My Bloating Baby

It may be some type of food allergy. Lactose intolerance and celiac disease come to mind. Simple constipation shouldn't be on-going, especially if she's been taking stool softeners. I would keep a brief diary of what she eats, and look for trends. What days is it better or worse, and what did she eat those days. Then go back to the Dr. This isn't normal.

Bloating is a sign of not digesting food properly. She either needs enzymes or she is eating something that she is allergic to. There are many allergens but the most common are dairy, wheat, nuts, and soy.
I would remove all of them from her diet until her stomach returns to normal and then put one in at a time and see if she has the tummy bloat return.
My youngest child is allergic to all of the above. So living without eating any of them is actually possible. :)
My oldest had the same tummy as a baby and I was told it was normal. I finally figured out that she was allergic to dairy and nuts. Once we removed those from her diet (we gave her enzymes at the beginning) her tummy went right down. She out grew the dairy allergy and has never had the tummy return.
Good luck. I'm sure you'll figure it out.
C.

I would have them check her for celiac disease (inability to tolerate gluten in food) just to be sure.

first of all, you need to make absolutely sure that the bloating is caused by constipation. If you're not 100% confident, then take her to children's hospital and see what they say. If, in fact, it is constipation, then you can help her by first giving her an enema to clean out as much as you can. After that, start her on mineral oil to loosen up the stools and help them to come out easier. You should probably use about 1/16 to 1/8 of a cup two times a day. mineral oil is completely natural - she could drink the whole bottle and have no adverse effects aside from runny stools. It has absolutely no taste, it just feels a little weird. I have given it to most of my grandchildren and I have taken it with them as a show of support so I definitely know what it tastes/feels like and the results. The mineral oil will soak into any waste in her bowles and soften it up and it will also cause it to be slick so it will come right out. If she was constipated for a long time before you got it under control, her bowel may be stretched out which makes her not know she has to go to the bathroom until the bowel starts to become full. By this time, the older waste has been in the bowel long enough that the bowel has dried it out so much that it is hard and hurts to come out. That's where the oil comes in. It will allow her to pass the waste before her bowel feels full so 1) it's not so hard and doesn't hurt and 2) the bowel can start the slow process of shrinking back to it's normal size. The final thing is to make sure she has something to put her feet on when she goes so she has some support on the toilet. It's hard to push if your feet are tangling!

Good luck!

I would try Miralax (or its generic version) which can be purchased over the counter now. It really is a miracle drug :) Because your daughter is so young, I would start her out on a full dose once a day until she is going regularly and then decrease to a 1/2 dose a day for maintenance.

Some kids are just "constipated kids" and need maintenance meds to keep them regular. My daughter, now 13, has been like this since she was very little. We also found that dairy, especially milk, really goofs up her system.

Good luck!

I would insist on getting her tested for food allergies, especially for celiacs. Celiacs is an intestinal disorder that causes severe bloating and pain in the stomoch after eating wheat and gluten products. While you wait for the doc to do the tests I would simply take her off all wheat and gluten products and see what happens. You will have to be very pushy and insist that they do the test because they will blow you off and just keep giving you laxatives.

I really not sure about the bloating, but my daughter was severely constipated. She would have a huge BM about every 2 weeks and cry for hours with it. I resorted to glycerin suppository's and ignored the 1/2 cup of juice rule and have her a whole cup of apple juice every day but nothing seemed to really help. I finally decided to give her prune juice. I put about 3 Tbsp of prune juice in a cup and fill it the rest of the way with apple juice every day, once a day. After about 3 days, she began having BM every day. If it becomes loose, I cut the prune juice for a day or two until it is starting to get hard again. This solved our problems. Increasing her fiber intake will help too. Keep cheerios available within her reach. Cheerios are a good source of fiber and will help with the constipation. I limit my daughter to 3 cups of milk and watch her intake of any other dairy products and bread products. These foods are very binding, but they are also important to her diet so just make sure that she doesn't fill up on bread and dairy. If this doesn't help I would seriously look it to having her checked for blockages or other problems.

I am not a doctor, but watch a lot of mystery diagnosis on tv....there was a kid who had a similar problem where the kid kept getting constipated and would have such pain....it turned out that child had a problem where his body did not tell the muscles it was time to go #2 and push the waste out....might be something to run by the doctor...can't remember what exactly it was

I know it sounds too simple (and it probably is for some cases), but prune juice is a wonder drug for my son. When he's gotten severely constipated I pretty much just let him drink lots of it till he poops and then give him a little every day as prevention. We tried a number of different things (and different foods), but prune juice is what did/does the trick.

Something is not right with your daughters digestion. Suggest a great Naturapath Doctor who does several blood test and finds out the micro-biolical blueprint of the body and can read what is out of balance. Something is out of balance. Once in balalance the body heals itself. Dr AL has a background in pharmacy, huge practice, is semi-retired but takes on patients who e-mail him. ____@____.com He is a nutritionist and Naturapath. LAB Corp does his blood testing. They are all over the US.
Good Luck. He worked for me.

My friends boy had the same problems and they did all kids of painful enemas, he cried all night ect. They bounced around from specialist to specialist until they found out he had Hirschsprung disease. They do abiopsy to find it. It has to do with a problem with his large colon. Part of it didn't work so they had to do sugery to cut the bad part out. It's rare and doesn't get diagnosed right away.

If it were me, I'd go to a pediatric naturopath. I've worked with NDs in the past (due to digestive issues) and have found their holistic approach to be more helpful than medication, which only treats the symptoms instead of treating them. They will ask you a million questions and will likely give you either some advice (elimination diet, foods to avoid, etc.) or will refer you to someone who can give more specialized help. NDs have worked for friends in situations where docs and dieticians weren't able to suss out the child's complaint, so please consider this option for your daughter. It must be terrible to live in so much pain, especially when one can't understand what's happening. Best wishes.

Try probiotics for kids found at Whole Foods in the cold vitamin section. My pediatrician rec. this for my daughter who was the same way and it pretty much cured the problem, and she goes potty daily now! You will have to give it at least a week to settle into her system.

I have a friend who had a daughter that was finally diagnosed with celiac disease. (gluten intolerance). If she is not gaining weight properly and her stomach is hurting all of the time you should have a doctor test her for this.