Constipation/pooping woes w/potty learning aged children - Page 6

[mata]

bryanna-welcome, and .

[goddessjulia]

hi all, been lurking lately, morning sickness is really kicking my tail! wanted to say hi to everyone new, glad you found the thread, it really helps me even though lately I haven't posted much. Bryanna, what a great notation system! my ds turned 4 a little over a week ago. we're in a withholding phase again, same as you, because we missed some doses. my guy knows I'm vested in getting him to drink that particular drink and resists, and since I've been feling like crap it's been hard to keep up. I used to think I was the only one, too-- it's very isolating, isn't it? I actually found out when we finally discovered miralax that there really are others-- the pharmacist's daughter has the same problem. I was sooo relieved. she also told me, you wouldn't believe how many people come in here for this stuff, quite a lot, actually. but no one talks about it! of course, the problem is (as we've talked about here before), if you try talking about it to someone who hasn't been through it, it can be such an annoying waste of breath!

anyway, just wanted to pipe up briefly, now back to feeling queasy...

[P-chan]

Hi all, and welcome to the new folks. Bryanna, I love the elegance of your poop tracking system! I'm also struck by how similar our kids' poop dances are. Sounds like tiptoes, laps, high-stepping, and hollering are pretty common.

Goddessjulia, when are you due? Hope you feel better soon.

We have had an unprecedented 7 straight days of pooping in the potty. Some days have more drama than others. I think that this is just my son's personality--once he finally decides to do something, he does it and doesn't look back--but there were a few new things that I wanted to share:
1. He's had Trader Joe's Organic Oats and Flax Instant Oatmeal every morning this week (note to self: start making from scratch).
2. I have been more careful about measuring the same amount of Miralax every day.
3. That amount is a bit less than we'd been using for a while. With a higher dose, it seemed like the urgency to poo was at times overwhelming and scary, and there were some leakage problems. With the new slightly lower dose (2 teaspoons/day), the poo is still soft and he can handle the whole thing better.
4. We're talking about it less. Waaaaay less. If I feel the need to point out the situation, I'll talk about time to go to the bathroom, but not mention poop. Other times I'll just whisper to him, "I know you know what to do."
5. We upgraded from chocolate chips to M&M's

Must run, baby calls....

[annekevdbroek]

Welcome to all the new folks! We are continuing our successful tapering of the Miralax but have had a few no poop days (everything coming out fine the next day though). So for the time I'm holding at 2.5 teaspoons as his system adjusts. However, we have had 3 or 4 weeks now of poop in the potty! YAY! We even have had poop at SeaWorld and a friend's house in the potty.

[goddessjulia]

p-chan, so glad to hear of your success! I hope we follow you soon! I'm due july 11, nearly 10 weeks along now. hopefully no more than 2 more weeks of torture I'll think the queasiness has eased up a bit, then I'll have a rough day... the worst part is that I can't figure out what I want to eat-- nothing sounds good, but if I don't eat it's worse, and yet if I choose the wrong thing that's just as bad! oh well, I asked for it

[Leiahs]

I haven't posted here since my intro post, but I came across the thread again, and I'm happy to say that we're beyond withholding now. DD goes to the potty all by herself, surprising me quite often, and then yells down the hall that, "MOMMY!!!! I Poooooooooooooooped!" And then she expects me to jump and clap for her, it's her biggest reward Every now and then she'll still expect a sticker and candy when she's all done, (or like today, "Mommy, I pooped 3 poops yesterday, now I can have milk!") but that's not her motivation. She's finally learning to work with her own body, instead of against it. And I've stopped keeping pooping charts. It all feels sooo freeing!! And everyone is so much happier

That all said, she still has very hard/pebbly poops. I was happy to see a recommendation for fiber gummy bears. I will DEFINITELY be looking for those!! DD loves taking vitamins and such... I bet a fiber vitamin will do just the trick for her. Or, I hope, anyway.

Best of luck to the rest of you mamas who are still dealing with the poop craziness! I dealt with it for 9 months...and it felt like an eternity. Soft & willing poopy vibes to all your kiddos!

[northern_sunshine]

Reading this, I felt like I was home (though I kinda wish I didn't!)

