Does anyone fancy talking to me about constipation???

[mumgoingcrazy]

Not the nicest topic to talk about but thank you in advance to anyone who would like to talk to me about it.

DD2 is 3.5yrs. She has global delay (spikey profile) but gross motor is the biggest delay of all (just started to walk unaided 2 weeks ago). She also has sensory proessing disorder, and it wouldn't surprise me in the future if she ends up on the spectrum somewhere (although professionals seem to think not).

She has always suffered with constipation, she eats TONS of fruit and veg and we always avoid bananas and eggs. She has prunes every morning. I just don't know what to do.

She can strain for 3 days before she produces something. It goes in stages, she can be fine and regular for a while and then a couple of weeks of just being totally blocked, sluggish and uncomfortable.

I've noticed it can have a link to autism which is why I posted here and not in health.

Any tips gratefully received
x

is she on meds for it?
dd(cp) had loads of trouble, for years she was on senna and lactulose. we still had problems so changed to movicol and tbh she has been fine since.

what is her diet lika apart form tons of fruit?

the bowel link with autism seems, in a lot of cases to be linked to diet. if you google Sunderland protocol autism, you should find a lot of info, or search Mn for gf/cf and sunderland etc.

my dd1 has not ever (so far, although she is seemign to tend that way now) suffered form constipation. but she does have bowel issues.

does your dd eat a lot of gluten products? or dairy products?

there are several diets that people with autism sometimes follow. my dds are gluten and casein (the protein found in dairy) free.

there is also the SCD diet (always forget what that stands for - possibly Specific Carbohydrate Diet? not sure) - Natasha Campbell-MacBride's book is very good; an interesting read.

some people investigate enzymes to help with digestion; usually as a second line of attack though.

what are her drinking levels like?

Hi, our bathroom cabinet is a one-stop constipation remedy shop! Laxatives that would keep me on the loo for a week make no difference to ds.

We give him Movicol (choc-flavoured) Dulculax and occasionally if that fails - microlax (an easy to use squeezy enema thing)

He has loads of veg, fibre and liquids but without the above meds would be well-bunged-up, the poor lamb!

Hi, my ds2 suffers with terrible constipation. The GP has put him on Movicol and despite it taking a while to get the right dosage sorted for him, we are almost there now.

We are all vegetarian and I assumed, like yourself, that this would be a good thing, as my lot eat stacks of fruit and vegetables, plus oats every morning, but apparently not.

Apparently, it can be a case of too much fibre causing stools to become bulky and difficult to pass, leading to the child witholding for fear of it hurting when they go, iyswim.

I was really reluctant to start using laxatives (although I've since learned that Movicol doesn't work in the same way as a laxative) as I was worried that once we started, he wouldn't be able to manage without them.

We've been told we need to work towards getting normal 'stools' for a couple of weeks and then start reducing the dosage very slowly until he doesn't need it any more. The aim is to get the bowel to relearn the signals for when its full etc and for the child to learn better toileting habits as a result.

I would book an appointment to discuss it with your GP and see what he/she thinks.

Oh, almost forgot. Ds2 is my neurotypical son. Its ds1 that has ASD and he suffers from chronic diarrhoea, so is the pole opposite of his brother.

Should have said actually, ds1 is also gluten free. He was tested for coeliacs in June and tested negative, but we were told to keep him gluten free anyway by both the paediatrician and the dietician as an obvious link to his digestive problems showed up in his food/disgestive diary.

Thank you both for responding.

No she isn't on any meds for it. The paed is aware but we always seem to having a good patch when we see her.

DD2 was DF and GF, but the dairy made no difference so she is now just GF. This is under BIBIC's guidance. She doesn't really have that much dairy anyway.

She has a really good diet otherwise, very healthy. She eats everything and lots of it.

I must admit she isn't a great drinker, it's something we've always struggled with so we try and give her as much juicy fruits as possible eg watermelon, pear etc to try and help. She will never ask for a drink, we always have to make her try throughout the day.

Enzymes is a new one on me, what's this?

Enzymes: Google mandi mart, and she has some good links for enzymes. Dh uses them successfully to combat a dairy intolerance.

Karen de Felice (i think) has a good book and website. Worth a read.

Sorry, cross posted.

Movicol sounds like it's used quite widely in kiddies with constipation.

I wonder if she does have too much fibre like moosemama suggests. I naively thought by putting her on a really healthy fibre packed diet it should sort her out. I also thought it might help with her being able to walk now, you know move things around a bit more.

I'll see if I can get her to the dr this week. With all her difficulties, constipation has never been a priority there's been so much other stuff to deal with it's just today I realise she's on day 3 of trying and still nothing.

She's still in nappies by the way, it'll be a while before she's toilet trained.

Thanks