Chronic Constipation in DS

[VisionaryMom]

DS has had significant gastrointestinal problems from birth. We'd been normal-ish for a few months, but over the past 3 weeks he's developed constipation/hard stools that won't go away. He got a rectal fissure, and we had to go to the doctor to get it checked. Now he's totally traumatized, even though the exam was brief & painless. He's stressing himself out so much over going to the bathroom that he's actually shaking and crying when he's on the toilet.

We eliminated cheese but didn't see much difference. I've also given him Fletcher's laxative. That did allow him to go, though not a whole lot. I don't think he'll drink prune juice, but I've read plum juice also helps. Is that true?

What else should we do?

My mom suggested having him eat a Fiber One bar everyday, but I'm not sure. First it seems that would get old quickly. Second my understanding is that fiber is only helpful if your problem is slow digestion, and I'm not sure that's his problem.

I really don't want to go down the route we did before of scopes & stool samples (gag me!) & blood work, but he's miserable like this. 

[tanyalynn]

How old is your son?

The ideas that I've read about:

-food intolerances, not just dairy (though you'd need to eliminate all dairy to know for sure), but really anything--gluten's a biggie, not fun to eliminate but it can be so worthwhile

-structural work like chiropractic or cranial-sacral

-magnesium, some people need more, and often if there's an inflammatory condition, the body will just suck up all the available magnesium and then you'll show deficiency symptoms in whatever way you, individually, are prone to (DS gets hyperactive, DD can't fall sleep, DH's blood pressure goes high--lots of variability there... and I guess I grind my teeth and have muscle twitches)

-more fat... this has helped quite a few people, but if you suspect dairy, then butter, the easiest way to add fat, probably isn't the best, so you'd need to look to other ideas

[mimi!]

I could have written this myself, and had been contemplating how to write his history.  He certainly had the same problems as Visionary Mom when he was a toddler. 

He is now 7.5 years old, still goes every other day, despite coconut oil, magnesium, cold liver oil, a host of vitamins, including 2000 mg of ascorbic acid.  I've given him more ascorbic acid, but you can't believe how high his bowel tolerance is!  It won't push through. 

After some research, I thought it may be his adrenals, as his hands and feet are always cold - that he just inhereted adrenal problems from me and dh at conception.  So we all took Rhiodola.  Which benefited me and dh immensely, but no change in ds.

I've also tried a mirid of probiotics, digestive enzymes, and various liver cleanes.

He does not eat dairy, soy, citrus, wheat, rice, or eggs, or nuts.  I have found that when he craves something like crazy, and makes me crazy for it, he's sensitive to it.

Perhaps it is the gluten from barely, spelt or kamut noodles which we *ocassionally* (perhaps once a week) eat. 

I wanted - needed to! - vary out diet, as we primarily eat veggies and meat, lots of bone broth soups, homemade cashew yogurt (with a tiny bit of milk starter), kombucha, water kefir, some beans and lentils, some buckwheat and amaranth, and some fruit, which lately has been pears and pomegranates.  I make *everything* my self.  We eat fruit later in the day, with some other food and fat.  - I've read that eating fruit later is important if the adrenals are comprimised and its certainly helped me with adrenal fatigue.

To top all that off, he's been seeing a constitutional homeopath his whole life, who always says he's ok, and constipation will eventually work its way out.  REally!?  This is taking too long!  I am so afraid of the ongoing auto-intoxication, and the huge puffy bags under his young eyes (seriously these bags look as bad as the kids who eat regular, SAD-type food, of the non-health conscious parents)

I keep taking him to the homeopath because it helps him emotionally - which of course benefits me, lol

What is the key here?  What else can I do?  I probably can't make any more things, lol.  I feel like I'm at my whit's end trying to figure this out.  I am always  thinking about it.  . . Any ideas?

[McCully]

Have you tried a hazelwood necklace?  My daughter (13 months old) has really struggled with constipation since she was 7ish months old.  It's really resistant to everything and we have a prescription laxative and glycerin suppositories on hand at all times in the event that she misses a day of poops.  It's become critical for her to have a BM on her own every day or things get really bad for her (fissures and huge drama).  I picked up a hazelwood necklace for her one day and it has totally changed things for her.  I was super skeptical at first, but within 2 days, she was having "normal"texture BMs every day.  

The other aspects of our constipation plan include:

1 cup of berries every morning

1 serving of yogurt every day

Probiotic supplement

Lots of water and breastmilk

1-2 pears every day

Staying away from 100% white flour products (mostly white bread...totally does a number on her poor tummy)

Butter on vegetables (increasing dietary fat, and increasing fibre at the same time)

We were doing the above before we got the hazelwood necklace and saw improvement in her BM frequency and texture, but it really wasn't enough for her.   We would still have to use the prescription lax and suppositories way more often than I was comfortable with.  The hazelwood definitely was what regulated things for her.   