We've battled constipation in DD since she was probably under a year old. For a long time we couldn't convince our Dr that she needed something. Dr just kept saying "more fiber, more fiber." You can only get so much fiber into a small child and DD's diet has always been pretty good. She loves raw veggies, salads and loves water. We've done corn syrup, prune juice, senna, benefiber, suppositories, enemas (under Dr supervision).

We've had x-rays (she was once so backed up you could see where her colon was stretched out and the poop was backed clear up her right side) and done emergency room visits because she was in such pain and had poops that were so large it made me want to cry thinking about her having to pass such a thing! We have had a LOT of leakage (encoprecis) and at one point she was impacted.

We finally found a Dr. who would listen, sent us to a pediatric specialist who put her on lactulose. What a life saver!! As long as she doesn't miss a dose (15ml 2x daily), she does really well (with not being constipated, she now has a "mental block" about pooping on the potty so we're working on that). She still gets backed up REALLY easily.

The only food we've found that really has an (positive) effect on her "poop status" is watermelon, which she loves. Must be all that extra water or something. Dairy tends to back her up so we limit her consumption and all but cut it off when she does get backed up.

[mata]

hi everyone-welcome northern sunshine-that's great news, leiahs! I'm still looking for those fiber gummi bears! hope you're feeling better, goddessjulia.

[bryannastreasure]

Carlin asks for his 'tablet' when we get in the car. a chewable orange flavored 2gr fiber tablet. he loves them and I limit him to 2-3 per day, depending on what else he eats.

I'm headed to the healty food store to look at magnesium supplements.
love and light,
Bryanna

[Leiahs]

Originally Posted by Leiahs

I haven't posted here since my intro post, but I came across the thread again, and I'm happy to say that we're beyond withholding now.

Somehow I managed to post too soon. : We were problem free for weeks, and within days of posting this, she's having trouble again. She was pooping just the other day when suddenly it was "stuck"....DH and I interpreted this as meaning that it was halfway out and she lost the urge to push. Within a minute, she got the rest out, but she wasn't happy. She didn't want us to jump and clap like she's usually eager for us to do after she poops. And since then, no poop. I've been loading her up with our usual supplements and fiber Yummibears, too (boy she loves those things, but I haven't been able to see how well they work yet!), and have sat her on the potty for quite a long time every day since, but she's not going. Siiiiigh. I think the stuck thing scared her again. I'm feeling about ready to force her body into diarrhea just so she doesn't start getting backed up on a regular basis.

ETA: A few hours after posting this, I had DD have some potty time again to see if she could get some poop out. I have to leave her alone in the bathroom when she poops - otherwise she will just sit there forever talking to me. She only goes with privacy. So anyway, within a minute of me leaving her, she just starts screeching. TMI to follow: I run back to her, and her poop is STUCK. I tried to get her to push more, thinking she was just scared and had stopped pushing, but she made audible grunts at least 3 times, and that poop was not moving a bit. I kinda freaked out a little bit....but I had to do what I could to try and help her, she was really distressed. I tried grabbing the poop that was already out with some toilet paper to pull it out, but it ended up only breaking off the parts that were outside. She grunts some more, it still isn't moving, and her skin around the poop looks to me like a perineum stretched to max with a baby crowning. I couldn't think of anything else to do to help her quickly, so I put pressure on either side of the mass, and it started coming out. After a couple seconds, it popped all the way out, and it was just so big and sooooooo firm. I tried squishing it later, and it took quite a bit of force to squish it at all. All I could think of was that it reminded me of biology classes back in high school, seeing videos of elephant poop, I think, where it's just big, hard, and almost fibrous when broken open.

She sobbed a little after I took her off the potty, and I had her sit in a very warm bath until she felt like getting out about 45 minutes later. And she was happy the rest of the day.

But last night I could not fall asleep, I was just feeling so guilty over what happened on the potty...how distressed and in pain she was. I think it was my fault. I let her have a bunch of extra fiber (yummibears AND benefiber in her drinks), thinking it would soften things up, but after reading more online, I think she just plain didn't have enough water for her body to deal with all the extra fiber. All it did was make everything harder. And I felt so awful and afraid I was going to have nightmares if I fell asleep. Today my goal is to get her to drink 1/3 - 1/2 cup of water every half hour. I made a chart for her, and she gets to put a sticker on it when she finishes her water. And we're also eating mostly fruits like grapes and watermelons today when she gets hungry. I hope she won't have to have such a very large, hard, difficult, painful bowel movement again. I just feel terrible.

