Potty Problems - Lake Dallas,TX

YOU ARE NOT ALONE! My 4 1/2 year old won't poop on the potty. I asked his pediatrician and he says it's normal for boys this age. Just to continue doing what WE can...prune juice, miralax, bran muffins, and raisins..anything that will help him. Eventually he will go is what he said. So, that's what we are doing. I know. It can be very frustrating for the parents. I KNOW!

My little one is 3 1/2 and also has had constipation issues since she was a newborn. Since 2 years of age she has been on Miralax which I was told by her specialist that it is safe for her to be on. You can now buy it over the counter. I fill the cap 1/2 to 3/4 full and put it her warmed up apple juice every morning. She can not taste it. It is now her morning routine. Also, I have just discovered a new juice called "Plum Smart". You can find it in the fruit juice section of the grocery store. It works great. It taste better than prune juice, so she feels like she is drinking fruit juice instead. It works like a charm. I also know other people who think it is a miracle worker.

Best of luck.

See if you can get him to eat a Fiber One Bar each day. They really help with constipation & are really good (oats & chocolate is my favorite). They provide 35% of daily fiber for an adult, so it would be double that for a child, so 1/2 a bar per day may do the trick.

One thing to remember is that the more hydrated you are, the softer your stools are. My eldest daughter had a horrible problem with constipation. We tried a high fiber diet, prune juice, etc... We finally figured out she wasn't drinking enough water everyday.

It's certainly not the cure-all, but keeping him hydrated certainly can't hurt!

God Bless!

Talk to your pediatrician about Miralax. Miralax worked a miracle for my girl that had constipation that bad for months. After a while, the child starts holding it in to avoid the pain, which only exacerbates the constipation. A small amount of Miralax for months and months cured the problem. I did not think it would do it, and I did not understand why we had to use it for so long, but by gosh it worked and the nightmares are over. Your home is almost as hectic as mine; I have twin 4 yr old girls and twin 21 mo old boys.

HI,

Nature's Own makes this bread thats has double the fiber. It says it on the bag. It just depends if he eats bread yet or not, but it works great! I think it works better than taking a fiber supplement.
thanks,
L.

Apple juice always worked on my 5 kids and the "old wives tale" about Karo syrup really works too!

Use some BabyLax enemas to help him go easier. Follow the directions exactly or you could hurt him. These help when you know he is holding it and waiting (which is probably more of his problem than his diet). The waiting makes the movement compacted and hard perpetuating the problem. Keep up the prune juice or apple juice daily. He will turn the corner...just help it not to hurt (and the enemas do that).

Good luck.

My daughter had the same problems with her stools and our pediatrician wrote a prescription for Miralax, which you can now get over-the-counter. I know several moms that use it. We used it daily with her for about a year to regulate and soften her stools. Now, we are only using it as needed when she gets constipated which is not very often now.

Another idea is to cook with flax seed meal. You can add it to oatmeal, muffins, etc. Or even serve bran muffins.

Good luck. I know it is tough to see them in pain and upset about disappointing mom. Also, the doctor has put a lot of pressure on you. If he/she is that harsh, I'd be happy to give you the name/number of our pediatrician. We absolutely LOVE her and her partner.

M. K.

FIBER! Fiber One cereal (my 3-year-old eats it plain!). Fiber One bars, granola, WHOLE GRAIN breads...We've found English muffins with 8 g of fiber per muffin! Slap some peanut butter on the muffin and it's a great, fiber-loaded breakfast

Miralax or Glycolax (generic name) is great stuff. My daughter suffered horribly from constipation...she would sweat, shake and cry. I have been there. I'd ask to try the above medicines...the body does not become dependent on them..they basically "pull" water through the GI tract. That is what I was told. You could try these medicines and then have some days where your son wear's just a shirt in the house. Plan on staying home all day..so he if he has to go...he has no choice but to go on the potty. We do this with our almost 3 year old and it works great.

We all started taking probiotics by Yarrow (you get them at Whole Foods) for intestinal health. They are a capsule with the active ingrediants you find in Yogurt and it worked well for everyone in the family; our allergies are down, my constipation is much better, and my daughters yeast infections are gone... and it's a natural remedy! I liked that.