HTH

[VisionaryMom]

I haven't heard of hazlewood necklaces. We have done the probiotics/yogurt route, but it never helped him. He's totally committed to giving up dairy. I wouldn't have a problem with that in principle, except that he doesn't get a lot of fat or protein otherwise.

Mimi, we've also tried magnesium, various vitamin supplements, etc. We eat a pretty good diet, though we could be better about it. I cut out most wheat a couple of months ago - for me - and all of us have noticed some positive changes. DS just has these chronic bowel problems. 

[McCully]

This is the brand of necklace that we use on DD- http://www.purnoisetier.com/  There are lots of other options out there too.  I felt like it was worth a shot (and if it didn't work, then I was only out ~$20ish bucks).  I heard about using them to treat constipation a long time ago on the MDC forums. 

Just one more thing on our "constipation plan"  None of the items listed above ever worked on their own, and don't work to clear out her system if she is already blocked up.  They do work for her, only in concert with each other.  And only work to prevent the constipation.  If she ever goes more than a day(24ish hours) without a BM we have to give her a lax or a suppository to get things moving again or we end up in huge trouble where nothing works for days on end and we have a very uncomfortable kid on our hands.   We used to let her go 3-5 days, but found that if we are more proactive it helps a lot. 

[mimi!]

Well as we carry on with our constipation plan, ds continues to have berries nearly every morning, with cashew yoghurt that I make, along with kefir and cashews.  He still will get magnesium at a higher ratio than calcium, along with CLO, and coconut oil.

Its interesting that the hazelnut is supposed reduce acid; I decided to do this through cell salts:

I read though the giant cell salts thread  and since last week, have been giving us all bioplasma,  nat. phos. for over acidity, and to help break down food, along with nat. sulph. which stimulates the liver and intestines.  I added kali mur. for ds as its supposed to help with constipation.  For kids, they take two of the tabs, 4x a day (sometimes I put it in their water).  This therapy can take 6-12 months, apparently, but its worth a shot after 7 years of trying to move the bowels regularly!!!

[kjbrown92]

Originally Posted by mimi! 

I could have written this myself, and had been contemplating how to write his history.  He certainly had the same problems as Visionary Mom when he was a toddler. 

He is now 7.5 years old, still goes every other day, despite coconut oil, magnesium, cold liver oil, a host of vitamins, including 2000 mg of ascorbic acid.  I've given him more ascorbic acid, but you can't believe how high his bowel tolerance is!  It won't push through. 

After some research, I thought it may be his adrenals, as his hands and feet are always cold - that he just inhereted adrenal problems from me and dh at conception.  So we all took Rhiodola.  Which benefited me and dh immensely, but no change in ds.

I've also tried a mirid of probiotics, digestive enzymes, and various liver cleanes.

He does not eat dairy, soy, citrus, wheat, rice, or eggs, or nuts.  I have found that when he craves something like crazy, and makes me crazy for it, he's sensitive to it.

Perhaps it is the gluten from barely, spelt or kamut noodles which we *ocassionally* (perhaps once a week) eat. 

I wanted - needed to! - vary out diet, as we primarily eat veggies and meat, lots of bone broth soups, homemade cashew yogurt (with a tiny bit of milk starter), kombucha, water kefir, some beans and lentils, some buckwheat and amaranth, and some fruit, which lately has been pears and pomegranates.  I make *everything* my self.  We eat fruit later in the day, with some other food and fat.  - I've read that eating fruit later is important if the adrenals are comprimised and its certainly helped me with adrenal fatigue.

To top all that off, he's been seeing a constitutional homeopath his whole life, who always says he's ok, and constipation will eventually work its way out.  REally!?  This is taking too long!  I am so afraid of the ongoing auto-intoxication, and the huge puffy bags under his young eyes (seriously these bags look as bad as the kids who eat regular, SAD-type food, of the non-health conscious parents)

I keep taking him to the homeopath because it helps him emotionally - which of course benefits me, lol

What is the key here?  What else can I do?  I probably can't make any more things, lol.  I feel like I'm at my whit's end trying to figure this out.  I am always  thinking about it.  . . Any ideas?

Have you done a comprehensive stool test like Genova? My DS had constipation and much of it was food intolerances (and for him ALL of that food had to be removed not just most of it; he even reacts to derivatives), but he still had issues. After we did the stool test and found he had hardly any good bacteria (despite probiotics for a couple of years) we switched probiotics and added a couple of enzymes that he was also low in, and now he goes once a day and it only takes a few minutes (instead of the 20 minutes or so it used to take him in the bathroom).
 

[mimi!]