So if anyone else decides to try some fiber supplements like I did, please make sure you are adding a good amount of liquids into your DC's diet, too!!

I tried having her sit on the potty after lunch, but she was just too tired and asked (!!) for a nap instead. Will try again later in the afternoon.

[goddessjulia]

Leiahs! I've soooo btdt, wish I hadn't. for us, it was after a couple of weeks' retention, and the only reason he was on the potty was because the straining was so obvious that I was able to get him there. it was like labor coaching, with him leaning on me in a hug-like position and me saying "push! push! push!" I was positively stunned to see poop that big come out of that little bottom! that has happened 2, maybe 3 times, but not since the miralax, thank goodness.

p-chan, I'm following your lead (I think it was you?!) and measuring the miralax carefully now. we're down to 2 tsp daily, which seems to be keeping things soft enough. I'm going to stick with that for a while to make sure I don't cause a backslide from dropping it again too soon. and, some good news, too-- we've had some true successes with the potty! I'm not getting too excited, because I know how this goes, but he has probably pooped on the potty, completely independently, about 4 times in the past week. he's very proud and finally is starting to believe me when I say he can do it (that was a HUGE hurdle). one time he was playing and stopped to say, "I think I need to go to the bathroom," then went. if I hadn't been lying down I might have fainted! so I think that's a great sign that his nerve endings, and possibly the whole mechanism, are beginning to recover from the "megacolon" situation. :

I'm starting to feel a little better too-- I actually cleaned yesterday and went shopping and ran errands today! that's more than I've done in a month!! I'm beginning to consider that this little bugger might actually stick around, and I might live to tell the tale!

oh, and for those who celebrate it, happy solstice!!

[Leiahs]

Originally Posted by goddessjulia

Leiahs! I've soooo btdt, wish I hadn't. for us, it was after a couple of weeks' retention, and the only reason he was on the potty was because the straining was so obvious that I was able to get him there. it was like labor coaching, with him leaning on me in a hug-like position and me saying "push! push! push!" I was positively stunned to see poop that big come out of that little bottom! that has happened 2, maybe 3 times, but not since the miralax, thank goodness.

Thank you for the hugs We had a better poop day the day after I posted this - no getting stuck! She is happily drinking more water, not every half hour like I planned, but frequently enough that I'm happy. She likes the chart I made her. And I made one for myself, because hey, I need more water too!

We seem to struggle with finding a good time to have her sit on the potty for a while. If I wait too long, she's saying she's too tired and wants to go to bed. Or nap. When do you guys try to focus on some potty time? Or do you just leave it up to the kids all the time? DD seems to be most ready to poop after lunch or after dinner, but both those times are also so close to nap/bedtime.

[P-chan]

We've just recently hit upon 2:30 as a good time to sit on the potty. My son has always been an afternoon pooper, and he doesn't nap anymore, so 2:30 is a good time. If he doesn't poop then, I've had good luck doing the following: on the way home from our afternoon outing (between 4 and 5), I tell him that we'll go straight to the bathroom and poop once we're home. He'll always at least try, and 9 times out of 10 he'll poop.

We've had some ups and downs, but we're pretty regular here, and it's always on the potty. He says he'll poop on the big toilet when he's 14! I'm a little worried that it's ME telling him it's time to do it (he rarely takes the lead anymore), but he's pooping happily, which is more than I ever thought possible at this stage.

[robinkate]

Things had been going really well for us, but I started giving dd yummi bears and we just got over the worst constipation ever. Milk of magnesia didn't help, glycerine suppositories didn't help, and finally we had to give her an enema. :
For us, I guess fiber isn't the problem. I am really focusing on getting her to drink more water now, wondering if she has not been getting enough.

Good luck and happy holidays to all other moms struggling with this! I am glad to read the other posts, because I feel so alone with this problem.

[Leiahs]

Originally Posted by robinkate

I started giving dd yummi bears and we just got over the worst constipation ever.

Ohh, I'm so so so sorry that you had major constipation caused by the yummi bears, too. That really really stinks. : It's so strange to me that fiber causes constipation for mine and your DC, but not for the person who recommended it in the first place IRL to the poster in this thread...and also to my good friend's children. She actually called me up one day to tell me how to fix my daughter's problem, because her children had gotten into adult fiber tablets, and had several each before she found them, and then they had diarrhea a few hours later. Why oh why does the problem have to be so different for some kids? Wouldn't it be so nice to have a simple answer for everyone!

