Constipated 2Yr Old

J.,

hi. you could be describing my grandson, about 8 months ago. he is 4 1/2 now, but ALWAYS suffered with severe constipation, making him "not want" to go #2. then he'd sometimes end up having a #2 accident because he couldn't hold it any longer. and everytime he went he'd scream, run around, ect.

they tried EVERYTHING. every suggestion from thr dr's, friends, remedies, ect. then for some reason my son decided to stop dairy and give him "soy" milk. (vanilla and choc flavored). and LIKE MAGIC things changed. within a few days he started actually wanting to go in the toilet, didn't scream, quit accidents, ect, ect, ect. they couldn't believe it. the dr told them though they had already tried limiting his dairy intake, his system just had a severe reaction to dairy. now he is perfect! he still eats a little icecream, cheese, ect, from time to time. but when it comes to DRINKING milk, he drinks his soy milk! infact, the other weekend i kept them at my place. he asked for milk. took one drink, says mamma, this isn't my soy milk. i said, i know, i don't have any. he sets the cup up and says, well i can't have this cause it will make my "poopy" hurt! LOL LOL LOL i was well, ok!! he cracked me up. but he even knows how it effects him.

you seriously might try it. give it a couple weeks or so. just see if it might help. if it does, no more misery for anyone!! good luck!!

C.

Have you tried pure pear juice and white grape? Gerber makes these and are in the baby isle. I had to start my daughter on Miralax with a full cap then lessen it from there. Have you tried cutting back on his dairy? 2year olds are only supposed to have around 20 oz a day (I think thats close). On a side note, you know he is holding it in, so when he finally goes it might be really runny and that might scare him too. Best of luck to you, we know how bad constipation and irregularity can be!

WE had the SAME problem. We kept telling her that the more she held it in, the more it would hurt. THE TRUTH! We talked about the fact that holding it in would hurt her insides and make her sick - the truth! WE made SURE she got plenty of fiber...blueberries, apples, raspberries, etc. She came from her mother's with the problem. By the time she left she was fine. NOT getting enough fiber nor fluids at mom's. Try cutting back on the dairy to no more than two a day. Switch to acidophilis milk and see if that helps. Sometimes, the hormones in milk will constipate a child. I've heard MORE THAN ONE mom say that once they switched, the problem stopped. Make sure he gets at LEAST half his body weight in ounces of fluid per day.

We had a similar problem with our guy when he was little. We even took him to an pediatric GI specialist who also recommended Miralax though we could never seem to find the right dosage for him. BUT with dietary changes like getting rid of cow's milk (substituting Soy), eating Activia yogurt once a day, and pushing fresh fruits and water, we've solved his problem. Hopefully some of these will work with your little guy. We went on vacation recently and let up on some of our "tricks" and boy did he pay the price :( Hope it helps!

This may sound wierd, but have you thought about going to a Chiropracter? I am going for some issues with my back and feet, but during one of the visits my 2 years olds runny nose/cough came up in conversation. He gave us some supplements (strong vitamins)that are all 100% safe with all natural ingredients. Not only did they knock her cough, but she has never pooped so easy!!!! She too has bad constipation issues - when she was a baby we had to do prune juice in her bottles. Anyhow, it is called Coryza Forte, a Dietary Supplement - an immune system support. My Doctor is in Washington, IN if you are close to that area I would be more than happy to e-mail his info.
(It is slos nice to know that these helped with the runny nose and cough since there are no cold medicines for kids anymore!)
Hope this helps - good luck. :)

My exes son had this same issue. He would have constipation really bad. Tried the enemas, which he hated. But then the pediatrician told him to cut down on his milk intake. Vitamin D milk is the real stuff. So too much of it may have been the cause of the constipation. It worked...so maybe you could give him one glass of milk a day and give juice the rest.

Well i wouldnt wait around i would take him to another doctor, he could have something wrong inside,to why he cant go to the bathroom....Im a grown woman but i kept on gettin cramps and the runs all the time so i went to the doctor ans he told me to have a colonscope done i did and found out i had colitis, so i would take him somewhere else he might need testing done..Good luck!

