18 month old refusing to poo! HELP!!

[JasminH2020]

Hey everyone.

I have a 18 month old, love her with my whole heart, but she is a stubborn little madam.
She's been constipated recently, not sure if maybe it was something in her diet, so changed her diet to healthy only lots of fruit and veg and a lot of water which she actually really loves. Some days she would eat really well, eat loads of fruit and drink a lot of fluid. Some days she would be stubborn and literally hardly eat anything. She's had a few hard poos, which have been painful for her, but eventually she did get them out. Now she stops herself from going, we reassure her as much as possible and do all relevant things we thought would make it not as painful.

It's a vicious circle really and I'm just looking for a bit of advice, If anyone else has had any problems with their little ones.
Would introducing the potty maybe help her not be as scared?

Thanks in advance.

Jasmin x

DS went through this. Had to get lactulose from the chemist. We used to call it his poo medicine, tastes vile so we would put it in drinks. He had the problem for ages, despite a good diet. He ended up having movicol/lactulose regularly on prescription in the end.

I second what thw user above said. It can become a huge cycle that will last years otherwise. They have one episode of constipation and then they think every time they poo will be like that... so then they keep it in and it gets worse.
Lactipoo is a powder you put on water. Youll get a box of it. I only hsed it for three days 70%solved the problem. I left it too late. Resolve it asap or your going to be in this cycle for a long time.

Some help & advice

https://www.eric.org.uk/how-to-treat-constipation