Bowel Movement Issues - Beaverton,OR

Most likely he has begun withholding. My son had this issue. The dr suggests that 20 min after each meal try to get him to sit on the toilet with a book or something for about 10 min. Sometimes they just get busy playing and then decide they don't want to stop to take a break to "go".

Bummer! I feel like we all get constipated sometimes. When it happens to my little guy we eat a lot of pineapple (he loves it) and I make mini applesauce-banana bran muffins (delicious!). They always loosen things up - if you want the recipe PM me.

Hope things are on the move soon!
T.

Our daughter has had constipation off and on her entire life (me too). The thing that helps her the best is prune juice. You don't need much and you can even cut it with water. We usually have the small 5.5oz. cans that come in a 6/pack of Sunsweet on hand for the times we need it: http://www.sunsweet.com/products/info.asp?product=prune_j...

Half to one can does the trick. Honestly 1/2 a can almost always works, but our 4 year old loves it and thinks it's a treat so she usually wants an entire can. Good luck! :-)

My son is 2 1/2 and we've been dealing with this for the last 6 months. He's fine for a period and then he's constipated again. I can't seem to link it to anything and in general we eat very healthy. But, we have incorporated prune juice into his diet and give him less milk and that seems to help a lot--but, as soon as we forget to give him prune juice for a couple days he's in pain again. It's quite frustrating.

I've had a similar situation. Our doctor put my daughter on Miralax. He gave her a rather high dose (and it helped), but you might want to call your doctor first and see what he thinks of it and what dose he'd suggest...

Briefly: Add raisins, more fruit except apples, even canned peaches are good, and liquids. Stay away from rice for a while.

I would wonder if your son is getting enough fiber and fluids (such as water). My guy has the same problems and prune juice mixed with Dr Pepper helps, as does Miralax and natural sources of fiber, found in apples, pears, beans and many other vegetables. You can also hide fiber in cupcakes and brownies by adding ground flax seeds. Good luck!

My daughter has had that problem for years. She is 4 1/2. The pediatrician told us to give her juice that started with P - pear, papaya, peach, prune. They all help move stuff through the system. My daughter settled on Papaya juice. We buy Knudsens 100% juice in the health section of freddies. Make sure it is 100% juice as the others dont work as well. We would give her a whole cup in the morning and then 1/2 juice/ 1/2 water the rest of the day. That was all she drank, much to the chagrin of all of the other adults around. It worked for her. But then it didnt, at about 4 and she had two episodes of rectal prolapse (horrible to see and emotionally traumatic for me to deal with, let alone her). We had to start adding Benefiber (a little more fiber and tasteless than miralax) to her first juice cup. EVERYDAY. We do it religiously. We dont want to have any issues again. And it works.

We will keep doing this until we think she is free from hard stools and pain and grown out of. The doctor assures us she will grow out of this.

Please see your doctor and let him/her know what a real problem it is. One of my friends had to put her son on a prescription to help out. This is more common than you realize and doesnt have to be an issue anymore when you find the right thing that works for your child. Keep trying- pooping shouldnt be painful or traumatic.

Good luck and remember, this is just the current phase, there will be plenty more to tackle! Please also check out this issue in the past requests. I know I have written about this before and there have been some great responses from others!

I also highly recommend more water and Miralax- ask your ped if you have questions, but do not let this become an issue where he begins to withhold from pooping- it can become a vicious cycle. Stay on the Miralax for at least 6 wks to completely address the problem.

The most simple of things- Increase his fluid intake. Water, or diluted juices. Unless it is a medical concern?
Especially if you increase his fiber- You need the fluid to move it through.

My daughter was the same once she started potty training. Her doctor eventually started having us give her a stool softener to try to help because her bowel movements were also very hard (they clogged the toilet almost every time). Keep trying different things to get him comfortable or excited about pooping so that there aren't long term problems. Right now our daughter gets a treat after she poops or gets to wear one of her dress-up clothes and she gets a happy face on the calendar, which is a good visual reminder Right now she poops about every other day, but is currently recovering from a UTI, probably from holding in pee as well. Our doctor says kids should be peeing at least six times a day. Diapers were so much easier!!!

my son is 3 months old a bit younger then urs but he was having really hard stools to the point where the stools were expanding his butt hole(no other way to say that) causing there to be blood in his stool. so i've been giving him prune juice mixed with water. and it's made a huge diffrence and worked wonders! the doc also said that apple juice or pear juice would help as well. but prune juice mixed with water so its not so bitter would be my advice, its great.

