3Yr Old with Constipation

One word for you "Senokot"!It works every time! My son did the same thing.(He held it so long, he created a blockage that actually stopped him from being able to pee!)

Prune Juice!! It really works. I must warn you - the taste is not the greatest but if you can get em to drink it, it makes you go. Good luck!

Have you tried all the fruit that begins with "p"....plums, pears, peaches (not sure about pineapple). Fresh blueberries worked for my kids.

Fruit salad, canned, fresh, frozen...whatever it takes.

You know, maybe try raisins too. Raisins always make my son go.

Hi D.,

It looks like you have gotten tons of great responses. My son had a little potty fright and this happened to us during potty training. Our doctor recommended upping the water, yogurt/probiotics, and pushing fruits and veges. So I would give the fiberous ones like...blueberrys, tomatoes, green beans, peas, oranges, pears, mango etc and stayed away from the binding ones like bananas, apples, etc. Also watch things like cheese which can be constipating. I also give my son mini wheats and prunes as a snack which has lots of fiber. After a while the body just can't hold it and they have to go. The probiotics from the yo-baby(yogurt) really helped regulate him plus it doesn't have tons of sugar.

Good luck,
H.

Sometimes there is something physically that is going on with a child that causes them not to go. I have found in my practice that if little ones (and adults) have a misalignment in the part of the spine that sends messages to the intestines, constipation can happen. Not sure if this is the case with your child, but I have seen movements start in 1-3 adjustments.
Dr. J.

Our pediatrician recommended glycerin suppositories - that worked pretty well. Maybe incorporate a reward system for when he goes #2. I had to do it with my daughter because she would hold it in and then have painful stools which can really scare a toddler into not wanting to do that ever again! We still struggle with it from time to time (she'll be 4 in March) but it does get better!

My son had/has the same problem. He was in preschool when this all started. Our Dr. suggested to us that he must have had a had BM and that hurt him and he then refused to go since he does not want to hurt. Our Dr first suggested that we "clean" things out by using a pediatric enima. We called this the water medicine. This cleaned things out and even though he dislikes this I told him that this would make him feel better, which it did. We also use myralax, this softens it so it does not hurt. What happens it that the poop leaks out past the "harder" substance and soils their underware. This is more common than you think, but not talked about. We have been dealing with this for several years. It requires me to ask him if he has gone and make him sit on the toilet until he goes before going to play with his friends. The older he gets that better things get. It also requires us to purchase many pairs of underware and wash them seperatly. The one thing that the dr told us and that I read was that if they are soiling, they are unaware of it, so punishment is no the thing to do. Good Luck

Whole Foods has a great selection of probiotics safe for little ones- yogurt alone doesn't contain enough good bacteria,and much of the probiotics never make it to the intestines b/c they are easily destroyed by the acidic environment on the way down...so you can never really take too much,ecspecially when constipated.It sounds like a digestion problem-my son takes one biobead a day,they're really tiny and have a protective coating so that probiotics make it to the system.Good natural stuff!

Try water....eventually mother nature will take over. What does your pediatrician say?

May be hard to get him to take, but a tsp of mineral oil works as a last resort for my 7yr old. She will actually take it with no problem.

I always keep apple cider on hand. Apple juice is constipating, apple cider has the opposite effect. If my kids want juice, they get apple cider. It has been the simplest solution for it at my house. Good luck!

Well have you tried prunes. he will go no matter what with them. There is no holding back when prunes take effect. Hope this helps.

I can totally relate- my daughter had chronic constipation
from age 1-4. We had to give her Miralax daily and if it
didn't happen we all noticed! The good news is, it took a lot
longer than we would have expected, but she did grow out of it.

My advice is to give her the Miralax, and even if you think she's
better and done, keep her on it for at least several days after
that and then try cutting the dose in 1/2 for 3-4 days and make
sure that has no effect. I learned that the missed Miralax, at
least in my daughter, took a couple days before the effect hit.

Good luck!

Had one like that myself. Took 9 years and he is 24 but still blocks the toilet. He would go for weeks without having a bm. Tried to apple juice, fiber, something the dr. recommended (power of some sort). Sitting for what seemed like hours on the toilet until he had a ring around his tush. It hurt so bad and when it finally happened it was so large, sounds disgusting, but we needed to cut it up for it to go down. He worked thru it but it's a tough one, I don't envy you. You can just try to give him as much fiber and water as possible and encourage him "getting rid of the garbage". I tried using those metaphors to explain that we take the garbage out he needs to do the same. It was a hard road travelled. Good luck.

Have you considered taking him to a chiropracter? I would refrain from giving him too much medication...esp adult dosages! I understand your frustration tho. My girlfriend had a similar issue with her son. They finally determined that her son had gotten poop anxiety and was "clenching" instead of pushing out the poop.

Try not to make a big deal out of it. You can THINK it, but don't let him know. It will increase his anxiety and probably make things worse.

What about a 'reward' every time he poops. DON'T ask him if he pooped. (That will lead to more anxiety.) Let him be happy to come tell/show you so he can get a reward...sticker, M&M, new coloring page printed off the internet, etc.

If you really are concerned still, I'd take him to a chiro. They can manipulate the kids to help their muscles to relax and hopefully move things along.

Good luck. Let us know how things go.

Sara

Hmm, you may have to bring out the big guns...like a new Buzz Lightyear toy, a Disney on Ice show, a new sled, pancakes for dinner, sleeping in Mom/Dad's bed, etc. BRIBERY!! If it's a emotional reason he's not going (a lot of kids have a fear of pooping on the toilet) then try an emotional solution.

Or, dark karo syrup. Used that one on my 2nd kid when he was an infant, reco'd by my Ped.

Pull back on the milk consumption. It won't help with the current load but when you notice it happening limit their milk consumption to just what they need and use the apple juice.

My 6 year old has issues and we have to work on and off with fiber consumption. Fiber bread, grapes, apples (with peelings), other fruit. Less starch. Try giving them a picture book on the toilet. That is what I do when my girls are having trouble getting it out. They have to relax too. Kind of like going on a vacation for adults and you don't stopa and take the time...kids are like that.

My almost 2yr old has had some constipation troubles as well. We have found that adding prune juice to her apple juice has helped things a lot (pretty much having a BM everyday now). But if he is choosing to hold it then I don't know that anything you give him will help until either you give him a reason (like, as some else mentioned, bribery) or he decides to do it on his own.

It could very well be that he has food intolerances. Removing dairy from his diet would be the first thing to try since it can be very consitpating. Also a nightly warm bath with a few tablespoons of epsom salts to give him some magnesium. I would give him a dairy free probiotic asap, like Culturelle (you can find it at Wal-greens). Removing other possible food offenders from his diet would be the next step, paying attention to what he eats alot of and taking it out first (like wheat products, processed foods, etc.). My son had alot of pottying issues at that age and he got right on track once his gut was balanced out. Good luck.

My 3 yr old is doing that same thing. She is even starting to try to holdback peeing because she is thinking that it is poop.

She even refuses to pass gas. Right now we have her on a dose and a half of Miralax a day. My ped said even some kids need up to 3 adult dosages a day. Try uping the dosage and then after your child cleans out, reduce it back to a regular dosage or so. A dosage and a half a day gets my daughter to explode almost every day.

My ped also recommended that if it troubles us to have her start seeing a child psychologist to get her to think of poop as okay. It drives me crazy because I think she has a favorable opinion of it because she cheers after she goes and tells everyone, but she is scared of going.

Let me know how it goes! I cannot wait for my daughter to be out of this stage so we can finally potty train her!! Right now I would just love her to have regular bowel movements! Ugh...