3 Year Old Constipation - Hinesburg,VT

constipation is a symptom of dehydration. Is he getting plenty of liquids? Water is the absolute best and 100% juice will help loosen stools also. If her pediatrician isn't listening and trying to find the reason for this problem (rather then treating the sympton which is the constipation) I say it is time to switch physicians. 2 years in incrediable- no child should have to be daily on something like miralax- it is crazy that she would even put up with this for so long. At the very least the pediatrician should be trying differant treatment options while looking for the cause!
No real help for stopping this but hope it helps anyway :)

You may want your sister to look at her sons diet, because it could be what he's eating? My son, had constipation issues when he was a year old, and then sporadically here and there. He is almost 3 and we have found that fiber really keeps him on track, we do limit bananas, which he loves, but can bind him up. I know dairy/cheese can be very binding for young children too- my son actually is allergic to milk, so he doesn't eat any dairy. Another tip we were given is plenty of fluids, particularly water. A nutritionist may be helpful too, and are often covered by insurance with a referral from your dr. especially if your nephew has been battling this back and forth issue for awhile. Just my motherly advice.

Have you tried a little Karo Syrup? I give it to my 9 month old as he suffers constipation as well. You onlyo need a small amount.

Hi N.,
First make sure he's drinking plenty of water to keep him hydrated. Secondly, fish oils are extremely important, for babies and toddlers especially, and always help in keeping them regular. Nordic Naturals sells a great fish oil that comes in little pellets that taste like bubble gum! They are important for so many things, but definitely help with regularity and best of all they're completely natural.
Hope this helps,
E.

Probiotic, flax seed oil and prune juice worked for my daughter. It took a bit of time to figure out the right amount but it was worth it.

get a ssecond opinion!! This is a long time for this issue to be going on!
A friend of mine has a son with this issue - I understand that the bowel can get distended and the child loses the ability to feel when the have to go - I think my friend's son saw a specialist for a while to help get things back into a good place.

Some of the other suggestions have been good too - check for food sensitivities, add in prune or pear juice, add in probiotics (the good bacteria found in yogurt - can be purchased separately at a helath food store).

Good Luck!
E.

My 50 pound daughter had the same problem. What worked for her was 1 TEASPOON (not the full cap which is about 2 tablespoons if I remember correctly) daily in her first drink of the day. When she got older we gave her Milk Of Magnesia (cherry flavored MOM - much cheaper and she liked the flavor) but again, a MUCH smaller dose than recommended. Good luck, you don't want your kids to be uncomfortable, so try the much lower dose.

I would suggest giving him a magnesium supplement, we have our son on CALM for kids, it is a powder that you mix with a small amount of water, it tastes like orange. Then we mix it with his juice, and you can't even tell. Definitely a more natural solution than Miralax. Works like a charm (in fact we have to be careful about it not getting too loose), although he is on it for other reasons. My husband and I have tried the adult version for other benefits as well, and we can attest-it is effective! Good luck, and here are 2 links. Oh, also you can find the adult version (CALM) any literally any health food store, but for some reason I couldn't find the kid version anywhere, so I ordered it online. It is pretty cheap, like 15 bucks for a huge container and you only use 3/4 teaspoon a day so it lasts quite some time.

http://www.calmnatural.com/constipation-relief
http://www.calmnatural.com/kidscalm

2 of my 4 children had problems with constipation for quite a while around that same age. I did end up using Miralax but recommend you play with the dosage....give less than is recommended every day or give it every other day. This should help with the diarrhea (we had the same problem) you can also try Prune juice - although not many 3 year olds are gonna love that. Watch the banana consumption and any other binding foods...all in moderation. It last for almost a year I think for both of them and made potty training a bit challenging but to my suprise they evetually out grew it by about 4 1/2 and are potty trained and have regular bowel movements without difficulty. Good luck!

My son is also constipated often. I am currently living in Japan, so miralax isn't an option here. The pediatrician here has given our son enemas about 5 or 6 times now. This was over about 4 months. He also gave him some drops to add to his favorite drink. At first it seemed to work, but now our son is like your sister's son. He had diarrhea so I stopped giving him the medicine. I have tried to get him to eat high fiber foods, which was quite the struggle since he didn't want to eat any veggies or fruit for a while. Sweet potatoes are a great source. Try to stay clear of bananas and cooked carrots because they can cause constipation. Try to hide high fiber foods in his favorite foods. Vegetable soups are great for fiber. I hope this helps some how. Good luck. I feel your pain.

My sons (4&6) have had issues with constipation on and off but they got worse around 3 when they became potty trained. They started having a small glass of prune juice at breakfast every day (4-5 oz) and everything is fine. The pediatrician had them on Miralax at around 3 but I feel more comfortable with something natural.