Put your baby on babies magic tea and you'll see good results.

My little girl does the same thing and she is 3 but unlike your son, she has never been regular. The dr said that she holds it in because when she does go it is painful and causes some rips and tears which burn and then if urine gets on that it burns more. That is a terrible feeling for a 3 yr and our natural defense built within us causes us to hold back from any pain, thus causing her to hold her bowels for days at a time till she absolutely can't go anymore. I was told to give her miralax every day on a consistant basis. I have done that. I put a cap full in her chocolate milk every morning. It is not a laxative, only a softener so it is not harmful and can be given every day, even at her age. Sometimes she goes and sometimes she doesn't. When she doesn't, it still seems to get hard even with the miralax or it gets super hard if I skip one day of miralax. That is what the dr told me to do and it still doesn't seem to work all that well. If you have any answers that really work, I would be interested also.
She won't drink prune juice and she drinks apple juice and still nothing.

That happened to my son when he was that age. The doctor told me to give him some apple juice daily and wow it really worked. I couldn't belive that something that simple really worked.

My daughter has the same issue and has been to a doctor. His advice was to force liquids because lack of fluid can cause dehydration and to give her 1/3 of a capful of miralax (stool softener) daily for 6 months. This is because the bowel stretches out when chronic constiation occurs and the miralax daily allows the bowel to shrink back down so the poop doesn't collect and become hard. Hope this helps. Feel free to email me if you have further questions:). A.

Hi B.,

Have you tried acidolphilus? This puts the good buggies back into the colon. If you child has been on any antibiotics this may be why he is constipated? Antibiotics kills both the good bacteria or bugs and the bad bacteria or bugs in your colon and leaves just the yeast or candida. This can cause constipation. Try giving him some acidolphilus. I would try this whether he is on antibiotics or not because sometimes their systems just get out of whack.

Be careful with which one you get - whether yogurt or in the bottle. Some will say that the live bacteria is of manufacturing but when was manufacturing and are they still alive? Some acidolphilus don't have a statement so are the bacteria alive or not. Yogurt is good for the upper digestion but what about the lower digestion? Going through the stomach with the acid in the stomach to digest the food most of the good bacteria is killed.

The one I use is Optiflora by Shaklee. The reason I like optiflora is because it is triple encapsulated and does not release until the colon where the bacteria lives and thrives.

Go to http://nutritionproducts.myshaklee.com to check out the information.

N.
Wellness Coach and SAH Nana

My grandson was chronically constipated after months of regular soft shaped movements. The doctor could find no reason for this to have happened. As babies/children mature their body changes and this, for my grandson, is how it changed.

We focused on doing those things that deal with constipation. Made sure he had more than an adequate amount of fiber in his diet. Stopped giving him foods that cause constipation such as milk and cheese. His diet consisted of lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, increased liquids, and whole grains. He did have some cheese because he loved it but only a very limited amount.

Eventually the doctor prescribed Miralax which is not a laxative. It's a natural product that absorbs moisture into the intestines. It helps the body naturally get rid of wastes and is not habit forming. Miralax is now sold over the counter and you could give that a try if increasing fiber and liquids don't help.

Keep in mind that since his bowel movements are painful he may avoid having them. Take him to the toilet after meals when most of us naturally have a bowel movement or at times that you remember him having had movements. Don't force him to stay until he has one. Just give him the opportunity.

He's old enough for you to talk with him about what is happening. Use a reassuring voice. Explain to him that he needs extra fiber and liquids to get his system going again. Let him know that even tho it may be painful it's important to go so that he won't get sick. Stay with him. Be calm and reassuring. If he thinks you're concerned he'll be more tense and less apt to have a bowel movement.

My grandson is now 6 and has had "normal" bowel movements for several years now.

It's definately time to go see a naturopath. I like to call them, "the poop doctors" because they like to ask lots of questions about how does it look, how often, etc. Agreat one we take our son to is Dr. Sara Hart. 3 Days means he's having problems, so I think she could really help. Her number is ###-###-####

Hi B., It seems that it is just his digestive system going through a different stage...it will until he is about 5. It is just a part of raising a baby...their digestive tracts will change and adjust according to what they eat...smells will change, consistency, frequency, etc. It has been changing periodically since he was born...if you are really concerned about it, then you can add some apple juice with the pulp in it to his diet daily, this will regulate him again.