Help for Constipation in Girls

Try using mineral oil,can be easily available in walmart,peaches & prune juice may help.

Hope she feel better

I've used glycerin suppositories. They are very effective for quick relief without all the discomfort of an enema. I'm told they make them for babies if you don't want the regular ones adults use.

All great answers below. I'd also add to make sure she's drinking plenty of water (instead of filling her just with juice). Her intestines are absorbing all the liquid in her body or something (the doc told me as my DD also has constipation issues) and she may be dehydrated.

Have you tried putting her on large doses of Probiotics from the health food store? They make ones that are specific to intestinal health.
What about some NutriAloe too? That helps everything & at her age, she'd only need about 1/2 oz/day, so a bottle of it would last about 2 months.

Has she ever been to a chiropractor? Believe it or not, that could help significantly too.

Hope you find something to help her soon!

I would try grapes, blueberries, popcorn, specifically grated apples not just an eaten apple(there is a difference for some strange reason;). You may also want to try some prune juice or dried prunes or apricots.
hth
V.

Both my kids had this. My daughter pooped great as a baby but started holding it around 2 years old. I struggled for years going to ped. GI, using everything. Finally a combo of daily megadoses of miralax, diet change and rewards for pooping worked but it was a long slow process. My son now was constipated from birth. He started holding his around age 1 due to it being uncomfortable to go. Now at 3 he is finally starting to go sometimes without holding it. He goes about every 3 to 5 days. He is on miralax and I feed him lots of peaches and pears, and cut way down on his milk and dairy intake. I would make sure she is eating at least 6 servings of fruit a day, drinking juice, preferably pear juice or prune juice. My daughter loved dried prunes and that really helped. The canned peaches and pears are great too, make sure she gets the juice from the container and not just the fruit. And use the miralax every single day making sure she gets the correct dose. My kids get one cap-full a day and two when necessary. Good luck!

I had that problem when I was a little girl. Grandma did enemas on me for almost an entire summer, I was about 9 or 10 or so. Anyway, that along with a high fiber diet and tons of liquids finally got be on track. I was constipated holder from age 3 till 10. It was very scary for my mom, and I have lots of pics of me looking pregnant when I was just a little girl.
Try suppositories too, but make sure her stool is soft enough to pass, its probably going to be huge and hard. Poor thing.

Poor baby! She must be miserable.

I have used baby supporitories on my children when they were young. Also, you need to review her diet very closely. Blueberries always worked wonders for my children.

Good luck!

magnesium citrate can help. You can find it in a health food store in pills or a tasty drink called Calm. Some like George's Aloe Vera also.

We went through this with my 6 year old son. He always held his and tried all the products out there. Miralax helped but was messy. We used PediaSure with fiber that helped him poop once a week but they were the size of baseball bats and hard as clay, but that was better than they were. Finally I did some research and found that a total diet change was in order. This has helped soften it so he could get used to pushing it out. He started going every 3 days and was soften. Not perfect but better.

He went from 3 cups of milk a day to 2, one with breakfast and one with dinner. He has 3 cups of juice a day for morning snack, lunch and afternoon snack. Reducing his milk in take was step one. He still meets his requirements. Next, heavy on the fruits and veggies! Lowered his meat intake. We are a heavy meat eating society so eating just what he needs is key, which includes meat on his sandwiches and peanut butter. When I make him a sandwich now I don't put pretzels or tortilla chips on the side. I don't even buy those anymore. I cut up an apple or canned peached or fruit cocktail on the side. You can also use fruit for dessert. I also give heavy veggies on the side sometimes at lunch but mostly at dinner. Grains are higher fiber, whole grains. Snacks are fruits, carrot sticks (dip if you like), applesauce (regular or chunky) and the cinnamon kind seems to help a bit more for some reason. Avoid too much dairy and stick with fruits and veggies more. Give a vitamin to help with anything missed. Have a talk with your daughter about your new plan and make a deal that with the new diet her part is to finish all of her food and drink so she will poop easier. As she gets used to relaxing more and feels that it doesn't hurt as much it'll start to come. You can also add some powder stool softener to her milk to help but it must state "stool softener" specifically. You may have to sit with her and talk her through like we do with our son. When we deviate from his diet he gets back right up again so keep on track the best you can. If you go out to eat be sure to double up at home with the fruits and veggies for the next couple of meals. Ask her for ideas for input to help softener her stools.

