Off dairy? (long but really need help)

[mamamoogs]

ok so as some of you know my 3 year has not been able to poop since she was 1, she would go days and weeks without going, so we took her to a ped a few different peds for that matter and a Gi doctor and they all agreed miralax was the best option, well we did that for a while and then decided after further research that no way no more... so then we saught the help of a homeopathy practioner, well she manged to go poop once on her own during treatment with him, we have given a few suppisitories to her during treatment if she went more then 2 weeks without going, but we refuse to do that anymore.... we still go to him, i keep in touch with him every week but

well he seems to be getting a bit annoyed with me for all the emails and phone calls, i am just trying to update him, well he wants to see her again if this last remedy doesnt work, which is isnt ( byronia) so i figured before going to him i would call a colon therapist, and explain my story to them, well they suggested a food allergy to dairy and explained that for my dd blood type she is eating all wrong, which i have been told here on MDC but when i mention this to any doctors in the past they say no no she just needs more water and fiber there is no food allergy and they accuse her of holding her poop in...

well anyhow we now have taking dd of diary, having a hard time, she loves milk and yogurt, we found almond milk, that she loves and we are trying to find a sub for her yogurt, she is very upset no more cheese, anyhow today is day 12 with no poop and twoo day off dairy, i am still giving her the remedy
( byronia) but not having any luck , and now she is starting to have that stooling on her pants that occurs when bm is backed up, i refuse another suppository she freaks if she even hears the word.. I dont know what to do,

She goes back to her homeopathy practioner on tuesday and i am making an appt again with her ped to see if he can help us out with working with us, colon therapist, homeopathy practioner...

please anyone everyone, we need help and some serious advice, something the doctors cant to seem to do or give.... anyone?

[mamafish9]

My son stopped pooping at 18 months old. Here is what worked for us:

1) Magnesium. Lots and lots of magnesium, split into 4 doses over the day. Give the first dose 30 minutes before food in the morning. If you're only getting poops every 2 weeks, I'd suggest using mag citrate (it is the best combo of causing poops and improving magnesium status). Epsom salts baths at night can also be helpful, but lots of oral magnesium - we did about 300mg, split into 4 doses (you can put into small capsules and see if your child will swallow - my son does dipped into maple syrup). Note that dairy often makes things worse because it's high in calcium (so prevents magnesium absorption) - but if you do enough mag (away from dairy), dairy may be fine.

Once you get her pooping more regularly, stay on top of the magnesium. If she doesn't poop for a day, increase mag the next day.

Other herbs that can help with pooping in addition to magnesium (we don't need any of these any more, but I wish someone had given me this list back when we were having the biggest problems!): artichoke, yellow dock root, aloe vera leaf, rhubarb root. I've heard people have good success particularly with the yellow dock and allow vera.

2) GABA. Gaba is the neurotransmitter in the body that helps with muscle relaxation. Some kids have a hard time pooping because they can't properly relax & contract the smooth muscles in the colon. GABA can help with this - get plain GABA, we use NOW brand (and repackage into smaller capsules again). Up to 500mg a day is fine (you'll know if you gave too much, your child will get weepy/emotional/sleepy.

3) Enemas. We no longer ever let DS go more than two days without pooping - we go straight to an enema if necessary. Poop backing up can create a huge number of other issues in the gut. For the first month, that meant a lot of enemas (that's how we avoided miralax). Now I maybe use 3-4 a year, almost always when we travel or he gets sick, and I don't up his magnesium fast enough.

4) Probiotics, pancreatic digestive enzymes, B12 - these are all things that improve the gut environment and gut health. Once your child is pooping regularly, they are all worth focusing on, along with doing some testing or an elimination diet to work out if there are any offending foods causing the problem. Are there any other symptoms of food intolerance besides constipation? (Sleep issues, not growing/gaining weight, "high maintenance" behaviors, eczema, etc).

[mamamoogs]

Originally Posted by mamafish9

My son stopped pooping at 18 months old. Here is what worked for us:

Are there any other symptoms of food intolerance besides constipation? (Sleep issues, not growing/gaining weight, "high maintenance" behaviors, eczema, etc).

well she doesnt gain weight, ped says she is fine as long as she isnt losing? who do you trust if not your doctor, i am so confused..


