XPost from "Gentle Discipline" Bathtime Terror

[MayasMama88]

So for months our DD has been experiencing chronic constipation. She goes for up to a week (a few times longer) without having a bowel movement, and then when she does have a bowel movement it is so hard and big that it hurts her and she screams. I've been next to tears myself just trying to console her while she relieves herself.  We'd tried all kinds of things without much improvement, until we recently switched our diets to include a lot more raw fruits and vegetables, and VOILA! She's started to become regular again. So obviously this is good. However, because of her past experience with painful bowel movements, she still tries to hold it in until she can't any longer, which just causes more pain. DH and I were almost at our wits end when we discovered that while she was in the warm bath one night, it made her poop! It was still painful, but it was easier for her to release it because of the water. She has pooped in the bath a few times since then, a couple times it was painful, and a couple of times she just pooped like it didn't bother her at all. Then, out of nowhere it seemed, she became absolutely terrified of the bath. The last time I tried to give her a bath, she ended up screaming and crying and yelling "Up!! UP!!!" and actually trying to climb out of the tub herself! I thought maybe it was a fluke because she had to poop and it scared her, but tonight it happened again. DH went to give her a bath and she was sort of okay for the first few minutes, but then she got hysterical. She's fine taking a shower, but I think the experiences with pooping in the bath have now scared her to the point that she doesn't want to risk it happening again. How can I get her through this?? Has anyone else experienced this?? 

[svs79]

My DD went through this a while ago but she seems to be over it now.  I remember at least one night just settling for a sponge bath, and I also have taken a bath with her a few times.  Now I am wondering if it had something to do with her BMs in the tub.  She also suffers from chronic constipation and did get some BMs out in the tub a few times also...  I also wanted to thank you for reminding me we need to get more raw veggies in our diet!  She is going through a bad constipation phase right now, so I'm definitely going to work on the raw fruits and veggies.  Good luck with the bathtime issue!  I'm sure she'll be over it in no time and it will be a distant memory...

[MayasMama88]

I really hope so! She's started to even get nervous about the shower if she pushes the drain stopper down (which she likes to do) and the water starts filling up in the tub. *sigh* This, along with teething, along with me partially trying to night-wean (which I may just hold off on for now), along with possibly going through a growth spurt... it's a bit of a rough one. Let me know if you're successful with the raw veggies! We were doing good, but now she isn't eating much for solid foods (except blueberries), so it's not having much effect anymore.

[slimkins]

Not sure if this will help, but my son used to get constipated a lot. Me ped told me to watch the amount of orange veggies I feed him. Sounds silly, and not sure if it is even true, but I did notice a lot of the orange foods I was feeding was pretty starchy and binding (sweet potato, squash, carrots... etc.).

And at the same time, to try and up the amount of fruits that start with a P. Again silly, but that gives you plums, prunes, peaches.... etc.

I don't think either of these are fact, but kind of a little rule of thumb. If it matters, it did really help my son. He is completely regular now, and use to go a week or over and was really constipated. We also started him on pro-biotics, though we haven't used them in a while.

As for the tub, my son slipped and fell back in the water two nights in a row, and become really scared of his bath. What finally worked was me bathing with him a couple of times in a row. At first he was upset and nervous, but then he would nurse, go on to play and never look back. :)

I think me being in the tub with him and the comfort of nursing gave him all the confidence he needed.

[MayasMama88]

Slimkins, thanks for sharing your experience! I think we've made a little bit of progress. It made sense what you said about cutting down on the orange veggies, and upping the "P" fruits, but it hasn't worked yet. Or maybe it has but she's still clenching her butt cheeks together to keep the poop from coming out. I gave her some fresh pear (which she likes, but won't eat that often), and I tried giving her cut-up prunes but she wouldn't even try one (maybe she knew what they would do!). I also cut up baby spinach leaves into small pieces and gave her some broccoli with a tiny bit of dressing on them, and all she did was suck the dressing off and nibble a few pieces of the broccoli, but that's it. All she wants is blueberries, cheese, and avocados, and those things aren't exactly great for warding off constipation (the blueberries, maybe, but she's got to eat more than that!). All I can do is keep trying.

As for the bath, DH and I both got in the bath with her last night, and she did pretty well. There were a few moments when she crawled into my lap and nursed a little, but then she got up and splashed around and played with her bathtime cup, so that was good. And then today I took her into the shower with me and she did fine. She asked to be picked up twice, but I was in the middle of rinsing my hair out so I helped her focus on something else and she sat down and started playing!

If she doesn't poop soon I'm going to be tempted to squirt some warm water up her butt to help soften things up. I hate to do that because I know she doesn't like it (and I don't blame her), but I can't stand thinking of a week's worth of feces just sitting in her intestines! Does anyone know of some home laxative-type things I can try? Maybe if it's really soft, she won't mind letting it out.

[Greenlea]

How is your DD water intake?  And have you tried probiotics?

[MayasMama88]

Greenlea, she drinks plenty of water. We haven't tried probiotics yet, though. I'm not really sure what to give her... We tried Kombucha, but she doesn't really like the taste. What do you suggest?

[Greenlea]

Just googling it I found she's need a probiotic with 'Lactobacillus casei rhamnosus'  in it.  Different probiotics help with different things such as constipation, diarrhea, cramps, regularity, etc.  Go to your local health food store or a Whole Foods and ask for on in it.  We give my 2 yr old a child's probiotic, but I don't remember the name of it right now.  But we started giving it to him because his stool was too loose, so my brand or kind may not help you anyway.  My son's is a powder that we mix in his applesauce.  Although he has liked the kombucha he's gotten so far :)

Coconut water is a natural laxative, and I've heard the same about coconut oil.

[MayasMama88]

Thank you, Greenlea! I may have to pick up some coconut water. If that doesn't work, then off to Whole Foods I go! :)

[svs79]

I also wanted to add...does your DD have any cow milk in her diet?  We switched my DD to goat milk a few months ago and it totally resolved her constipation.  We had to eliminate all cow milk from her diet - even butter and anything with milk in it.  We recently tried giving her raw cow milk to see if she could tolerate it, but definitely not successful.  We just switched back to goat milk and so far she is getting the BMs out fine now.  If you do some research on goat's milk, there is a lot of information out there in support of goat's milk for children, since the larger protein molecules in cow's milk are harder for their little bellies to digest.  It does make sense when you think about it...  The other possible cause could be gluten - we also started gluten-free to see if that would help.  

Good luck to you, I know how painful it can be to see your little one in pain.  

By the way, I've also been adding more raw veggies to our diets and I'm sure that is helping too!  

[MayasMama88]

Svs79, we don't give her any milk except breastmilk and soymilk. She does eat cow's milk cheese and yogurt, but it's minimal. The other day, after about a week of not pooping, my husband finally squirted some warm water mixed with a tiny bit of sesame oil up her behind. The water didn't come back out for an hour or so, but she finally pooped and it slid out pretty easily. I don't like having to resort to that, but she was visibly uncomfortable and stressed. I'm hoping that she'll start eating more solid foods to help work her digestive system some.