Does he have plenty of liquids - juice??? Give him apple
juice/grape juice/orange juice. Has his dr. Done x-rays
or special tests on him???

i feel so bad for your little one. i remember those days with my son and am so glad they are finally gone. i know this may sound kinda gross, and you may think "what the h*ll??", but this worked for him, so hopefully it'll work for you as well. a friend of mine with through the same thing with her son, and she told me about this and i tried it with my son after 4 mo. worth of dr. appts. she went to an adult store and bought some "anal ease" and applied a small amount to her sons' bottom and waited 15min for it to start working and set her son on the potty and told him his magic medicine was working now and it wouldn't hurt him to go poopy. my son was still in pullups at the time, so i told him when he felt the magic medicine working and his hiney didn't hurt that he knew it was ok to go.and low & behold he did! it was cute but sad at the same time, he came waddling into my room like a little penguin and said he had a poopy present for me.i told him when his tummy or bottom was hurting that was his bodys' way of telling him to go potty. it only took 2 more times of the cream and he was going on his own, after about a week he started using the toilet. i told him there were special fairies in the toilet that wanted his poopy and it would make them really sad if he kept using his pullup & not sharing. hope it helps. like i said it's far from conventional, but when all the conventional stuff doens't work that's all that's left.

Good morning! I feel like you have stolen my situation to the tee. EXCEPT my grandson (I have custody of) is 34 mos old, yes stay on the miralax, he will get the handle on what he is suppose to do. The miralax will eventually make him more comfortable, but it takes at least 6 mos or so. My grandson still goes a couple of days without going but he knows now, that he has to go to make him feel better. He is not on the miralax anymore. Is your son a little guy, my grandson is. The doctor has also tried Senna exrays, blood work, exams, and the only left before he finally started on his own was a surgical procedure to make sure that there was not a blockage. Whew I am glad we did not have to go to Riley. Hang in there!

If you know he has to go. . .I'm like everyone else that responded - you've got to figure out how to make him feel good about going "poop potty". You may want to check some advice out with the "grandmas" you know. They are truly the richest resource you have available - and some of them have a lot of common sense behind them! Now if he has "issues" then, you need to figure something else out. Medicine that young just can not be good for the body - I don't care what doctors say. I was thinking that perhaps some yogurt will give his body some "good bateria" to work with. And if you are really interested in something natural, there is a product called Original Limu. I swear by it. It helps keep me regular and I know it works on my 8 month old son. I put it in his cereal every morning and whola, afterwards it has a nice soft bowel movement. If you want more info about Limu, drop me a line at ____@____.com Luck!

Pears are a natural laxative, the riper they are the better they work.. Holding the 'urge' will also cause constipation.
Lots of water is also a great remedy. Apples can consipate and never bananas and apples together..

Best of luck!

If he has been checked by the pediatrician, you just need to be more firm with him. If he says his butt hurts, tell him there is nothing wrong with it and you know it does not hurt, then make him sit on the potty for 10-15 minutes. He can read books while he sits there. He will soon start to go while he is sitting there.

Our son did the same thing at about that age. He just turned 3. We still have issues with him pooping. He lays on his stomach and kicks his legs (it looks like he is in pain) but he does this and we have to pick him up and hold him or chase him around the house until he will poop. It is exhausting. We've taken him to the pediatrician and 2 GI specialist. He also had blood work to rule out all kinds of things. Everything comes back negative. He takes miralax and it doesn't change anything. His poops have never been hard so I don't understand why he says it hurts and so I finally have come to the conclusion that it is psychological and we are just trying to ignore it and encouraging him to poop. I would love to know if you get any different advice. Good luck - I know how exhausting it is!

our son had the same issues....our pediatrician told us to go to our local pharmacy and pick up some Miralax...It is a powder that dissolves in juice/water...no taste to it at all.
We started out giving him a half dose then by day two he was on a full dose....by day three that did the trick.
Check with your local pharmacist about the dosage for your son.
We now keep it on hand and have to use it occassionally, but wow does that stuff work great!!
You feel soooo bad for your kids...but this seemed to do the trick for us.

GOOD LUCK!!

My daugther never had constipation issues, but she would hold her poop in when we went on trips. She would do it until her tummy was cramping and she absolutely couldn't hold it any more. This happened twice. Her grandma recommended the book "Everyone Poops" by by Taro Gomi and Amanda Mayer Stinchecum. We read that with her several times after we returned home. I think it really helped relieve her fear about going in the potty. I'm happy to say she is fully potty trained with no more poop problems.

My 11 year old had this problem when he was 2 or 3 and the Miralax will work. Even if he is on it awhile (months or I think my son took it for a year) it is safe. After awhile the colon will shrink, the memory will fade for the child so the psychological part goes away, and it will be a distant memory for all of you. Good luck in the meantime!