As for as enemas and liquid suppositories, (which is what i would give her) we can not give them to her anymore, we are afriad that this will emotional scar, she freaks out when she even sees the box, and giving them to her is extremely tramatising to her and we refuse to do it anymore, i can not hold my baby down and do this not another even one more time...

hopefully eliminating dairy will help, and keeping her on her homeopathy remedies will fix this for my little one.... i wouild love to keep hearing others too... thanks mama!

[nicky85]

How much fiber is in your diet? Fiber is what moves things along. I would really recommend green smoothies and maybe add some flax seeds in before you blend it up. Greens are super high in calcium and a lot of other vitamins and minerals- and also protein. As humans, we weren't designed to get a lot of nutritional value from dairy. Milk was designed to grow baby cows. It's not as essential as we've been led to believe. The nutrients in leafy greens are more bioavailable, especially when blended up in a blender which breaks down the tough cell walls. Just make a smoothie of leafy greens and fruits. www.greensmoothiegirl.com is a great place to find info on green smoothies.

If you're not doing it already, make sure that your grains are whole grains and as unprocessed as possible. Instead of cereal have oatmeal or cracked wheat. Maybe eat some organic popcorn for a treat. Have brown rice with your meals. Flaxseeds in your green smoothies are a great way to add some fiber to your and your daughter's diet.

You might also try abdominal massage. When I've had trouble moving things through (even with all the fiber from green smoothies, I have 45 oz. a day) I massage my abdomen in counter clockwise circles along the intestines. I can always feel where the blockage is and I concentrate on that. I've also done it for my husband and it's helped him. It works for me every time. here's a link for it http://www.earthzense.com/stomach-massage.html I really recommend this because it's a lot gentler than an enema.

I stopped drinking milk when I was 15 after reading a "Discover" magazine article showing research that milk wasn't the most beneficial food for humans. http://discovermagazine.com/2000/aug/featmilk My husband, though, used to down a gallon a day sometimes as a teenager. Going off dairy was really hard for him. He craved it all the time for a couple of weeks. The thing that finally convinced him to go off dairy was that he was having hemorrhoids. Those went away after he went off dairy. We have since discovered that he has rheumatoid arthritis and that dairy was one of the big things that was causing flare-ups. He also stopped having skin problems like acne. It's a really good decision. It was really hard for him at the time, but he is really happy about it now.

Best of luck!!!!! Poop is very important!

[mamafish9]

Originally Posted by mamamoogs

well she doesnt gain weight, ped says she is fine as long as she isnt losing? who do you trust if not your doctor, i am so confused..

As for as enemas and liquid suppositories, (which is what i would give her) we can not give them to her anymore, we are afriad that this will emotional scar, she freaks out when she even sees the box, and giving them to her is extremely tramatising to her and we refuse to do it anymore, i can not hold my baby down and do this not another even one more time...

hopefully eliminating dairy will help, and keeping her on her homeopathy remedies will fix this for my little one.... i wouild love to keep hearing others too... thanks mama!

I understand you not wanting to do enemas if they are traumatic. See how being off dairy helps, but I strongly recommend the mag citrate.

Also, I'd say not gaining a 3yo is potentially a problem (not always, but combined with not pooping, it may be).

Originally Posted by nicky85

How much fiber is in your diet? Fiber is what moves things along.

That is totally true for most people, particularly adults - but often a disaster for little ones that have other issues causing the not pooping - it can plug them up even worse. My son, for example, still can't digest whole grains - so the fastest way to constipate him is to feed him whole grains.

[Koalamom]

It was really hard for my 3 yr old going off dairy. Cheese and yogurt were her favorie foods. She was so happy when I dairy free ice cream yesterday for the first time.

I second magnesium. Natural Calm brand is clear and so easy to get into kids.

Give a few weeks to see a big difference without dairy. My son takes 1-2 weeks to clear his skin rashes up after going of dairy.

[lyterae]

I don't know if it will help or not but we pulled DD off of soy,wheat, corn, and gluten (she was already dairy free) and it has made a world of difference with her bowel movements. It only took about 3 days before we noticed the difference.