That is interesting.  I haven't heard of Genova and just having looked it up, it sure looks interesting.  Because we are in Canada, I'm wondering if I can get a dr. to do that here.  Its curious that you mention missing a few enzymes.  I used to give him 10x  Mega Zyme (from pork) now he gets chewable papaya enzymes, because his 4 year old sister does.  Currently he also gets New Roots Acidophilus Ultra.  I found that the enteric coating, and high level of bifidus worked well for him in the summer. Less now though.  Off to make a dr. apt. for him. . .

[kjbrown92]

Originally Posted by mimi! 

That is interesting.  I haven't heard of Genova and just having looked it up, it sure looks interesting.  Because we are in Canada, I'm wondering if I can get a dr. to do that here.  Its curious that you mention missing a few enzymes.  I used to give him 10x  Mega Zyme (from pork) now he gets chewable papaya enzymes, because his 4 year old sister does.  Currently he also gets New Roots Acidophilus Ultra.  I found that the enteric coating, and high level of bifidus worked well for him in the summer. Less now though.  Off to make a dr. apt. for him. . .

My DS had no lactobacillus in his stool test, so that was one of his targeted ones. The thing about the Genova test was that it told us what he was good on and what he wasn't so we could target exactly what he needed. And it improved him a lot. So it wasn't a guessing game for which probiotic, which enzyme, etc.
 

[mimi!]

Wow!  That's really amazing to find out.

There are a great number of tests on the site.

Which one did you choose, and how did you mail the sample

or did a dr?

Originally Posted by kjbrown92 

Originally Posted by mimi! 

That is interesting.  I haven't heard of Genova and just having looked it up, it sure looks interesting.  Because we are in Canada, I'm wondering if I can get a dr. to do that here.  Its curious that you mention missing a few enzymes.  I used to give him 10x  Mega Zyme (from pork) now he gets chewable papaya enzymes, because his 4 year old sister does.  Currently he also gets New Roots Acidophilus Ultra.  I found that the enteric coating, and high level of bifidus worked well for him in the summer. Less now though.  Off to make a dr. apt. for him. . .

My DS had no lactobacillus in his stool test, so that was one of his targeted ones. The thing about the Genova test was that it told us what he was good on and what he wasn't so we could target exactly what he needed. And it improved him a lot. So it wasn't a guessing game for which probiotic, which enzyme, etc.
 

[kjbrown92]

Originally Posted by mimi! 

Wow!  That's really amazing to find out.

There are a great number of tests on the site.

Which one did you choose, and how did you mail the sample

or did a dr?

Originally Posted by kjbrown92 

Originally Posted by mimi! 

That is interesting.  I haven't heard of Genova and just having looked it up, it sure looks interesting.  Because we are in Canada, I'm wondering if I can get a dr. to do that here.  Its curious that you mention missing a few enzymes.  I used to give him 10x  Mega Zyme (from pork) now he gets chewable papaya enzymes, because his 4 year old sister does.  Currently he also gets New Roots Acidophilus Ultra.  I found that the enteric coating, and high level of bifidus worked well for him in the summer. Less now though.  Off to make a dr. apt. for him. . .

My DS had no lactobacillus in his stool test, so that was one of his targeted ones. The thing about the Genova test was that it told us what he was good on and what he wasn't so we could target exactly what he needed. And it improved him a lot. So it wasn't a guessing game for which probiotic, which enzyme, etc.
 

 

It was through our osteopath. And I believe it was the Comprehensive Stool Test. Normally around $800; we used the PayAssured program so it was $150.
 

[gigismom]

i have posted so many posts like yours.   my ds had constipation since a very young age.  i was put on antibiotics for a bad uti when he was 10 days old (just when i should have been giving him lots of good bacteria to populate his gut).  he also has a number of IgE food allergies and other food sensitivities.  i knew all of this was connected but the pediatrician did not (neither did the allergist, gastroenterologist, and dermatologist).  finally found a doctor who would listen and helped us through all of this.  we also had to pull out all of his problem foods (which took awhile to find) and did the genova comprehsive stool analysis test.  like kathy's ds, mine also had no lactobacillus and lots of other "bad" bacteria (can't remember the name now).  we also added the enzymes and a supp called viracen that helps to kill off the bad bacteria.  he also takes 1tsp of natural calm (mag) mixed with about 1/2 cup of prune juice every morning.  he is on essentially the gaps diet except he does have some legumes now and then. he is on a great probiotic.   finally after all of this he poops every day.   if any variable is messed up he might skip 1 day... but not to the every 6 to 7 days that it used to be.  hope you find a doctor to help you out with this.  it is so miserable for everyone involved and has potential bad long term health consequences if left unaddressed.  it is time for us to redo the genova test and I am honestly scared to because he has to go off of his probiotic and enzymes to test.   i am afraid he will revert back to the bad days....  jen