Sounds like way too long to allow your son to suffer like that while giving him a laxative every day. I'd get a second opinion.

hi my name is C. i am a little older than you are butthat ok i when thur that with my child. put him on colase stool softer for about 3 months and that should help him out.

Hi, I am in school to be a massage therapist. We have learned several home remedies, and for constipation, you can get some castor oil, rub it on his belly, put a thin blanket (such as a receiving blanket) over his belly and either use a heating pad for 20 min (not too hot) or try using a very warm water bottle and put that between him and you while you are holding him. The reason for the blanket, is because castor oil can become very messy and sticky at times. after 20 minutes, you can take it off, and he should have a BM within a couple hours!! I tried this with a baby i watch pt, and it deff works!!!!
Good luck!
PS. you dont have to wash off the castor oil. It will soak in.. its better for him.

My grandaughter had the same problem at that age. Her doctor recommended orange juice and a tablespoon of mineral oil a day. It took a while, but soon she started going and is all right now.

My daughter has always had this problem. We went about 3 weeks before without a bowel movement and highly expected her to be admitted to the hospital. I finally convinced my doctor to send us to a pediatric gastroenterologist. He had us give her 5 doses of Miralax a day for two days to completely clean her out. Then we went to 1 to 2 doses a day of Miralax until she was going regularly. I know this is probably not what you want to hear, but after a year and a half, she still takes it in order to go regularly. Their is a condition called mega colon. While they are constipated, their colon stretches and they need quite a while for the colon to shrink back and for the sphinter muscles to start working correctly again. You might try to get a referral for the specialist to be watching and following you on this wonderful journey.

We went through the same thing as well. We did the milk of magnessia (sp?) we did it twice a day 1 teaspoon and I had to find the right balance b/c it gave my son diarriah at first but at least he was going! Then after about a year~yes a year I started making him milkshakes from Yoplait's yogurt Yo-Plus But I swear when I gave him that every morning it worked great. I would put it in his sippy cup with water and shake it up and he would drink it down~ I had to use vanilla so that it didn't have any chunks in it so that it was easy to drink. But it did wonders. I would highly suggest this. Good luck I thought my child would never poop. Also, it took us a while to get him potty trained because of this. Best of luck please write back if you have any questions I feel like I was through it all!!

Since his poop has no substance by now, yet he still says it hurts, I bet he is having cramping. He may originally had pain because of a too large/hard poop which started the vicious cycle, but adding laxatives on a regular basis could be complicating the problem as opposed to helping it. Or, maybe he has something more serious like Irritable Bowel Syndrome. If you have ever had butt cramps then you know how painful pushing can be - it feels like your intestine has a Charley Horse and something is getting ready to burst.

Personally, I think the Dr has provided poor advice by encouraging regular use of a laxative for such a young child. Please get a second opinion and rule out all other factors that may be causing the butt pain.

J.,
Has his pediatrician examined him?? He could have a small hemorrhoid or stricture that hurts when his poop comes in contact with it. Ask if he's too young to see a gastroenterologist. I would definately look into it more.
Hope this helps!
R.

As a nurse who raised a child with bowel problems i would probably want my child evaluated by a pediatric gi doctor perhaps he has a small anus or some other physical problem that cause him pain when he stools. If he has had large hard stools in the past he remembers the pain. I would certainly not want a 2 yr old to be addicted to laxatives.jlh

My son is the same age as yours and we have been dealing with constipation issues since we took his bottle away at 18 months. He likes to lay around on his belly (on tables, chairs, anywhere we are). His pediatrician also prescribed us miralax which we give him every 2-3 days. It has been very frustrating, but the best thing we did was to make him sit on the potty so that he could not hold it in any longer. This was very hard at first, because he did not want to do it. We had bought a potty chair that you could take the seat off of and put on the regular toilet. That way he could not climb off of. He would sit on there for probably 40 minutes and then eventually would go. We read books and I started acting like I was pushing with him. We have done this now every day for 2 months. Most of the time he goes and much quicker, within 10 minutes. He relapses sometimes and does not want to sit and we get back to square one and have to make him sit there. Also, we make sure to give him a gerbers apple prune juice everyday and green veggies with lunch and dinner. Hope this helps, I know it's torture not knowing how to help him.