Remove all dairy (casein)products. Milk is the most common allergen yet mainstream doctors always ignore that. (read any nutrition book) It could be a yeast issue as someone else mentioned. It is common for peds to first say it is normal (I beleive it is not) and then to give miralax but I personally wouldn't use it. Magnesium and vitamin C can help. There is a magnesium called Calm that you can find at a health food store, it tastes like lemonade. If the problem is severe look into oxypowder you can buy on the internet and at some health food stores.

Yogurt and raisins always helped my daughters. Also, LOTS of water.

Also try pears. My doctor told me pears were a great natural stool softener. And don't cut out the yogurt . . . it is also very beneficial to the digestive process.

My mom had a tried and true recipe for constipation:

2 cups All Bran
2 cups Applesauce
1 cup Prune Juice

Take 2 tablespoons every day.

Good luck!

Our son has had trouble with BMs since an infant. He's been seeing a peds GI doctor since about six months old and is now three and a half. He has been on Miralax for a couple of years now. There is no way we could have attempted potty training without it. Miralax is not a stimulant so you don't have to worry about dependency or side effects. It helps retain fluid through the intestinal tract to keep BMs soft. Prior to Miralax we tried to us Milk of Magnesia but we could never get the right dose. Miralax is a tasteless powder that can be added to anything. Our son has his dose each morning in his milk.
Good Luck.

This may sound crazy but we have the same problem. My step son is so afraid to poop that he will go a week or so. Try a 1/2-1 teaspoon of dark Karo syrup, lots of water, and increase the whole fibers in his diet. i.e. apples w/ skin on, broccoli etc.The karo syrup is safe and assists w/ lubricating the colon to ease and promote "it" coming out!

Poor baby!
Is he a veggie eater?

Greens will speed up the process of getting the poopy throughout the colon to where he can pass it - it doesnt sit in the colon as long - not long enough to get hard and painful.

Anything with lots of fiber in it. Fiber fiber fiber. Fiber gets the stool moving through the colon too. Im sure theres tons of cereal bars loaded with fiber. Some are even called Fiber bars and taste pleasant.

Hope this helps!

R.,

I also have a 3 1/2 year old little boy. Similar fears when needing to go poop. He just had a mental block about going on the potty. Fortunately, he only got constipated a couple of times. My pediatrician suggested asking my child if he wanted to put on a pull up whenever I thought he needed to go poop. This way he didn't feel scared to have an "accident" in his big boy underwear and the pressure of going in the potty was gone, because he could go in his diaper. Now I know this seems counter productive since the idea is to get him to go in the potty, but it worked! Also, Gavin seemed to start getting into a routine of needing to go potty during bath time. I think the bath seemed to relax him and going poop on the potty became routine during or right after bath time! Good luck! Your little one will work this out when he is ready.

I had the same problem with my daughter. We did Milk of Magnesia, let her eat raisins for snack, and gave her apple juice. She would still just hold it until it hurt. We finally broke down and gave her a kids Root Beer flavored castor oil It never failed to work. No tummy ache or painful bowel movement. She went potty with no problem.

She is 5 years old and goes potty with no problem.

My son had severe constipation. Would hold it for days, bleed (dripping blood) when he pooped. It was making me crazy and he would scream and cry and shake when he finally did. The Dr. gave us prescriptions, we did suppositories, had a squidmoidoscipy, etc. Amazingly what finally helped was aloe vera juice. If you get George's Aloe Vera juice it tastes like water. We told our son it was sweet water and he would drink it straight. My cousin (who told us about it) would put it in juice for her daughter. They carry it at Roy's Natural market in Dallas at Preston and Royal.

The other thing that can help is cod liver oil. They have kids strawberry flavor at Whole Food. Just don't do them together or you get bad diarrhea!

Hope this might help... every kid is different. But this sure helped Noah.

So many suggestions to choose from and here is one more...if you have a juicer, 10 oz carrot/ 6 oz spinach/ 1 apple (I prefer green). It seems there is something in spinach that moves the intestines, the liquid softens the stools, the apple is just to sweeten. It looks AWFUL! Tastes ok once you get past the way it looks, but also the carrot makes the stool look "funny" . This is also a quick way to get nutrients into the short one - and if you drink it with him....stay near the bathroom.

