Constipation in a toddler

[Wowjustwow99]

Hello,
Not sure if this is the right place for this.
My nearly 2 year old is very constipated, her diet is very good but she doesn't seem to want to drink lots of water.

Has anyone been on this situation ? Did anything help ?

TIA

My grandchild is 2 and has a super healthy diet but also not too bothered about drinking water Grandchild has a sachet of paediatric movicol every evening in bedtime milk It is the only thing that works Not ideal but when constipated Grandchild is so distressed. Shall be speaking to GP regarding long term management next week.

Have you tried a little sugar free squash in the water or a new cup? I know they are better to have just plain water in this case I think it would be worth it. I found my daughter loves drinking from my water bottle and prefers it to her own cup. I also swear by readybrek for breakfast, I don't know why but it's really helped to keep her regular.

Mine suffers badly from this, she is a terrible drinker especially if feeling ill, sore teeth, unsettled etc.

The doctor and the hospital recommend dilute squash which we now give her with impunity. The hospital consultant was astonished when I said I wasn’t giving her squash because of her teeth when she was really struggling. Felt pretty bad about that! Think hospitals and dentists have differing perspectives and you kind of have to chose if you are in a difficult situation like this.

We often give her a drink in front of the TV and she will drink nearly a whole cup/baby sports bottle. She drinks better at nursery as the other children inspire her. Plus she still usually likes a milk at night.

She has had movicol in the past as well. She has plenty of prunes, incl sachets and pears as well as lots of other fruit.

We also realised that alongside not drinking much she had hard poos with banana and that has made her withhold and become a bit poo adverse. Shame as banana is her absolute favourite thing but we have been teaching her banana is ‘bad for her bottom’.

Sorry for the essay - good luck!

Ellas Kitchen Prune pouches & pear juice.

@Passanotherjaffacake can I ask what squash you use? My Dd2 sounds similar, I always give watered down fresh juice but switching to squash (especially if it's better?) would be great!

Ribena was the real key for us, she didn’t like normal orange squash at first but she quite enjoys orange now!

Actually up with her this morning crying because trying to do her poo hurts. Some banana must have accidentally made it her way at nursery! 😫

We had similar issues. For us a kiwi a day made a massive difference. In Oz they use kiwi paste for extreme constipation. We've now dropped to every other day. I now hide kiwis in different thing - home made ice lollies, with yoghurt or with breakfast

Thank you everyone !

We have been up for over an hour now as she is trying to poo and it's hurts 😴😴

Going to be a long day and work for me and s long day at nursery for her 😥

She has squash as I thought it might help, will try Kiwi as she loves fruit. I've tried the prune pouches and nothing.

It might be time to call the health visitor or doctors ☹️

Deep warm baths can get things moving, if possible around the time you'd expect them to do a meal (often after food).

We had this with our 2.5 year old, even though she has s really good healthy diet. She was prescribed movicol in the end and that helped shift everything along . She must have then felt better and within a week we stopped having any issues.
We also gave her very diluted squash to encourage her to drink and she now has a small snack most days of one dried date or apricot and a few peanuts or almonds as they are high in fibre

My son used to suffer as a baby and we used lactulose it was prescribed by a doctor but you can get it over the counter. It's very mild but really helped.

My DD had this, awful as she was leaking as well :( I bought some sachets from Holland and Barrett called Nutrigen Inulin, you put a sachet in water at night and they go in the morning they worked for mine she needed 2 to get moving (on consecutive days)

Paediatric movicol (stool softener) is amazing. Get it from GP. We'd mix it with mango lassie at first as it's a bit salty but lassies can be salty so works, then later when we were ina pattern with mango kefir to limit the sugar

Ella's Kitchen Prune sachets are great too.

My eldest wouldn't drink much water as a toddler but drinks more now.

I would also recommend going to the GP and getting a prescription for movicol. My DD is 2 and had been cycling through constipation/withholding on and off since she was one. I was reluctant to use medication at first and tried to focus on diet, but no matter how well she ate it didn’t fix the problem. Movicol diluted in juice or squash goes down easily and she now poos regularly, and most importantly isn’t afraid to go for fear of it hurting her - which only makes the problem worse.

It is fine to use long term and we will probably keep using it until she is toilet trained, as withholding is a big issue for her.