I swear by Mineral Oil. My daughter had terrible constipation starting at about 6 months old. On the advice of our doctor, I put a teaspoon of Mineral Oil in with her bottle every night. I worked up to almost a tablespoon as she got older and I put it in her sippy cup with milk. I call it MAGIC OIL now. I had to continue to give her that every single night for over 1 year before I could start weaning her off. It worked perfectly! Hope this helps- good luck! One more thing- it ruins bottles/nipples/sippy cups after a while due to how greasy it is so that was the only downfall.

We had a similar situation with our daughter. It took a while of working with the pediatrician and trial and error on some different things, but the final thing that worked was a combination of Miralax and mineral oil. I mixed (shook vigorously) a tablespoon of mineral oil with a couple of ounces of orange juice each morning. And gave her the Miralax with water or juice a bit later. That helped get her going. Then the Doc said to keep her on that routine for the same number of months that she had been constipated. After that, we started weaning her off and she's been great ever since.

Have them drink lots of water and walking or moving. Also I would try taking him to a chiropracter, you will be amazed and wished you would of tried it first.
jo

Maybe you could sit down and read the book called "Everyone Poops" by Taro Gomi. He just might be afraid to do it. Maybe seeing that animals and people do it might ease his fears about it.

http://www.amazon.com/Everyone-Poops-My-Body-Science/dp/0...

Good luck.

I had the same problem with one of my sons. A tablespoon of mineral oil once a day was a tremendous help. You have to regualte how much you give until you find out how much it really takes to do the trick. There may be some staining in his underwear. I also messaged my sons stomach daily, we called it our"spa time" this helped to stimulate his bowel. When your son goes to the bathroon kneel with him for support. A constant supply of fruits and vegetables helped too. This process will take time but it works.

With my first daughter, I breast fed her until she was 5 1/2 months old then switched to formula. I went with whatever formula was cheap and that I had a coupon for. Her pediatrician at that time said it was because of switching formulas, but I didn't find that to be true at all. She still got constipated after several months.
Finally at 1 yr. of age, he referred her to a specialist at Children's in Dayton. They did x-rays to see if there was any nerve damage, as this is a cause for constipation. In her case they didn't find anything wrong.
But I would suggest to go to a pediatric specialist, if only to rule out the possibility of nerve damage. It won't hurt anything!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
My daughter to this day doesn't always have a bowel movement everyday, sometimes she skips one or two days but no more than that.

We went through a similar situation with our little guy. My doc said that we could use fiber supplements, increase fruits/veggies, the suppositories if I felt the need, and water water water! Since we altered the eating and pushed more water, he hasn't had to take anything else. At most he will go 1 day without a bowel movement. Also, when you are playing together, pump his legs. Make a game out of it. It will help to move things along and you will get some quality play time in. Let us know how it goes. Good luck,Shannon

My oldest son has always had aproblem with constipation. I don't like to give meds unless ABSOLUTELY necessary, so all I can say is water, water, water! It sounds like you think it might be a fear thing, if so, I don't know WHAT to say. To this day, my oldest (10) has problems having a bm, and will even tell me 'mom, I don't think I've been drinking enough water' Drinking plenty of water is a hard habit to get into, but very important, especially if constipation is an issue, but well worth it.

rule of thumb: People need 1/2 of their body weight in ounces of water per day, if you weigh 100 pounds, you need 50 ounces of water a day.

I have a daughter who just turned 4 and she had similar problems going back to infancy. We used to put prune juice in with her formula once a day and then as she got older we started giving her (at the pediatrician's recommendation) cherry flavored Milk of Magnesia - which we called "pink milk" every day. She was on the M.O.M. for months and months and months and it finally did regulate her system. It's probably been at least a year now since she's taken anything and she's as regular as can be.

Good luck!

My daughter went through it so bad that her doctor told me to give her a tsp of milkamag (I don't know how to spell that) anyways I mixed it with her drink once a day and that was the only relief she got. My neice on the other hand had to have some kind of rectal surgery when she was a baby because something didn't line up. He maight be having pain still because he may have had some irritations from the strains and stretching that even soft stool or loose may irritate it. Think of all the acids we have in our wastes and if you have ever been sore in that area (like having the flu) you know how much that can burn. I would ask the doctor if milkamag is an option for him and if there is a suppository that may lubricate the area to allow healing. Perhaps even vasaline may east the pain. It is so hard to see kids go through this and as a parent we want to help and comfort our children. I wish you the best with this. God bless

We battle this (though not to this extent) with my daughter. One thing our pediatrician had us do was to give her mineral oil. I'm not sure if that is something you have tried or want to try, but it seemed to help some. I would talk to your doctor about the amount, etc.
I understand how frustrating it can be. We have begged, bribed, and argued with her about this. She will say she doesn't have to, but we know she does. It eventually got better! Hang in there!

