I need miralax or constipation advice quicky please
SarahTx5701
member
My ds has always had issues with #2. At his 4 year old checkup they wanted us to basically give him an entire bottle of miralax over a 12 hr peiod to clean him out completely. We didnt do it because he had gotten better. He has good weeks and bad weeks.
Right now those he has been crying and is having the ecopresis issue again (the leaky watery stuff but not actual poop)
I felt his tummy and he a HUGE rock in there. It really quite freaky. He just keeps crying and saying his bottom hurts. He's not complaining of tummy pain right now.
I gave him a dose of miralax and hour ago and nothing yet. Should I Give him some more? We go to a military base to see the doctor so its not like I can call and directly talk to a nurse over there. The only nurse is an after hour line and 9 times out of 10 they tell you to go to the ER.
any advice or have a similar issue?
Re: I need miralax or constipation advice quicky please
It's not an instant fix. If you think about how long it takes the body to digest food, An hour probably isn't long enough to see results.
That's not to say don't give him more. If he's really that bad, another dose might help.
Fruit juice, like apple or prune can help too, as well as flaxseed. Do you give him juice regularly?
Massaging his abdomen can also help relax the muscles.
First, not sure if you are doing this, but with miralax it is very important to push fluids. Miralax won't work you are not also giving plenty of water. Miralax works by pulling the water into the intestines and then flushing everything out. And yes, it is not an instant fix, it takes anywhere from 4 to 12 hours to work depending on the person. I deal with a child that has what our docs call a "slow colon system". Bascially she does not hold her poop, her system is just not very efficient at moving things through. So I need to constantly control her diet and fiber intake so she doesn't become backed up for too many days. Here are some ways I deal with it:
Day 1 - Day 3: She gets an adult fiber gummie with breakfast every morning (the children's fiber gummies don't work they don't have enough fiber in them). I make sure she eats an apple every day with lunch (with the skin on, that has the most fiber in it). Keep her away from cheese and too much bread products. She gets a double dose of veggies with dinner every night. I stick with most green veggies, such as green beans, lima beans, broccoli and raw baby spinach (she loves salads). This is the diet I try to stick to most of the time and she will usually go every 2-3 days. But sometimes at school they will give her bananas as a snack (big no no, they constipate) or we go to a birthday party that is serving pizza so she will start to get backed up.
Day 4: If we get to day 4 and we haven't had a poop, I start giving her a dose of Miralax in the morning with breakfast, on top of the adult fiber gummie. When she gets home from school I start pushing the fluids, making her drink at least 2-3 sippy cups of watered down juice before dinnertime. Most of the time by that evening we have a big poop and that gets her back to Day 1.
Day 5 or 6: If we get to Day 5 of no poop, then she gets a double dose of Miralax in the morning and push fluids again all afternoon. If she is struggling to go at dinnertime and her belly is huge because it is full of stool, this is the point where I usually do a Pedia-Lax liquid glycerin suppository. They are made by Fleet and sold in the laxitives aisle. They are for kids ages 2-5. They are gentle and come already lubricated for inserting. After I adminster this it takes only about 30 seconds to work. So I have her lay on a towel on my bed and then I run her to my bathroom to go. It totally cleans her out. For the next day she will be still getting it all out.
The longest I have gone is 6 days. Longer than that and we would be going to the ER. But I have always been able to get her to go using the suppository as a last resort. My DD doesn't like it but at that point she is usually crying because her belly hurts so bad and she really needs to go. We just had a Day 5 day yesterday. She was able to go in the morning (so no need for suppository) and went another 4 times yesterday afternoon and evening. So she is now back to Day 1. I am hoping to keep her regular this week as much as possible. It will be hard with Thanksgiving being next week if I can't keep her going this week.
It is really hard to deal with sometimes, but I am told it will get better as they get older. I am really hoping so. Good luck to you.
Miralax takes 1-3 days to work - you generally need a suppository if you need a quicker clean out. I'd call and ask to speak with your pedi or get a GI asap and get a bowel management plan with those issues.
The thing is, once constipation has gotten that bad, most likely his colon is so stretched out that it's not working properly - he can hold too much poop which makes it hard to push through which makes it more likely he'll get constipated. When DS got super backed up at 13 months, they recommended he continue on Miralax for 6 months regularly to help keep the poop moving and help ensure his colon could stretch back to normal. We had to go back on it a few months ago and created our own very slow wean plan to make sure he stays at healthy poop levels. It's a huge pain, but so is constipation.