Painful Poops

We have had problems with chronic constipation with our daughter, and the best thing we ever did was see Dr. Elizondo. I can't remember his first name, but he practices in the GoodNight pediatrics facility in Stone Oak. He is wonderful, and I'm sure he could help you even things out. Best of luck -- this sounds very tough for your whole family.

Did you try decreasing the Miralax dose? My son has the same problem, and the doctor started him on 1/2 of a capful dissolved in 4 ounces of liquid. Within two days, he was having very loose bowel movements! We changed the dose to 1/4 of a capful with 4 ounces of liquid, and that worked much better. It takes a few days for the change in dose to kick in, but we were able to play around with the dosage until we found the right amount. If Miralax doesn't work, you might ask your doctor about Generalac. It is a similar type medicine, basically a sugary syrup that makes the stool softer. It is by prescrition only, but really cheap. You also start out with a relatively high dose, then adjust as needed. I actually liked this medicine better than the Miralax and found it easier to control the dosages. However, my son started withholding, and it quit working very well. I think the mental anguish for kids is almost as hard as the physical. My son went through about a six month period where he would try not to poop, either because it hurt or he was embarrassed. It was horrible. He is much better now, thanks to lots of patience and the Miralax. Where do you live? There is a really great kid GI doctor in Lubbock named Dr. Higgins. He really helped my son when my regular doctor didn't seemed to have a clue. Let me know if you need his information. My e-mail address is ____@____.com luck.

C.,

I feel you! My son is the same way! He even had blood in his stools... I started using benefiber, kinda the same as miralax, but not quite. It helped a little but not as good as the miralax. My son's Dr. also told me that once he was on the medicine that I should play with the dosage to get a happy medium. my son gets one teaspoon a day and he hasn't had a problem with constipation since! Playing with the dosage will be your best bet! My son went thru test after test and they found nothing! At 3 yrs old they kept sticking him and drawing blood and doing rectal exams... yeah... not very comfortable to a 3yr old let alone the parents! lol I wish you the best of luck!

C. I.
Cedar Park TX

Hi C.,

My 7 year old son has struggled with this for years, since he's a very picky eater and doesn't get enough fiber in his diet. When he was younger, our doctor had us get Senecot drops. They worked very well, and we liked them because it was a natural helper - we didn't want to use a drug-type medicine, since this is an ongoing problem with him. We initially mixed it with chocolate syrup to get him to take it, and eventually he started taking it without the syrup (it's brown, so he thought he was getting chocolate). Now that he's older, we've started using fiber pills that are similiar to a chewable vitamin, and those also work well. We also try to keep track of his visits, and when we think he needs a little extra "help," we feed him more applesauce.

Good luck!
K.

See if you can get her to switch to smoothies and pediasure, or milkshakes with protein powder. Until your doctor gets a grip on what is causing it, smoothies and pediasure both give her calories and protein without having to 'eat'.

Miralax, if I remember correctly, just pulls water into the intestine.

Once it's out of the system, diarrhea shouldn't be an issue. There are several stool softeners that are much less 'effective' at pulling water, while still avoiding hardness issues... or give a modified diet (no rice, lots of fruits, vegetables, and water) a longer try - watermelon or prunes and warm liqid (soup, tea, coffee, warm water) is the most effective - gentle - predictable laxative I've ever seen.

Hello C.,

I'm D. P.. I have for you and your daughter a choice of 3 aloe juices that will help her. All natural, non-processed and no preservatives. Since it's natural and straight from the aloe plant, it can only help her. These juices are helping people's digestive systems and to become healthier in 120 countries around the world now. You may visit our website at www.foreverliving.com and see the products. Please call me at ###-###-####.

Thank you,

D. P., LMT
Licensed Massage Therapist
Distributor, Forever Living Products

When my kids are having problems I give them a few spoon fulls of white corn syrup. Natural laxative but does not bother what they eat. I also up the fiber, like apples for snacks. Oatmeal bars and stuff. For direaha i fix them rice.