Regarding foods to replace, my dd is very fond of coconut milk and coconut yogurt.

[ASusan]

A third vote for magnesium. It draws water to the bowel. In addition to the oral dosing, and Epsom salt baths, there are descriptions on the internet of people who make their own lotions, which, like the baths, allow the mg to be absorbed through the skin.

I second the thought of getting fiber out of her diet, for now. It seems that she might not be handling it well.

Did anyone upthread suggest increasing her "good fats" - like avocado, coconut oil, flax oil or fish oil?

Coconut milk yogurt or, if you do soy, soy yogurt are adequate replacements for cow milk yogurt. There is also coconut milk kefir, which will put some probiotics in her diet. My son loves the strawberry flavor. (It's labeled as "cultured beverage" instead of kefir in some places.) I'm not a big fan of "fake" cheeses until you've been off dairy for a while. I think the contrast between the real thing and the alternate form is too great. But, after a year+ off dairy and wheat, I loved Amy's gluten-free/dairy-free pizza

[mamamoogs]

ok so DD has a big old hard as a rock poop lastnight on her own (meaning no suppositories) , it was 13 days since her last poop poor baby

here is what we decided, we have stopped dairy for sure, i am going to continue to give her the homeopathy remedy byronia, once a day and we are going to start putting a probotic in her morning oatmeal (100% whole grain) with her almond milk... I asked my homepathy practioner about mag and wasnt to crazy about me putting her on that? not sure why... I will ask him in another email... (does magnesium mess with the rythm of the heart, i thought i read that somewhere).... She has been doing breakfast ok, lunch is kinda hard without yogurt but i will try the coconut yogurt, never heard of it... I will give it another week or so and see what happens off dairy before trying to eliminate anything else.... what do you think of our stategy? thanks mamas!

[ASusan]

Just be sure the probiotic isn't dairy based.

[mamamoogs]

didnt even know they dairy in them...... see i have alot to learn.. Can anyone recommend a probotic for us to try? thanks

[mamafish9]

The ONLY risk to magnesium doses like I'm suggesting (300mg/day) is diarrhea - and guessing you'd be pretty happy to see that .

If she's just pooped, now is the absolute right time to start the mag citrate (Natural Calm is one form of mag citrate). It can't hurt, and it could make an enormous difference.

It may be that eliminating dairy will get her pooping more regularly, but if she's only been pooping every couple of weeks, then her colon is hugely stretched out, and the mag citrate will help re-establish daily bowel movements, which is necessary to get the colon back to normal size. Eliminating dairy *may* be enough, but for my son (who never went longer than 3-4 days without pooping), we also had to work on improving regularity, and magnesium is your best bet for that.

I personally would wait until your daughter is pooping daily before adding probiotics - some kids react strongly to probiotics with gut die off. That's healing, but it also releases lots of toxins, which need to be cleared from the body (by pooping). If the child isn't pooping regularly, the toxins get reabsorbed. Die off can also sometimes cause constipation. So I'd deal with the acute issue first (not pooping), then work on things like probiotics for gut healing.

[Hedwig_Fly]

I totally agree with what mamafish9 is saying. The natural calm won't really hurt and it does such amazing things. I take it all the time and I give it to my 3 daughters all the time too. I would strongly recommend you try it. I also strongly agree with backing away from grains. I can't imagine how bad her guts are feeling without having a bowl movement for that long. If she's ok with coconut I would recommend letting her eat coconut oil off the spoon. My girls love it straight but if your daughter doesn't find a way to get her some extra. Coconut oil is an antifungal so it will help if that's a potential problem and considering the amount of time between movements it's definitely a possibility also it is soothing to the guts.

One more thing - do you make bone broth? When my guts are really hurting making chicken bone broth vegetable soup with lots of turmeric really helps them feel so much better. Leaving in as much chicken fat as possible is good for the gut too.

I hope she is starting to feel better poor baby. Hugs Mamma

[milansmommy]

Both my kids are really sensitive to dairy and it takes about two weeks to get it completely out of their system. Make sure you are eliminating ALL dairy, it's in everything so you have to read ingredients really carefully! Our problems didn't go away until everything was eliminated completely.