My daughter had a lot of problems with constipation when she was younger. The most natural way to help is to get your son eating as much fruit and fiber as possible. Oatmeal is great if he will eat it. Chewy granola bars are good too (especially oatmeal raisin). Raisins are very good for constipation. Any General Mills cereal is good too since they use whole grains in all of their cereals. Reeses cereal is my daughter's favorite but since it has a lot of sugar we give her less of that. Plain Cheerios are pretty much unlimited for her though. Nutri-Grain bars and their generic equivalent are also good. Any fruit or veggie you can get him to eat is very helpful as well. Honey wheat bread is good too. We have been making sure our daughter eats lots of fruit and whole grains for years and she hasn't had any constipation problems since we changed her diet. Even Dairy products in moderation does not have any adverse effect anymore since the other foods more than compensate. I hope this helps. Good luck from a mom who's been there.

Try miralax. Its over the counter and you just put a little in a drink every day. And that will help with the stools - its odorless and tasteless.

Have you tried stars on a chart or a special dinner treat. When he does good.

My youngest had the same problem. One day he even gave himself fissures so bad we ended up taking him to the emergency room. The very best advice I got was from my coworker. My kids picked up a love of comic books and books in general because my husband and I read a lot. I sit in the bathroom with him and read stories. Until he relaxes enough to go. At first he didn't always go and sometimes it took almost 20 minutes of sitting in there with him - but he began to associate going to the bathroom with doing something fun instead of hurting himself. It took about 3 or 4 months, but now he goes by himself to the bathroom and we keep a stack of comic books in there for him to "read". (And we make sure that he eats plenty of raw veggies and salad. It's amazing what they will eat with ranch dressing to dip in.)

If you are in Dallas, Zeus Comics will have a ton of 25 cent comics leftover from Cape Day this last weekend and the staff is wonderful about helping find age appropriate ones.

It is VERY common for toddlers to not want to poop on the potty. It is some kind of fear. While I don't know the entire chain of events for your son, what often happens is that they don't want to do, so they hold it to keep from having to go on the potty. This just leads to a cycle of constipation. You didn't do anything to cause this, it may be diet related, but it may jsut be his fear of going. Kids are smart. He knows if it hurt once, it will probably hurt again. When our son didn't like to go on the pitty, we used Kayro Syrup in his milk (he has about 4 cups a day+ cheese and yogurt), and it worked. I know many parents that have now been instructed to use Miralax. You should check with your Pedi or you may want to try to see the GI specialist at Cooks. They are experts with poop. Good luck.

Congratulations on your twins! I have twins also, boy & girl. My daugher has had bowel problem since she was born. They are 2 yrs. 9 mos. old now & we're still dealing w/ her constipation. We've tried it all.

She has a great diet....we finally resorted to Miralax. She may have to take it the rest of her life?? It's been a "miracle" thing. In April she went 10, YES, TEN days w/o a bowel movement. She's had the blood, tears, etc. on her bottom from trying to go potty. The Miralax works great. We were able to successfully potty train her now that her bowels work fine. My doctor told me 2 tsp. for a week or two & then decreast to one tsp. for as long as needed.

The powder brings moisture into the bowels so they will soften on their own. My doctor believes on letting this do it's job internally rather than helping by giving a suppository, etc..

We did the milk-of-magnesia. That's fine to get the hard stuff removed but it will happen again. We did mineral oil for a year or so but it wasn't enough. We did prune juice but not enough.

Hope I've convinced you to go buy some. It's pricey but there is a generic HUGE bottle available at Tom Thumb for $10, it's a prescription.

J.

Hi R.,

I would test him for food allergies and get him on digestive enzymes and/or probiotics. I would also make sure he is getting enough water. I am a chiropractor and I work with children and adults on a daily basis with digestive issues. I use Applied Kinesiology (aka muscle testing) to determine food allergies and nutritional deficiencies then I prescribe the correct nutritional blend to correct the deficiencies. It is a healthy alternative which helps to restore the normal functioning of his digestive tract. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to call me at ###-###-#### or visit my website at sullivanchiropractic.com. Thanks!
Dr. Sandra S.