Re: pooping time...maybe I'll have to try potty time right after nap time to make sure she's not tired enough to fall asleep on the potty.

[mum19]

Plz Help Us!!!

Hi ladies! Ive been posting all over the place for help with my DS issues and april dawn sent me the link to this thread. Thank you!

Ive read all the posts and feel better knowing im not totally alone in this even though i often feel it.

This is our story, please take the time to read and help if you can.

My DS is almost 4 years old. He never had problems doing a poop until I started trying to get him to do it on the potty/toilet instead of in a diaper, but he always refused and demanded his diaper back on. So I went along with that from about age 2.6 until 3.4 (approx). never had any problems pee'ing on the toilet standing up by himself -still fine there.

At 3.4 (ish) he finally pooped on the toilet but hated sitting on it like it was uncomfy so i got a padded toilet seat cover thing for toddlers but he still says he doesnt like it. he kept pooping on the toilet daily or every other day until a few weeks ago.

He started saying his bottom was itchy so i checked and he had worms : . he probably picked them up from another kid at pre school. anyway i got him a tablet for kids to treat it, but it gave him bad cramps and diarohea the next day which smelt so bad (seriously foul). since then, hes not wanted to poop, he holds it in until it hurts his tummy everywhere, then he tells me hes poorly and wants to go to bed...its so upsetting. i try telling him you hurt cos u need to poo it out your tummy is very full of poop lets try push it out. come on u can do it etc etc....

well its just stayed like this. only he may have a tear in his bottom because he screams out in pain when he finally cannot hold the poop in any longer and has major cramps/spasms im guessing, where he HAS to push it out. he was screaming out in pain during the whole bm process until it was all out for about 2 weeks when he pooped maybe 3 times.

The last time he pooped was 3 days ago during the night in his diaper, i woke up hearing him screaming and crying so i went in his bedroom, he was on his hands and knees doing a poo in his diaper in bed. I comforted him and talked soothingly etc to try help. This time he screamed and cried at the beginning when he started pushing out the first bit, then he was very uncomfortable but not screaming in pain for the rest of it. so that seems to be a slight improvement from the previous few times right???

I keep putting vaseline on his butthole...but that seems to have no effect, it still seems to really hurt when pushing any poop out. I tried having a real close up look but couldnt see any outside tears or spots, tho his bottom skin is red and sore looking (not majorly tho) i put zinc and castor cream on that. been putting vaseline on his butthole morning and night. he wont let me touch it either like its sore inside??

he eats oatmeal for breakfast every day and has 1 or 2 fruits a day, plus his poo is not hard so i dont think its constipation. (the first half inch is hard but i think thats cos he holds it in several days as the rest is very soft)

im trying to get him to drink more juice/water right now, cos he only used to drink 1 glass in a whole day. how much do yours drink??

i give him a warm bath every night which ...sometimes/occasionally makes him have a BM. but he will still hold it in and cry/stress about it instead of pooping it out. i told him its ok to poop in the bath but he still wont.

i try putting his legs up into his chest for a few seconds and making them do the cycling motion for a minute or 2 and it sometimes make him have a BM but he STILL holds it in.

then i tried fig syrup called SENNA (califig) laxative which made him go within minutes the first day then a few days later tried it again (same amount) but it took a day to work. i decided not to give him it anymore because it was clear it was giving him bad bowel cramps to force him to go and it hurt him...making him still scared to poop in the end. but he was forced to. not gentle enough in my opinion. ive taken it myself and ...talk about explosive painful diarohea..i wouldnt take it again so i sure wont make my son.

he had a real bad cold and high temperature during the week after he had worms, so i was giving him a lot of childrens painkillers/fever reducing medicine for around 10 days. which afterwards i was told causes constipation. so i thought once i stop giving him that, then he would be 'regular' again and it wouldnt hurt him to poop. but since stopping medicine it didnt change.

ive been going crazy, so upset and distraught not knowing what to do. im the type to panic. i cried at night when he was sleeping over this. im a young single parent so ive had to deal with it on my own. its been awful.