I'm not sure how this will work with a four year old, but we used mineral oil. You can buy it in the supplement section of any store. When my oldest was just a couple of months old, he had really bad cronic constipation. Nothing we tried really worked continually. It might have solved that one episode, but then he was constipated again a couple of hours later. We finally started putting a little bit of mineral oil in two bottles daily. He never had a problem again. It never caused diarrhea, and he was never constipated again. I stopped using it one day to see if he would be alright, and it came right back. We just never quit using it, until he turned one and didn't have a bottle anymore. We haven't had any problems since then with him. I guess you could try putting in her water. It doesn't have any taste or odor, but you can tell that you put oil in the liquid by the look of it. This will definetely keep her from getting constipated, but won't cause really loose stool. I hope that this helps.

The only advice I have is from experience with my son when he was about that age. He too would get the runs from any medicines we trie. Have her drink lots of water, have her as active during the day as possible, and teach her to love her veggies. I mean 'roughage' which is lots of raw stuff like salad (not broccoli or other stuff that will make her too gassy at first). And if you HAVE to give her something every now and again, try to cut the dosage in half of the recommended. I've had the most luck with glycerine suppositories. Earier on, before we started with him having this problem, we actually had two emergency room visits thinking he had appendicitis, but he just had a large chunk of bm in his intestine. Worst case, you may request from you MD to run a barium enema series to evaluate for any issues that involve the physicality of her bowel set up to make sure her gut is in order.

Dont be scared.. I know the feeling. I have a 2yr old that has the same problem. Hers started when she was almost 2 when she pooped she started to bleed.. I took her to the dr the next day. They looked at her poop and saw that she was not bleeding inside but she tore the soft skin. We put her on Merilax also it worked for a while then she started to hold it when she went over to dads. When she came back to me she would try to go but it was so hard and painful even the merilax was not helping. So we changed meds again and tried Lactos (?) and Milk of Mag (MOM) which helped until we got a good does for her.. Because she would get the runs if we gave to much MOM.. Thought for you... Try giveing some MOM in the am 1/2 tsp to see if that helps then increase to where her poop is just paste like. Also you can buy benafiber over then counter to put in meals and milk or water. Make sure she id drink water and I was also told juice.. Dont feed anymore Bananas until she is going better. bananas are bindeing and stay away from Cheese as much as possible, binding also.. Look at your milk and see what you are giving her. My daughter is now on 1% because whole seems to back her up. Someone told me even to try soy. I hope this has helped if you have anything else email me....
J.
good luck

My daughter used to be very constipated and we found out it was Apple Juice that was causing it. Apple Juice works the opposite way in some kids but that wasn't the case with our daughter. I had a friend that resolved her childs constipation problem by cutting out Apple Juice as well after I told her about my daughter.

Good luck finding a diagnosis, I know it must be extremely frustrating. It is hard to see your kids in so much discomfort.

K.

My niece went through this and I believe it is called "Potty Refusal". They are afraid to go poop so they hold it in and then it makes it get hard. My neice would cry when she would poop because it hurt so bad. My sister would have to give her enimas in order to make her poop. Maybe you can research on Potty refusal and see what will help you. Hope you figure it out!

Also for the eating thing. Maybe you can make some food that is her favorite and she can't refuse to eat it. Even if it isn't the healthiest choice just to get her eating something.

I have a 23 month old that began having painful pooping about a year ago. After changing her diet with no response, her pediatrician put her on Miralax for 6 months. She had the same response to it as your daughter. I took her off after the six months, and began giving her prunes in her milk in the morning and having her drink a little prune juice with either a snack or another meal. She has been regular ever since. One thing about the miralax is that your body grows to depend on it and can make it even more difficult after you take them off of it than before you had started. I would recommend finding what naturally works for you daughter with food. Broccoli did nothing for my daughter...so, keep trying.