Constipation making my child ill?

[lazymumsmh]

My DS has always suffered from constipation. It comes and goes but mostly his bowels are slow and his poo hard. He has regular lactalose and movicol as and when he needs it (usually once a week) Since turning 1 a month ago he has been on cows milk and initially this helped - his poo's were nice and soft and semi normal.

Two days ago DS started getting a high temp and was irritable at night, he's also been dead drooly so we put it down to teething or maybe sore throat, gave ibuprofen and calpol. He was up 5-6 times that night crying. Last night he was inconsolable, crying SO much, just wanted to sit and cuddle (not like him at all) and temp of 39.4 most of the night despite medicine. I considered 111 but it was already late and I think he just needed sleep by this point - then he did calm down and go to sleep, he was up every 30 mins last night and I've never seen him cry so much.

Booked a Dr's appointment for 11.20am (best I could get) THEN when I was giving him his breakfast he suddenly burst into tears, let out and awful pain cry and went rigid, clamping his legs together. I took his nappy off and had a look and the biggest, hardest poo ever was trying to come out. I sat with him for over 30 mins as he tried to poo, he was covered in sweat, his hair and back soaked and he was crying so hard his face was red. It was extremely distressing. I had to try and keep his legs bent and keep him calm, in the end the poo popped out and he seemed to get relief almost instantly and his temp is back to normal now. Worryingly the poo had a big streak of blood in it.

I went along to the appointment which was with a nurse - I explained the whole story above - she was very dismissive, said he was fine. I had to ask her to check his ears and throat (to rule anything else out) I explained about the poo thing and asked if that could cause the high temps and she said basically no, he's probably teething. She refused to look at the poo (!) and said its probably a little tear making his bum bleed - which it probably is, but its a fair old assumption based on nothing she has actually seen.

I've booked another appointment with a Dr tonight at 5.30pm because I just don't get it - he was extremely distressed and unwell, then magically better after this big poo, but there was also a lot of blood in it. That can't be normal - and all this when he's already taking meds for constipation.

God this is long. But basically, has anyone experienced similar / can anyone offer any advice?

I hear you. No advice I'm afraid. My DS has just started on lactulose twice a day. His Dr said his body needs to get into a routine. He has struggled with constipation since starting solids from being EBF.

I don't think I can help but I'll write my thoughts anyway ...

My DS (2 years old) has always been constipated. He frequently cries when he poos as they're so hard to get out. Laculose hasn't helped for us (it just gives him stomach ache all week)

Anyway, my point is - he's never had a temperature with it. He does get stomach pain around 12 hours before hand that upsets him (he doesn't cry much, but if he did it's the kind of pain that would make him cry) I know it's related because he cuddles me and says "poo poo"

So yes to pain 12 hours before a big poo, yes to blood in it too (we only get a little - you want it to be fresh bright red blood which indicates a tear) but no to the temperature so maybe your son also had another pain

As for advice on constipation. I try to increase his water intake (I allow cordial to help with this) and try to get fruit into him every day (things like melons and oranges - avoid bananas)
Apparently the best as prunes, peaches and pears. Ocado do a Spanish (I think?) fruit juice which is like pulped fruit in peach or pear flavour - they tend to help quite a lot when I can get him to drink them. I've bought prune juice this week and will be adding some to his normal cordial.

I'm considering probiotics but haven't got that far yet.

If it helps - I was exactly the same as a baby/toddler. Still don't have a great digestive system but it's not painful and hasn't been since I was about 3

Have you tried adding water to his milk? I always found that to be helpful.

After 1 year old, it's fine to do. I would give my son 150ml of milk with 50ml added water and it helped him enormously.

It's really important to drink plenty of water when taking lactulose (it works by taking in or keeping fluid in the bowel). So I would give the lactulose at the same time as the milk with water. Give it a try, it really was a game changer for us.

You are not managing his constipation adequately.
Read the ERIC website, talk to their helpline.
You should probably be giving movicol every day, not intermittently.
His diet and fluid intake also needs careful attention.
You are not likely to get much advice or help from your GP unless they have experience of this - many don't, but the ERIC site is really good.

I meant to say, yes, chronic constipation does make children very unwell and causes a lot of pain.

Thanks so much for the responses here.

Just to note he does drink a lot of juice and water, probably 6-8oz a day, on top of 3 lots of 6oz of cows milk. I try and plough as much fruit into him as possible too, but realise he could always have more. He does love carbs, which I think is part of the problem.

@Huggybear16 thanks for the water tip, I will certainly try this.

I think I'm just surprised how useless the doctors are, they don't seem to think its a big issue at all, I had to practically force them to give him a prescription for the movicol.

Will check out the ERIC site now. Thank you @endofthelinefinally

You have ALL my sympathy. Constipation is horrendous my DD now 7yo has been constipated since she was 6 mths and I agree it’s often dismissed. A doctor once told me to stop making a fuss and leave her. She went 9 days without doing a poo and when she did it was honestly one of the most traumatic days of my (and her) life. We give movicol every day without fail (2 sachets a day) I also gave up with the stimulation meds as they just made her cramp and didn’t actually soften the stool. It’s the easiest way to treat it, not al children drink enough water and it’s not always possible to be there to enforce it. Especially if you are also not very good at drinking water (like me!) I don’t think long term movicol use has any negative effect so I would just keep going with it. It definitely saved us a lot of pain and stress. Big hugs xx