then.............
someone suggested LACTULOSE. which i never even heard of before. i bought some over the counter at the pharmacy. gave DS the highest amount which was 5 -5ml spoonfuls daily for the first 3 days. then 3 spoonfuls maximum for however many more days they need it. well after the first day on it he pooped a big one (that was in the diaper at night 3 days ago). now we are on day 4 of taking the lactulose and he HAS NOT POOPED SINCE. Im hoping he will poop today/tonight.

i dont know what to do please please help me *cries*

i forgot to add...hes allergic to cows milk. thought i should mention that as many have said dairy can cause constipation. it cant be that with us. he drinks soya milk in his oatmeal for breakfast and thats about it, occasionally has a glass of it in the evening. or rice milk instead. and i cut bananas out his diet 2 days ago just incase it helps since i read they can cause constipation.

help

[aprildawn]

Hi Mum19. Glad you found the pooping thread!

My DD1 started having her problems following a stomach bug. The diarrhea was so unpleasent she started holding it in. It lasted a few weeks, then we got her going just about every day. Then she had another very loose poop, maybe not technically diarrhea, but it reminded her of before and the problem returned.

Thankfully, in our case I just had to up her water and fiber intake and encourage her daily to poop. DH is really the hero because he'd start joking around about pooping with her to the point she was laughing so hard she couldn't hold it in anymore. Sometimes she still insists we stand in the bathroom with her and tell jokes until she poops.

I wish I had more suggestions for you. It might be good to take him to a doctor and have things checked out. Esp if he's in that much pain. DD1 cried a lot when she had to go, too, but it was mostly fear that it was going to hurt because she'd been so plugged up after the first time she was constipated that it did hurt quite a lot.

I'm happy to say that my DD seems to be past this stage. Though, like I said, she does still want us to be with her in the bathroom telling jokes. We even had another stomach bug a few weeks ago. I put her in a pull-up while she was in the worst of the diarrhea and vomiting, and I feared the constipation would return, but it didn't. She's back to normal.

[robinkate]

mum19,

I know how stressful it is, waiting and waiting to see what will happen. It sounds to me like you are on the right track, keeping his stool soft with the lactulose, but if he is still in a lot of pain, maybe something else is going on. Have you asked your doctor to look at him?

It helps me to have a plan for when dd goes without a poop for a few days. I know, because of her pattern, that after 3 days she is going to need some extra help. Until now, a glycerine suppository always worked, this last time I had to give her Fleets enema for Children. You can get both of those at the drugstore, but I would ask the doctor first in case there is something else they can recommend. Maybe there is a cream that could help his bottom. Do you think he might have hemorrhoids?

[mum19]

hey april and robin thanks for replying so fast.

i just made him an emergency doctors appointment for in a couple of hours today.

and he just pooped a giant one in the bath! im relieved he finally pushed it out today even though he was crying and screaming during it. im starting to think maybe hes scared of it hurting so he screams//cries but it doesnt actually hurt him? its hard because hes still too young to explain it properly to me.

im still going to this doctors appointment today. i doubt the doctor will be of any help (u know how doctors can be...) but it might make me feel a little better knowing ive seen a medical person about it...just incase he has any words of wisdom/advice to offer. maybe he will take a look at his butt, theres nothing to see though. hopeing he will say its likely a cut on the inside which is getting better slowly or something. and to keep giving him the lactulose.

its just so upsetting and stressful going through this. ive felt like i cant cope or like im going to fall apart at certain times. under pressure to fix it for my DS but everything i try fails. can relax a bit now today that he has pooped at least.

[mum19]

well like i thought..the doctors trip was not useful. he basically said continue giving him lactulose but not for too long (how long is too long??) to keep the poop soft.

he said after having a bad cold/fever/cough/flu kids often get constipated cos of not eating as much cos their appetites decrease while unwell.

but he said kids painkillers medicine DOES NOT cause constipation and i told him a pharmacist told me it does! so is my doctor an idiot? sorry but they annoy me so much, they never seem to know all the stuff they should! grr

he never said anything about him being in pain crying/screaming while pushing the poop out. he said it could be a tear inside but he said he didnt want to try looking (probly good thing cos that would have hurt DS he hates when i even touch it to put vaseline on) he said as long as theres no rash outside the butthole then hes ok.

so that was pretty much it...............................