HELP THIS HAS GONE ON TOO LONG *CONSTIPATION*

[karly1824]

Hi im new to this forum and so far have found it to be very helpful..i hope you dont mind but now im going to pick your brains..
Ok so my son is now coming up 26mths and ever since i can remember we have had problems with him moving his bowels in the early days we had situations where after a week he was so uncomfortable that i would insert a cotton bud to help him get started...it wasnt all hard it was as if he held it in and then a hard plug formed...anyway after months of going to the docter and been given lactoluse on a daily basic (sometimes as much as 6teaspoons a day)
we were referred to the hospital..they put him on both senna and lactoluse and sent us away now nearly 18months down the line after having to keep food diaries because the doctor thought i was feeding my son crap he is still on 20ml lactoluse and 10 senna a day our last visit to the hospital it was decided that we would try and reduce his medicine slowly but this isnt working as soo as i do this he stops going..if at his next appointment we havent reduced it they want him to go into hospital have an operation to take a part of his bowel and back passage away to analyse it now i wondered if anyone had a similar story or anyone can advise me on whether this could be food related ie is he intolerent to certain foods now i have no idea where to go for food intolerence advice but want to look at every possibility before i put him through an ordeal in hospital please help if you can as his next appointment date looms im getting so worried
many thanks
karly

Have you tried pineapple juice diluted 50/50 with water???? We had the same problems with j when he was little and a nutitionalist told us to try this before we resorted to surgery.....it worked for us and still does if he gets constipated now. I cant really remember what she told us as to why the pineapple worked.....something about enzymmes?????
Good Luck....I know its not nice having to "lend a hand" to help your little one go.

dry apricots...are very good....I boil them and mix with his food....

they go well with chicken.....

I mean I still blend a lot of stuff!

I swear this is true.

My mum's neighbour had terrible trouble with her son- he was going once a month (all sorts of other problems to do with feeding as well). he was finally due to see a consultant and his dad told him he's give him a pound every time he went. And he went every day!!!

He was obviously older. We recently went throough a bad patch with ds1 where he was holding himself (non verbal autisic)- in his case the ame thing happened- hard at the end then soft behind. he was only going about once every 4 days and would then pass a HUGE stool. The hard bit was hurting to pass so he got into a vicious cycle. In his case I think some of it was linked to not going at school as he relaxed over the xmas holidays and began to go properly again (and has been fine at his new school).

I did use homeopathy (sulphur?? silica?? I'll look it up for you) and he would go if we gave him a remedy then not again. IN his case it was definitely behavioural though. DS1's diet is crap which doesnt help but we try to make sure he has orange juice every day and that seems to help/

silica- you can get it from health foood shops. 30c would be fine to try- give one and then see what happens. don't repeat if nothing happens , but if he goes that day then give again the next day.

You can't become 'used' to lactulose. It is a sugar that cannot be absorbed by the body (which is why it can get t the bowel undigested), but it can be digested bt bacteria that live in the bowel. It make the bacteria grow in number, and it is the deal bacteria that help to make the faceces soft . a third to half of healthy faeces in made up of dead bacteria.

My NT dd had a horrible phase of censipation which lasted the better part of 2 years. In the end it resolved when she was potty trained. Like you I was upset at the 'diet' based comments, as her diet was (and still is) excellent.

We also used bribery and that helped a bit as well.

A freind of mine has to give her dd picolax (which means they do go, you can't stop yourself) . That little girl is also now better.

All of which is to say you have my greatest sympathy. Try not to worry too much, it may resolve itself and whatever you do don't beat yourself up over this.

Apricots, prunes, and lots of water do it for my DS. I also gently massage his anus with a little vaseline on clean finger to stimulate.

hi thanks for your input....My son has always been like this from an very early age...like a few weeks because of various doctors and myself havin to look and sometimes insert things into his back passage he did have a time when he was concerned about nappy changes but only cos he thought that he was gonna get pulled about ...now he does go normally but only because he is on so much medication but he doesnt seem to hold anything in he goes in his corner and goes a little bit red and then the smell appears he never crys or aseem frightened of goin he says poo poo and knows when he goes he get praise ...we have only just started potty training and he hasnt yet pooed on his pot...even though i descibe his problem as constipation his poo isnt hard but obviously with all his medicine it wouldnt be..i have trued all the usual things as far as his diet goes..prunes apricots loadsa fluid but doesnt change a thing..his diet is great he loves fruit and vegtables and loves pure fruit juices...like i said his poo isnt hard but i dont know what it would be like if he wasnt on all the medicine sometimes i wonder what would happpen if i cut all of the medicine but i darent try cos its so upsetin when he doesnt go and i dont want him to get frightened again

karly

Karly my dd would starin and strain yo keep it in! She just wouldn't go, even though like you ds the poos were soft.

She would spend days just crying (with be along with her) and if one more well meaning peson has sugested I give her orange juice I would have swung for them! The girl was all but orange from all the citrus fruits she ate, along with dried fruit and lots of veg!

In the end we realised with her that it was all psychological. We tried as best we could to calm down and when she was potty trained it stoped being a problem.

I hope that things improve soon, it is an awful thing to go through

Hi I dont want to be an alarmist but had same probs with my son when he was young.Saw consutants had medications and was told food intollerance and age would help.As the years passed it seemed to get better but was never perfect.Than out of the blue when he was 11 he started to wet which he had never done always constipated never wet.Tried gp very unhelpful said it was me paranoid.I have the problem apparently over anxious.Fought for referal to Guys in London had MRI scan and found he has a Lipoma(fatty tumour) on his spine.This has been there from birth it is a form of spina bifida and is the cause of all his toilet problems.Its rare but not that rare I now no of at least 6 others who went to see a specialist for long term constipation and have been told the same.Its worth fighting to see a specialist just to check my son is now totally incontinent and has to catheterize to remain dry due to the permenant damage to his spinal cord which could have been prevented had he been properly diagnosed sooner.

Karly, just seen this thread, any luck with anything? How is he????

My daughter has the same problems too, and shes been taking medicine to help her go for a couple of years now.
Whilst talking with others parents, i found out that they had had good success by taking their children into a hydrotherapy pool or similiar. As it helped their child relax and for everything to move! One parent swore by having her child in the bath, they had a water jet, they cost about £30, I think they are made by babylis, and she would get the water to move around her sons tummy - her son then had a bowl movement shortly after............good luck

hi all
sorry i havent updated you sooner. my baby doin good we saw his doctor and i was advised to try watereing his milk down and slowly reducing it which i was slighty mythed about WHY CANT HE BE TESTED FOR ALLERGIES well ok i thought i would try things seemed better after halfin his intake of milk within a week...then the whole family caught a tummy bug so i had to cut all the medicine out cos he was havin the runs....WELL HERE IS THE GOOD BIT he hasnt had any medicine since thats 16 YES 16 days i am still reducing his milk and am givin him multivitiins cos he still need goodness from milk but this time last month he was havin up to 30ml lactoluse and 20ml senna a day and now he doesnt have anything and the worst problem he has had is he didnt go for 3 days and then had a massive poo that was a slight struggle to get out but it wasnt hard at all....so i have kept another poo diary (believe me ive done a few) and ive kept a record of his milk intake and we are due to see the doctor on 18th this month NOW IM TELLIN HER I WANT HIM TESTED TO SEE EXACTLY WHAT HIS FOOD INTOLERANCES ARE...ill let you all know what happens
love from a much happier mum