I had and still have the same issue with my 5 1/2 year old. The doctor suggested Miralax. It softens his bowels and after time removes his anxiety. It's a bit tricky getting dose right.

Keep the prune juice up and keeping away from dairy, banana, rice and cooked carrots. applesauce is also constipating. give him apple juice oatmeal and there is a cereal called Cracklin Bran that I gave my daughter dry and made like it was a treat. It worked wonders. Also any of the fruits with pits, p for pits and poop, will help. There is also a sool softener sold over the counter called Miralax. Ask if doc if he thinks it is ok

My child had the same problem, and the Dr. said to much water was being secreated from her last intestine, and gave her some colace drops. They are not a laxitive, just helps with softening the bowl movement. And I heard cheese could make it worse, so you may want to not give cheese for a bit. It is sometimes hard to get them to drink enough water, but try and offer a few sips pretty often too.

I was 14 when my little brother was born, which was a longggg time ago, but he had dairy allergies, and was on soy formula for years. It constipated him, so he would hide when he needed to poop. He'd have his little legs squeezed together, and be shaking all over just trying not to go because it hurt. We (I had a huge part in raising him) fed him lots of fruit, increased water intake, but the most effective thing was we made a game out it. It sounds pretty lame, but we named his poop Fred, and cheered everytime he "let Fred out". We even said "bye Fred" when we flushed. We explained that if he went right away, it wouldn't hurt so much. But the praise when he let Fred out seemed to really work well. We still laugh about it occasionally!

Hi R., I feel your pain girl. My son turned 3 in December and we are just now potty trained. He has had a constipation problem since he was born and we had the same problems being scared to poopy in the potty too. We tried all the prune juice, fiber foods, and everything to help him go. Finally, our doctor prescribed Miralax for him...I was ok with this because their body does not depend on this medicine to go potty. All it does is loosen it up so it's easier for him to go. As soon as we got it regulated and he realized it wasn't painful to go anymore, we were potty trained...just like that.

put cheerios in the toliet and have him aim for them. have him eat bananas/drink grapefruit juice. good luck.

Did you try pop corn, corn and pear juice?

You poor things!

I can feel your pain! My son had problems when he was little. He just turned 20 last month, so be assured, you all are going to survive this!

I have two things to share:
1) I use Natural Calm or Cal Mag from the Peter Gillham Natural Vitality company to help with constipation and pain.
2) I've started to eat chia seeds. Read below and research online for why I would do this!

Further details:

The "Calm" product mentioned by others is probably Natural Calm from Peter Gillham's Natural Vitality company. I use this product - it is a blend of manesium citrate, stevia, and natural fruit flavors (my current container is orange flavored - I prefer the Lemon Raspberry one). I usually take the CalMag product but my chiropractor didn't have it in stock, so I bought the other. You have to adjust how much you take of either product or you might get diarrhea! Milk of Magnesia is another good product but again - you have to experiment with how much to take.

What I've been researching and starting to incorporate into my diet now is chia seeds - Yes - the seeds used on the old time chia pets! Research is revealing that they are an amazing food. I can't remember all the positive reasons to take them, but some of the reasons include high content of fiber, omega 3 oil, and trace minerals. But what I found incredible is that not only did it help relieve my constipation, but my stool was so "clean" I hardly had to wipe afterwards. (Fellow constipated persons know why this is so wonderful)
Please go online and read about it. It's amazing. You can sprinkle the seeds straight on your food (texture is like poppy or sesame seeds) or cook with them or stir the seeds into a drink (if they sit in the liquid for over ten minutes, they absorb liquid and get slippery but not disgusting ). You can eat them straight out of the bag, although they are so small that's a little hard. You and your whole family should take them - they have too many benefits to not take them.

What I like about the chia seeds - they aren't going to give you diarrhea if you don't get the dose exactly right! This is comforting! If you do use the Gillham products or Milk of Mag - experiment on the weekend or during the summer if you've got school age children (I know you have a 3 1/2 yr old, but I also know that lots of Moms read these responses), so if your BMs get too loose, you can be near the bathroom!

I don't sell these seeds and I am not associated with any of the companies that sell them - I just am wowed by the info that I've read and the way my body performed after I started taking them!

A. - at home mom of teenagers.