Toilet/Poo Question (Graphic!)

[ledzepplon]

Okay. My dd is super regular, bowel-wise. Once a day in the late morning. Her poo, however, is always so huge (bigger than adult bm--it's crazy) and hard that she actually clogged the toilet for the THIRD time today! We've had a plumber out once, and she's done this to two different toilets, so I don't think it's the potty's fault. And there's no toilet paper involved. (I use wet wipes on her bum still, and those go in the trash. She doesn't wipe herself yet.)

She doesn't complain about pain at all, so I'm not really worried about it from that standpoint. What I'm wondering is what I can do to dissolve the solids a little when everything is stuck. We have septic. Any thoughts?

[Amy.]

(I don't have kids, so pardon me if this is stupid advice...) but I think you should try to get her to eat/drink more things that make bms looser.

[mgilleran@earth-co]

We had this problem with DD who is now 9. She was born at 25 weeks & had Severe constipation from about 1 yr to 6 yrs. I didn't know then what I know now about natural remedies. Boy, I wish I had. Basically the stool will be the size of the intestines. Her intestines were very stretched from her constipation, therefore, when she did go it was VERY large. We had to get her stool soft enough that it would basically give her intestines time to shrink back to normal size. This takes at least 6 months of very soft stools to do this. The stool needs to be so soft that it basically slides right out (Sorry for being so graphic, but I feel so bad for this child after watching what my daughter went through) You can start by making sure she is getting plenty of fiber, apples with the peel help a lot. You can also feed her a lot of flaxseed or flaxseed oil. I used to grind flaxseed into a powder & put it in everything I cooked. I now use flaxseed oil capsules since she is bigger. It works fairly quickly. I think it is important to correct this porblem now so they dont have colon problems later on. Good luck!

[ledzepplon]

Thanks for thw replies!

Dd drinks a lot of water, and has a pretty healthy diet. I don't know what the textbook definition of constipation is, but she goes EVERY day--she never seems to struggle to go, and she never complains of pain. (This is a little graphic, but often her stools are half hard/formed and half soft.) She's been very regular since day 1. I may try the flax seed oil, since there are lots of health benefits to that. I'm making an appt. with a naturopath, so we'll see if she has any insight, too.

We now have 2 clogged toilets. Short of calling a plumber again, I don't know what to do about those . . . any thoughts?

[oldmama44]

Plumbing Probs...

Originally Posted by ledzepplon

Thanks for thw replies!

Dd drinks a lot of water, and has a pretty healthy diet. I don't know what the textbook definition of constipation is, but she goes EVERY day--she never seems to struggle to go, and she never complains of pain. (This is a little graphic, but often her stools are half hard/formed and half soft.) She's been very regular since day 1. I may try the flax seed oil, since there are lots of health benefits to that. I'm making an appt. with a naturopath, so we'll see if she has any insight, too.

We now have 2 clogged toilets. Short of calling a plumber again, I don't know what to do about those . . . any thoughts?

Hi. I had the same problem with ds2. We got a plumber's helper- basically it's a coiled-up steel cable inside a shell that has a handle on it, with a hook that you snake down into the toilet bowl- it will help push/break up the clog in a way thatan ordinary plunger won't.You keep turning it until the clog breaks up. We got ours at Home Depot, or Lumberjack, I can't remember. Everyone has a bigger bm in the Am from the night before- nothing to be alarmed about.Also, don't flush the tp down the toilet. Have the kiddos put it in the wastebasket! See if this helps!

[oldgirl,newtricks]

Graphic here, too. We've been through this with one son, and really, it's just the way he is built. His liquid and diet were fine. Just him.

Let it sit in the toilet for a half hour or so. It will soften up. You can use something as simple as an old wire hanger to break it up and then flush. Invest in a GOOD plunger. Not one that looks like half a cup. Ask for help at the hardware store. Once you learn how to place it at the bottom of the toilet and plunge effectively, you shouldn't need a plumber.

Gloria