Hi, this sounds so familar. Our little guy is only 15mths but he would go a week without having a BM and we tried the prunes, juice ect. We were not comfortable with the miralax sugestion by our PED. And asked our Cihropractor. (yes I know that sounds odd but she helped.) We our seeing a natruopath dr. and has been diagnosed with having several different food allergies. Wheat, dairy, eggs, peanut, tree nut just to name a few. Anyway, we took him off all those things making sure to supplement for the things lost. Put him on some "good flora" which you can get at any health food store in the refridgerated section. And he has been "going" every day for the past month. Just a suggestion. Blessings to you and yours. T.

We have the same problem with both our boys. The doctor told us with the youngest that Miralax it can be given up to every 2 hours and give them as much as they need to have a bowl movement ever day or so…We never had to give it more than 2 times in one day… Have you tried giving him half of his dose twice a day rather than all at once or increase his dose? Good luck.

Other moms have already replied with this, but I feel it is SUPER important to say it one more time --> DIET is a huge culprit, and COW'S MILK PRODUCTS are some of the *most common* offenders in our culture. Here is a wonderful chart from a pediatrician's website on how food sensitivities or allergies can affect the body, and you'll see that constipation is one of the symptoms (and one that is often overlooked - food allergies are frequently misdiagnosed!):
http://www.askdrsears.com/html/4/t041800.asp#T041803

You don't need a pediatrician or an expensive, painful blood test by a specialist, or ridiculous amounts of laxative or mineral oil or other chemicals to try this simple test and see if it helps your toddler: remove all cow's milk products for a period of 3 weeks, and don't substitute with soy - instead use rice milk or oat milk for the 3 week period. That means no cow milk, no yogurt, no cheese, no sour cream, no ice cream, no butter, and reading labels for ingredients like whey, casein, whole milk, condensed milk, lactase, etc. (here's a helpful cheat sheet http://www.kellymom.com/store/freehandouts/hidden-dairy01... ).

Within 3 weeks, if you're really sticking to a dairy-free (no cow's milk products) diet during that whole time, you should be able to tell whether your toddler's constipation is no longer happening, or whether it's still a problem.

If he is still constipated after 3 weeks, you can probably feel confident about cow's milk not being the cause. Perhaps it is something else he's eating/drinking -- you can keep a food diary of what he eats to see if you can make any connections between what he eats and when he is constipated. If that doesn't give you any direction, then I'd probably want to have my kid see a GI specialist just to get checked out and make sure it's not something more serious.

BUT, if he's no longer constipated after 3 weeks of a dairy-free diet, you can pretty much assume that cow's milk is the problem. Then you'd want to talk to your ped and a registered dietician (RD) to learn how to make more permanent dairy-free lifestyle/diet changes while maintaining optimal nutrition.

I just wanted to reply and encourage you to really consider your son's diet (probably something he eats daily or very frequently because he's been chronically constipated for the last 6 mos) because it's really something simple, free, and safe to change that could really solve the root cause of his constipation. The other stuff (mirilax, mineral oil, excessive fruit juices) is just a band-aid to treat the symptom of constipation, but won't really solve anything.

In the end, it might not be his diet -- but you cannot *really know that* until you actually test by removing something he's eating regularly to see whether his constipation goes away. Does that make sense? Then you can have a much more confident idea about whether his diet is, or isn't, the cause of his constipation.

Best of luck to you and your son - I *know* first hand that it's not comfortable or fun for either of you to be dealing with this... but hang in there and keep searching, and I'm sure you'll figure it out!

J.,

I had the same thing happen to me but my son had this from the time he was born until he was 2 1/2yrs old. I did everything you did. His doctor wanted to put him on a laxitive and I wasn't thrilled about the idea. The only thing that works to this day is Juicy Juice I give him a glass of it in the morning and if he doesn't go I will give him another glass of it. If it works it should work within about an hour of him drinking it. I am not sure what is in the Juicy Juice but it makes him go within the hour of him drinking it. I have to give him a glass of it every other day so that he stays regular and doesn't get constipated. Hope this helps.