K. B
mom to 5 including triplets

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Hi, J.:

Go to your local health food store or on line.
Hyland Vit. C 5 mg tabs will help with constipation.
Adjust the number of tabs until she is not constipated any longer.

Good luck.
D.

Lot's of fiber and keeping her hydrated (lot's of water/prune juice) should help.
Fruits and veggies, raisins, prunes, leafy salads, etc. Have her eat high fiber bran cereals. A lot of apple cider sometimes gives my son the runs. Also Benefiber has a non-flavored powder you can add to just about any liquid she drinks and she'll never know it's there. Avoid binding foods (bananas, rice, apple sauce, toast - things you eat to firm up diarrhea). Make sure she gets some exercise. Running and jumping around can help get the bowels moving. Joggers/runners sometimes have to make a pit stop mid run for this reason.

When my daughter was little she suffered from severe constipation. She was on Miralax for almost 2 years. You said you tried Miralax, but for how long. One or two doses will not do the job.

You could use glyercin suppositories, much better solution than a enema.

Mineral oil will also help. But just like Miralax it's not an instant fix and needs to be taken on a regular basis.

You may also want to consider a stool softener, but I would check with her doctor first.

Call her pediatrician and ask about Colace (docusate sodium)/stool softener. It works wonders for adults, but I don't know about children or dosages for children. It softens the stool, so you don't wind up with fissures or hemorrhoids (this can happen even in young children -especially with a build up like this) and it also has a laxative quality. It won't act like a stimulant laxative though, unless you guy the one that says that (and I wouldn't). What it WILL do is simply make her have to go. It won't be like she has diarrhea or anything, but she'll have such an urge that she'll have to go to the bathroom. Please ask her doctor about it first though, because my experience with colace is only as an adult.

What is her diet like? Will she eat fruits like grapes , plums etc? Stuff that helps you go. Do you know why she is holding? Did she have a painful BM once and is now scared? I used to have the same issues with my son , and we had to use Miralax , but with Miralax it needs to be used everyday , it will not work as a one time thing like a laxative , it's a softner rather than a laxative , so give her a daily dose in a drink of milk , water , juice (whatever you can add it to that she likes) and after a few days she will have BM that is not hard and painful. As she has not been for 2 weeks I would use another enema just to get the bulk out and then start the Miralax , if she is a child that suffers from constipation often then I would continue with the Miralax , after about 6 months I took my son down to a dose every other day and then gradually phased it out from there.

Try the glycerin suppository called "baby lax" It worked very well for my daughters at around that age and younger.

Wow, 2 weeks is a long time... have they x-rayed her???? Her bowels are probably all backed up.... also, her stools are probably real hardened... this makes it real hard for it to come out....
Holding in poop like that... and for 2 weeks... can be a real health problem... internally. I would really, be concerned about that....
If her poop is all hardened internally and backed-up, for example, laxatives/Miralax will not be able to soften ALL of her stool... internally and for all that amount.... and when stool is backed-up and hardened internally, it can stretch out the bowels.... and that is 'maybe' why she seems 'immune' to the laxatives/Miralax. Laxatives, should also not be used for long periods of time....

My daughter when a Toddler, for constipation, saw a Pediatric Gastroenterologist.... he suggested the SAME things, that Sadie S. below, suggested.

For your daughter, it seems to be an 'emotion' based issue. She is 'withholding' it, on purpose. Especially since the Miralax etc., is not working.
I would... address the emotional aspect, of why she is NOT going and holding it in, on purpose. Especially at her age.