Algonquin Area

it is very normal. kids this age love foods that are binding- bannanas, cheese, pasta etc... when you think of constipation thing of the 3 F's... fiber, fluid and fitness and that helps. there is an over the counter childrens mirilax and I recommend trying that 1 capful with 8 oz of fluid if you dont get results increase it a bit until the big blow out and then just give it daily increasing or decreasing as needed.

The same thing happened to my little one. The dr told me to stop the potty training. His belief is that we push the training too early. So, I stopped and so did our potty troubles!

My daughter went through this about a year ago when I was potty training her. I just sat her down and had a talk about how drinking lots of water can help. She was two at the time and understood so your 3yr.old will probably understand. I took her to the store and had her pick out a new fun straw water cup that was going to be her cup for water (only). I let her drink water all day at any time. This helped us. She even told her daddy to drink more water. GOOD LUCK!

doesn't sound normal to me.
the reaction sounds normal, just the pain doesn't. i would avoid bannanas, cheese... milk? i think those stop you up.
try outmeal.
that always gets me going LOL.
and beans.
seriously.
have you seen a doc?

My daughter had the same problem. I bought a book called "It Hurts When I Poop" which I bought on Amazon - it is a funny title, but it explains everything in a way that a child can understand and helpped my daughter tremendously! Unfortunately, she went poop in her pants (only wearing panties) at a family function and we had to shower her off - the embarassment of that one instance made her use the potty exclusively after that. I hated that it came to embarassment to "fix" the issue - but she was really making progress with the book. She is now completely potty trained - even at night - and she STILL likes to read that book and talk about how your body processes food. Good luck!

I had one I trained that did that. I kept giving a tsp of flax in yogurt and a handful of mini shredded wheats every morning. She started going the next day and I kept it up for a few days when she finally realized that it was okay to go.

When my son had problems with constipation I would give him some of the bottled baby food prunes. He actually liked the taste and it always helped. We did this til he was probably at least 5 years old. Stay away from cheese too!

I've found prunes to be the best. I buy the Sunkist prunes that come in a bag. Since they are a little gummy, I cut them in quarters to avoid the choke hazard. Otherwise, the baby food prunes will probably work too. Sunkist has cherry and orange flavored prunes too, if your daughter doesn't like the taste. My husband and I love them too!

Hi P., I am a home daycare provider in Rolling Meadows and recently had a child in my care recently who was going through the same issues as your daughter. This little girl was in the process of potty training too and she would constantly hold in her BM. A lot of the kids I have seen at the start of potty training typically pee quickly and struggle with having BM on the potty. The parents and I worked with this little girl on her diet too by adding benefiber to her drinks daily which helped some. Ultimately, it was just that she was not ready to be toliet trained because once we backed off focusing on her training, she "relaxed" and within a month was doing it on her own. I don't think that there's a right/wrong way for this process--each kid will do it in their own time frame. Best of luck and just try to keep your patience!

I went through this same issue with my youngest child. It was very frustrating for me. She was and is a very strong-willed and demanding person. I even did all the same things you have done, including having my doctor perscribe a laxative supplement, which I didn't really think was such a hot idea, given a healthy diet should be enough.

Unfortunately it is a vicious cycle. The more attention you give to the problem, the more your child uses this new found power for their purposes.

I'm going to suggest a radical idea. But first I need to warn you... a strong-willed child is tricky! 2nd, after having and raising 3 kids, my last child did not begin to have her bm's in a potty until she was almost 5! Talk about strong-willed!

Here's what finally worked for us, regarding the bm's. I made sure we had a quiet, non-threatening time at least once to twice a day for her to sit on the potty and I stopped bugging her about it. When she complained that she was in pain, I simply told her that she would not be in pain, if she would just go potty and let the poop come out when her body told her it needed to come out.

This didn't happen over night. She's almost 8 now. She still goes through bouts where she avoids eliminating. Not due to pain, just failure to make the time to sit, because she has attention challenges. When this happens, she still has minor accidents. I don't make a big deal of it. I sympathize with her and showed her how to clean up herself and just make sure she does a good job. Once she discovered I wouldn't clean her up after too many accidents... she decided the work was not worth the mess and we nipped the problem in the bud.

But I must warn you... in dealing with a 2-3yo, you don't have the same ability to reason as with a 5 yo. You may need to forgo the potty training issue until you get her confident to just have a bm and then begin again.

I was frustrated at how long it took me to potty train my last child. I think it would have taken less time, if I had been able to hide my frustration from her. It really was 80% power & 20% fear; 100% her choice.
Hope that helps you.
P.S. I've never met a 3rd grader that still wore diapers.. In fact, I've never met a 1st grader that was still in diapers.... so maybe just relax and let her think it's not a big issue to you anymore... just don't reward her with more of your attention by witholding a bm.

Hello-

I have a 3 1/2 year old daughter she's had the same problem. I've spoken to mannnny people about this, and they all say the same thing. She'll grow out of it.. It started when she was getting potty trained about 2 years old. She use to scream every time she had to go. Would scream behind the curtains. She was constipated one time, and continues to remember that incident. She doesn't scream anymore, and every once in a while she will act like it hurts to get attention. When she's busy playing, I found she doesn't even think about it anymore. She still holds it in, but she has signs that tell me it's time for her to go. She tends to lay on the couch a lot when it's time. I stop giving her any dairy at that time, and make her drink a lot of water. I talked w/my doctor, and I changed her diet-which helped. She loves dairy, but I limit her to a little a day now. She gets her milk, but not as much cheese, ice cream, etc. Also, she eats oatmeal in the mornings which helps. One thing we did do was read a book to her while she was going so it took her mind off of it. Seemed to help a lot.

It's good to talk to the ped. I call the drs office and ask the nurses all kinds of questions.

Miralax
No dairy, but soy

these worked for us.