Hi there, I went through the same problem with my daughter. The daily miralax does work and she did have the diarrhea issue but when I kept her on it the diarrhea eventually went away. She now goes almost daily and is doing so much better. At this point I can also forget a day and not have her constipated anymore. It is hard to stick though the messy days but the end result has been worth it. She has bladder issues because her constipation got so bad and now is on more medicine for that as well. Good luck.

Hi N.,

He needs to be on a fiber enriched diet not the chemical miralax. Miralax can help temporarily but it will back fire and cause other issues later.

Slippery Elm bark will balance his bowels. It will fix diarrhea, constipation and heal the internal tissue of the lining of the digestive tract so it will be healthy. It is safe for infants and is simply food. My Dad is on a feeding tube diet and bedridden and is completely normal in that area. The nurses at the nursing home often comment that "his poop doesn't stink." He's comfortable and that's all that matters.

This will work. You can get it from almost any health store. Seeing as it is simply food, the grade is not as important as some supplements. If you can't find any liquid, buy capsules so you can open them and put them in some food.

Hope I helped!

M.

PS It will also help any reflux issues as well.

We have issues like that with our 3 year old sometimes too. Pedi suggested Miralax, but after a week or so I just didn't like giving it to him so we stopped. I'm not a big drug/chemical user, even if it is OTC.

Went back to the pedi and said I wanted an alternative. They suggested using prune juice and/or pear juice. As much as you can get them to drink for a day or two. There is a chemical in the juice that pulls liquid into their bowels. That makes them poop better. The pear worked better for us at first and then the prune has really helped to maintain him. But he still gets bouts of constipation. I know, I know, what 3 year old drinks prune juice? Ours does, and he loves it! But we can't call it prune for some reason... we have to call it green juice! :-)

BUT if he is so backed up that the pedi can feel chronic constipation in his gut by a superficial exam, you may want to consider seeing a specialist. My understanding is that if it backs up for too long, it gets super hard and it doesn't matter what you do, it just won't competely clean out. It can take months of specialized "clean out" therapy and in some cases more surgical approaches. The author of Toddler 411 talks about his in her book...

My Pedia said to use Miralax in there milk or apple sauce or juice.
Make sure they drink all of it.

It has done wonders for my little girl.

Trust me, She has the largest Hardest poops for a 3 yr old Ive ever seen..... We are talking 12 inche poops...... It scared me so bad I took her to the er.

Now we have happy healthy Poo Poo's!

Up the fiber -- we have had good results with Fiber One products. We only use Fiber One bread and we love their granola bars too. Also, my doctor said "p" foods are great for constipation -- peaches, peas, prunes/plums. My son loves the sunsweet dried plums and we do lots of peaches.

As for the Miralax, it does work but watch the dosage. It sounds like maybe she is giving too much at once. We give a very small dose (less than half the recommended dose) and gave it every day at first. Once he was doing better we switched to every other day at the same small dose.

And do watch his diet. Is he getting too much processed food? That can cause problems. Does it seem worse after certain foods? Keep a food and bathroom diary and try to track any patterns. Then maybe try the elimination diet. Elimination diets can be tricky because ingredients can be hidden that you don't realize they are still getting when you thought you eliminated them. Starting with a food diary may help you better know what to try eliminating.

Oh and milk products are very constipating. Is he getting too much milk, yogurt and cheese? That is a battle with us because my kids LOVE dairy. Some yogurts though are good for constipation -- my GI doctor (I have irritable bowel myself) recommended Chobani yogurt and it has worked wonders for me. She says it has the best mix of good bacterias and all that for digestion of anything out there.

Good luck!

In addition to some of the other suggestions you've received, our pediatrician suggested having our daughter sit on the potty for 10-15 minutes after meals to help train her body when to eliminate. We would read stories while she was sitting. We encourage her to listen to her body and go to the bathroom when she needs to because holding it in only makes it worse.
Good luck,
J.

What is his diet like?
If he is eating foods that are binding... this can make the poop hardened/constipated.

GET a 2nd opinion.

Definite food sensitivies! Most Peds have no idea how to treat this unfortunately. It is all about the diet. The most common culprits are wheat/gluten, dairy, soy and corn. Do an elimination diet(take out these foods for a couple of weeks, then add slowly back in, note a differance) and keep a food log to note which foods could be the culprit. Any over the counter medicine is just putting a bandaid on the underlying problem. He can get tested for food sensitiveties, but the easier thing to do is
elimination diet. Good luck!

Hi!
I understand how your sister feels. My son has been constipated since he was newborn! It hurts to watch him have bm's sometimes, he bears down with all his might and shakes with the effort. Poor little guy!
We started giving him prune juice (I mix it with water) at an early age, as well as baby food pureed prunes. It worked really well, and is a natural alternative. We also make sure he eats plenty of other fruits and veggies (although I think bananas can constipate). Keep pasta and rice to a minimum, they are binding.
Good luck!!!

