My daughter has been constipated since birth. She also has accidents. Sometimes (sometimes often) just a little bit of poop in her panties, not a complete bowel movement. She is on Miralax 4 times a week and her tummy hurts a lot when she eats. She also has severe food allergies. All the doctors (pediatricians and allergist) have told me that this is normal. I'm not so sure about that. I have scheduled her an appointment with a gastrointologist(?) Thurs. Has anyone ever had to deal with anything like this? Does anyone know what I can expect this new Dr. to do on a first visit? Any advice???? Thank you in advance!!!!!!!!!
The dr. wanted her to get cleaned out really well and stay on Miralax for a while and hopefully that will help. If not, more test. Her celiac test came back -! I don't like the medicine thing, but she is very picky and has food allergies, so... I might try the chiropractor thing. Thank you everyone for your advice!
For constipation, fresh, whole fruit, lots of water, whole grain bread and a good children's probiotic are really helpful. Avoid sweets, cheeses and crackers or white rice.
Hi Tonya,
My daughter was severely constipated for about 1 1/2 years after I stopped breast feeding. We did the whole miralax thing ( which I was completely against ) because it got so bad that the dr. did a stool sample and their was blood in her stool.
I was able to finally get her off of the miralax as I didn't want her being on it for the rest of her life. Even though the dr. says it isn't a true laxative, I didn't trust my 2 year old being on medicine when I felt we could of done something naturally.
Here's what we did.... prune juice 1 x a day, either mixed in w/ water or just plain. ( adding some of the fiber that is clear and doens't bulk up can be good too, just start w/ small amount or else it can actually make the consipation worse )I buy the baby food prunes and pears and try to give those to her at least 3 times a week. If I notice that she's getting consipated, I try to give her some immediately and usually the next day she is fine. We also visit a chiropractor on occasion. You can do stomach rubs, rubbing in clockwise motion around the belly button area, that helps stimulate digestion (do for a few minutes). Just make sure you go the clockwise direction, not the other way. Another thing you can try is a warm glass of water in the morning with lemon squeezed into the water. This helps build up the good acid in your stomach.
I hope some of this helps, I know how frustrating this can be and if you are like me, you probably don't want your daughter on medicine for the rest of her life. It took my daughter a while to finally get regular, but it was worth the work!
Good luck to you!
I can't really say what the doctor will do but you might think about getting her on a children's probiotic.
Hi S.,
I would highly recommend that you take your daughter to a chiropractor. I would think that they could help re-align her to help her with this issue. They can help newborns with this issue (you said she's had this since birth), and the rest of us as well. I'm always amazed at the things that are effected by our spinal alignment.
Blessings,
Tonya
In addition to your current course of physical examination, I suggest that you contact Children's Hospital. They have a special program for children with chronic "poop and pee accidents" (for lack of a better term). There does come a point in time when it is too late to solve these problems (my niece is one of them), so please call today. My sister waited too long to address this because the girl was adopted and had other issues which required professional attention, and I guess my sister didn't want to bombard the child with too many types of doctors, so this problem went on her back burner, to the permanent detriment of the child.
My daughter has issues, too. Are you going to a pediatric gastroenterologist? I know there aren't many of them in the SLC area. My daughter's first visit to the doctor was completely uneventful, just a conversation. He ordered blood tests and prescribed Miralax and "the purple pill" (Nexium?) He was very friendly to my daughter.
My kiddo ended up needing an endoscopy (a whole 'nother post all together), and was diagnosed with h.pylori and severe gastritis. A whopping dose of antibiotics killed the bacteria, and my daughter's stomach pain finally went away.
Hi S.--
My son is similar to your daughter with the constipation and food allergies. We found that he didn't get better with western medicine techniques, even with a gastroenterologist, and so we went an alternative route. Our doc (a chiropractor by degree, but does all types of alternative medicine) works with docs from National Jewish in certain cases. He's an expert on allergies and all the symptoms caused by them and he treats with all natural things, including doing allergy elimination (NAET). I believe he saved my son's health and I would highly recommend him. I've referred about two dozen others with stellar results for everyone. Let me know if this is a route you'd like to go and I will get you his information.
Good luck!
J.
I feel for you and 'no', I have to say that chronic constipation and abdominal pain is NOT normal. When you visit your GI doc ask him about celiac disease and ask that your daughter be tested. Its a disease where your body has an intolerance to gluten (the protein found in wheat, barley, and rye). Since she has other allergies, I wouldn't be surprised if there are either more allergies you haven't found yet that are the culprit or if she has celiac. I had chronic abdominal pain and digestive problems ever since I can remember. I was diagnosed with Celiac about 6 years ago and feel like a new person! My other question is, what is her diet like? Diet and digestive problems of course go hand in hand. What area are you in? I know of a great Homeopath who is also extremely knowledgeable in nutrition. Good luck getting to the bottom of it.
