Constipated 3 year old

chitownmom

I apologize in advance if this is TMI.  I'm at a loss of what to do and am hoping to get good advise.  My 3 1/2 year old daughter started to have constipation issues ever since she was potty trained 9 months ago.  She often withholds and doesn't have a bm everyday.  There are times when it has been 3 days since she had one.  When she does go, it is a struggle for her.  After talking to the doctor numerous times, I am working with her changing her diet and drinking more fluids.  It can be tough getting a stubborn 3 year old to eat and drink differently.  This past week the constipation got so bad that we added more fiber and prune juice (just a little bit) to her diet.  Now she is having soft poop stuck in her butt.  She has been telling me when she has to go, complaining of a stomach ache, and says her stomach feels better after she goes, but it's just a tiny amount.  There were a couple of times when she didn't even realize it was there.  Could this be from adding the prune juice?  Can her body be so messed up she doesn't know when she has to go?  Could there be a bowel obstruction?  I don't want her to have to go through this and I'm afraid she will have an accident when she's at school.  

In addition to my daughter being constipated, now my son who just turned 1 is also having pooping trouble.  Ever since he started eating more food, it is very difficult to give him fluids.  He often refuses it.  He has a bm almost everyday, but when he goes, he has so much trouble pushing it out.  He screams in pain and I have to help by pushing back his legs, like a bicycle.  

I feel bad for both kids and I want them to have to go through this.  It is horrible.  If anyone has any suggestions or advise, please let me know.  I have asked the doctor many times and all she says is to change their diet and make sure they are drinking more fluid.  I have been trying to change their diet, and will continue to do so, but there hasn't been an end in sight to their constipation.

LSU628

Agree with auntie. My daughter was often withholding poop and becoming incredibly consitpated. The pedi had us add Miralax, but DD was still complaining of stomach aches and not eating well. The pedi finally sent us for an xray. DD was full of poop and was also impacted!  We had to do a daily dose of Miralax to keep DD regular. We've gradually been able to taper it off but still have to use it when I notice she's not going every day.

LSU628

ExpectantSteelerFan said:

This could actually be a major problem...if the constipation has been ongoing, she could have poop backed all the way up her intestines that will not come out on its own.  I would make an appointment with a pediatric GI (or ask for a referral and not stop asking till you get one if you need one) to do an xray.  I'm a member of another mom's group, and 2 of the moms have kids who needed to do a MAJOR cleanse, and one had to do retraining with potty training because of leakage (gross, but soft poop can slide around the backup and leak out). 
If it was just an occasional constipation I'd recommend Miralax as needed (my dh has GI issues and both my kids seemed to have inherited them...dd has been on Miralax daily since she started solid foods, but she also has bm's daily or at least every other day). 

Completely agree. We had to re-train DD. The poop had been pushing against her bladder for so long that the muscles were soft after we got the impaction cleared. DD had to completely re learn how to hold her pee, how to recognize the signals. It's been a long frustrating journey, but it seems we are finally on the road to success.

groovygrl

Ditto the others, talk to your dr more about it- I think some pediatricians are more knowledgable/experienced w/ it than others and may be able to try to handle it before going to a specialist but others are not very knowledgable about dealing w/ it... we didn't have to go to a GI specialist (yet) but we did up the Miralax substantially to get DS cleaned out and going more regularly and it is still quite a struggle and he often doesnt realize when he has to go (he's 4 1/2, this has been going on about a year).  One time a number of months ago I had to give him enemas b/c he was in a lot of pain. Not to be totally gross but our goal w/ the miralax is soft ice cream consistency poop all the time for awhile to be sure everything is coming out.  I make him eat  a decent amt of fruit at every meal and we also do a probiotic daily. Unfortunately he refuses most veggies. I also have tried to make some things more fiber-ful like baking bran banana muffins w/ bran cereal & stuff like that. It is a slow process to figure the whole thing out unfortunately . Found that out the hard way when things were going really well for maybe 2 months and I cut back on his Miralax & back to square one...so I think we'll be on that for quite some time.

I found The Ins and Outs of Poop to be a really helpful book and I know LSU628 recommends a book also though I'm blanking on the title.
Good luck & it is good that you're catching it early, hopefully you can get things moving

chitownmom

Thank you for the helpful advise.  I will call her doctor tomorrow and see if it could be encopresis. Unfortunately, she did have an accident at school today with just a little in her underwear.  

chitownmom

The comment that you made about soft ice cream consistency poop makes a lot of sense.  Her poops are always so large and often clogs the toilet.  I have heard many people recommend Miralax.  I will talk to her doctor about that too.

groovygrl

chitownmom said:

The comment that you made about soft ice cream consistency poop makes a lot of sense.  Her poops are always so large and often clogs the toilet.  I have heard many people recommend Miralax.  I will talk to her doctor about that too.

Obviously not diagnosing via message board LOL but the small smear -like accidents are pretty typical and also the huge poops that clog the toilet. If you have a kindle or kindle app, the book I recommended is available for kindle, I seriously read it in one plane ride, it might clarify some things for you. GL!

LSU628

It's No Accident is the book Groovy was referring to. It almost described my DD to a T. We had to completely cleanse DD out with high doses of Miralax and fiber. Once she realized her poop no longer hurt, she is 100% accident free with poop. We are still working on the pee potty training, but she has come a long way and I'm super proud of her!