time it will be 4 days with no poo and guaranteed screams when it comes out, really struggling to cope with this.

I will get her some fruit and mash it up, prunes too and hope that it does something, so desperate for anything to help!

the constipation happened prior to my daughter being weaned. She was formula fed from two weeks and therefore the only logical cause for us was milk

Not necessarily. My daughter's constipation started very young. As a young FF baby she got into a cycle of pooing every six days. It was like squeezing toothpaste out of a tube. She used to strain so hard and got fissures.

I blamed the formula, but it didn't improve with weaning. It got worse.

I don't think it was the milk or the food. It's her gut. It's so sluggish. Just like mine

Sadly, she's showing no signs of not needing Movicol aged six, but she's a horrifically fussy eater with a pretty bad diet. I'd rather her be on medication than not.

OP Movicol is recommended by NICE as first-line treatment for constipation in children. There's a summary of the treatment recommendations here cks.nice.org.uk/constipation-in-children#!scenariorecommendation:2
It's a pretty dry read but you may find it useful. You'll see they recommend against suppositories unless all oral treatment has failed.

I wouldn't worry about getting your daughter to the dr tomorrow - I would suggest just a telephone consultation where you ask for some movicol. Your GP has seen you recently and as nothing has changed (for the better) it's reasonable to say you've done some reading and would like to change treatment. With enough movicol you could easily fix this before November (although still worth doing to paeds appointment for long-term plan).

You're absolutely right that this is partly psychological now. She knows it hurts to poo and so is probably withholding, which makes it all worse.

COI: am a GP. Rarely use lactulose in kids nowadays.

A telephone appointment sounds like a good idea, I will try my hardest to get it tomorrow. November is a while away, but if I can just get something that helps get us through to then, everyone's life will be a bit easier and more importantly she won't be in so much pain!
Will update on how I get on, hopefully I get a nice helpful doctor x

it sounds to me like an food allergy or intolerance as i have and go through the exact same situation. i have a wheat and milk intolerance and have to watch what i eat consistently. if i "treat" myself i will not go to the toilet either and get terrible cramps and even sickness. the only problem with dietary problems is its a waiting game so keep a diary of what you have given her and maybe bowel movements as well and just be paitent it will pay off . i didnt get much help from the gp. so i asked for a dieitition referal and they knew straight away it was a wheat intolerance . so try it you cant loose anything .also look at all food packets its unbelievable what is actually put into food nowadays.
hope this helps