I have IBS-C (irritable bowel syndrome constipation) and I HATE taking laxatives or fiber additives because they don't work. I have found the thing that does work and the 3 year old will probably like it and want more of it. Fiber One Chewy Bars! They are like granola bars, but are very high in fiber. The oats and chocolate is AWESOME! We got a free sample of these bars and they are delicious. They have many different flavors and they all taste great. Oh! And the best thing - they produce results! I don't want to get too graphic, but I usually have a BM the same day (this is a very big deal for me because it's usually 1 a week if I don't eat them!). My husband has started referring to them as "shart" bars because they work so well.

Good luck!

Your sister has discovered that most doctors know very little about nutritional balances, and start throwing miralax at people, with limited results. Two years is WAY too long for this to have gone on. The poor child!

The other posts have shown how common it is to advising about food "allergies" and sensitivities. There is a real tendency in this country to start eliminating things from our diets, things that previous generations have eaten easily and commonly - that understandable given that our foods are more processed and more contaminated, shipped from who knows where, and even fresh foods aren't so fresh because they were picked weeks ago and are nutrient deficient.

The Karo syrup and molasses are old remedies, but they contain so much sugar - given that corn syrup is in so many of our foods now and we have a nationwide obesity epidemic, I wouldn't use them. They are short term fixes anyway and aren't addressing the problem.

The problem is, your nephew (and most of us) does not have the necessary ingredients in his diet. The AMA said in 2002 that none of us do! We need to supplement. Period.

Now, 3/4 of the population already supplements, but 3/4 of us aren't healthy, right? We have a health care crisis and a ridiculous incidence of disease, including adult diseases present in children (diabetes, cancer, high cholesterol, you name it). When we were kids, everyone ate a peanut butter sandwich on white bread with a carton of milk. Now we have peanut free classrooms, gluten free diets, and lactose intolerance at epic rates. So, the food is different now - it's nutrient deficient!

Everyone I know who has gotten rid of these problems, without chewy bars here and elimination diets there, and without spending a fortune trying to play "kitchen chemist" at the vitamin or drug aisle, has used a simple BALANCED nutritional supplement from Reliv (www.reliv.com). It's a huge website but go to "the products/essential nutrition/children" and also check out "the foundation" to see what they are doing for children world wide and have been for many years. The products are researched and formulated by the same scientist who was on the team who developed Pro-So-Bee formula 30 years ago. Reliv's Now for Kids contains all the nutrients a kid needs and will help him digest the rest of his food. It comes in vanilla and chocolate and can be mixed in water, milk, juice (the vanilla anyway), yogurt, or anything else, and it's delicious. I have many friends whose kids had constipation, colds, ear infections, asthma, eczema, etc., and now have healthy happy kids. My family is older but we've had phenomenal results with the adult products. I would be happy to talk more with you and give you more info. The company gives incredible support and connects you to as many other parents as you want/need - adults get the same support for their issues. It's phenomenal.

There is hope for your little nephew and this is much faster and more effective than endless medical opinions, suppositories, the constipation/diarrhea seesaw, and the total misery for both your sister and her son. Feel free to email me privately and I will help you.

It has to be his diet. He needs more fiber, but the kind in food, that he would enjoy eating. Try pears, peaches, plums. Also, drinking water helps withconstipation. Try letting him pick out his own waterbottle for the water to help encourage him to drink more. Foods to avoid, any overprocessed food, like mac and cheese white flour. Go back to basics which have lots of fiber. whole grain breads.....good luck. the doctor sounds awful..what a cycle for the poor child to be in. Best S.

Get a second opinion or ask to see a pediatric gastroenterologist. We did that two years ago when our son was having lots of accidents. We found out that the bowel can get distended and then it can no longer "feel" the need for elimination and because of that often does not completely empty. It can go back to a normal size but it can take up to a year and much patience on both the parents and child's part. We used Miralax, milk of magnesium and a laxative to start with (all prescribed by the gastroenterologist) plus regularly scheduled bathroom time. Then very gradually (over six months) we reduced the amounts and started skipping days. He also drank LOTS of water. Now we only use some Miralax on an as needed basis. He is still a regularly irregular kid and often has to rush to the bathroom to get there on time but things are much better and it was worth the effort. Good Luck

This same question was posted on mamapedia last month. I believe you can go on and view the answers that were given. She got some good ones.
Good Luck!
S.

Pedialax makes Gummy Bears that are fiber for constipation. They are WONDERFUL!!!! Three year old started eating them and we upped the water she drank and 6 months worth of problems gone within a week - and we had tried everything.......