Constipation - Mesa,AZ

My kids don't eat candy. I have taught them that their treats are the individually wrapped prunes that come in the cannister. Since they are wrapped like candy . . . it still fools them. I have a 9 year and a 3 year and they each get one every day! No problems with either them.

My 2 year old daughter also has challenges in this area. Her pediatrician suggested giving her Kerns Apricot Nectar. Not always...but like 90% of the time...one can of that stuff and look out!!! :) And than she is regular for a couple of days. The "tools" I use are Pear Juice ONLY!!! And Apricot Nectar and if it gets really bad...1/2 tsp of Miralax. (all tools were given by her pediatrician). Hope this helps....good luck.

Hi D.,

My daughter has had a tougher time with her BMs than her older brother did. If she didn't go #2 by the afternoon of the second day, I knew there was going to be a problem. Seeing them cry when they have to poop is the saddest thing!! I read somewhere about trying brown sugar in their water/juice. Worked every time for my daughter within 15 minutes. Good luck!

Probiotics. Most folks on a modern diet don't have healthy gut bacteria. Esp. if she's ever been on antibiotics. Or if you have while breastfeeding. Supplements are OK. Real food ones are best. They are also exceptionally easy to make or get:
real, unpasteurized milk
yogurt (very few store bought brands will be high quality with no sugar and tons of live bacterial)
kefir
sauerkraut (again, not store bought vinegar soaked. Bubbies brand or a brand that only has cabbage, water and salt)
kimchi

Hi D.,

I am so sorry to hear about your daughter. I have heard about this from many parents and unfortunately with many children as they get older and start their potty training it becomes more of a problem as they are afraid to "let go" and do not poo on purpose.

I have done extensive research on a product that my company, Isxperia sells calls Aloe Red. Aloe was bought out originally to help with the digestion tract but throughout the year's we have found that it works really well with all ages of people, babies, young and old. There are many benefits with this product, but most importantly it makes people go. Not in a harsh way at all, just begins to work on the digestive tract to move, push through and become or stay pink and elastic.

Quick story - my son who was 1 at the time received salmonela poisoining. I questioned what to do and how to take care of it. At the last minute, I called and asked about our Aloe. The response was "S. it is all food, there is nothing in there they he cannot or does not already eat". Within 3 days I pushed the salmonela poison out and he has been pooping regular since then. He is now 2.5.

Please call or email me to talk about this more. You can do your own research at www.isxperia.com/S. under nutritionals - Aloe Red. Feel free to talk to your doctor about it but we have not had a doctor say no yet and people of all ages are responding incredibly and becoming regular.

It truly feels good to be able to offer this to you. Good luck!
S. ###-###-####

Hi D.,
My daughter had the same problem and was put on Miralax. It was great, and in time (a long time) she didn't need it anymore. Hope you try it and it works wonderfully!

The bm issues with my son are endless so I feel your pain. We finally realized that he is not drinking nearly enough water. We live in a really dry area and he will be outside playing and not drink all day. We got him his own water bottle that he carries around with him and continually fill it up. He drinks about three water bottles a day. This has worked wonders! He has a much easier time with his bms. I wish I would have thought of this sooner. Poor guy. I hope this works!

My daughter is also 2 and has that problem if she eats too many startches with not enough fruits. I have found that as long as she eats a lot of fruit during the day, drinks plenty of water and/or juice, she does a lot better. We also give her a probiotic every day. There is prune juice, or other laxative type juices that you can mix half with water - we even found a juice recently that is specifically for constipation. Just check the juices and stay away from High Fructose Corn Syrup. My daughter also eats like, a bowl of blueberries everyday which helps. Keep with fruits and raisins, keep her away from dairy (esp. cheese), and starchy foods for a few days.
If her stomach is really hurting, something that helps as well is Gripe Water. It's just ginger and fennel, and a wonderful thing. I like Wellements Gripe Water for Colic, since it's organic and also has chamomile in it. You can pick it up at Mt. Hope.

Hope it gets better for you soon! :D

Hi D.,

This is really common for kids her age. They don't always eat what they should and they don't always go when they should because they are playing, etc.
My son, my brothers son, so many people I know have gone through this with their toddlers.

I was always told to use Miralax by my pediatrician. Just a teaspoon once a day, if it's really really bad, twice a day but once should be enough.

Also, every person, adult or child, should eat 20 grapes a day. My pediatrician said that was the latest "news" out there.

Ask your doctor.

Good luck.

My son had issue, only went #2 1-2 times a week. They would be so painful he would cry. Pediatrician recommended Milk of Magnesia. Started a regular does of milk of magnesia, 1/4 teaspoon daily until he was regular (took daily for about 6 weeks). Now we just give to him as needed. Good Luck!

Hi D.,
Your poor little one! Constipation can happen to anyone once in awhile, however, if it is recurring then you have to address diet! Most American's suffer from some kind of bowel dysfunction! What can you do? change your diet! Lot's of water, lot's of fresh, raw, vine ripened fruits and vegetables and NO processed foods!
Water is the key to elimination! Remember being a kid and mixing flour and water together and making a paste? That's what happens in your colon with little water and processed foods! roughage cleans the intestinal walls!

I have a bowel training article from a RN AND we have Dr. William Sears, LEAN kids program, and Dr. David Katz Nutrition Detectives program coming up soon to educate parents and children!
Let me know if you'd like more info.
S. Fritz
Health Educator

My daughter who is now two had that problem last year..our solution was dietary changes warm apple juice "not from concentrate" Tree top has a brand but read the label carefully and in the refrigerated section "Simply Apple" back up on the milk for a while too...or go to "Meyersburg goats milk" Also...my daughter also like the Kellogs Fiber Plus Antioxidants chewy snack bar.

My daughter has hard stool so, both my girls eat lots of Blueberries, grapes, blackberry's, and rasins and she now goes every day and it's softer due to family history it will always be a little hard but now easier to get out and going everyday.

My daughter had this problem till she was about 2 1/2. She would actually hold it in with great physical strength. LOL. Once, we gave her a bottle of prune juice with flax seed oil and put in a suppository and she held it for over an hour!!

One thing that worked great for us was super juicy fruit - like watermelon or cantalope. It has water & fiber!! We gave her as much as she wanted to eat and that really got things moving. Other things that worked for us were....

1. Warm water with a little prune juice and a couple tsp of flax seed oil.
2. Glycerin suppository (in an emergency)
3. Warm water squeeze bottle with a small rounded tip. We used this like an enema and it loosened things up a bit. She did NOT like this but it worked.

Good luck!

M.

Hello, my daughter has had constipation since she was a baby and she is 6 years old now. It has been a battle and the doctors would tell me give her fiber, lots of water, etc. My daughter is naturally super healthy and eats lots of fiber, veggies and fruit and she still has problems. Our doctor perscribed Miralax and now it is over the counter. She took that for 2 years and it helped her go to the bathroom everyday, but she had a lot of stomach aches. So through talking with friends who delt with the same issue, I tried Aloe Vera juice and it has been miraculous! We buy it at Sprouts and it is about $6-8 per container and lasts for months. We give her 3 tsps. twice per day. She drinks it with breakfast and dinner. It is natural, so we feel better about putting this in her body also. Different things work for different bodies. You may want to start with a smaller amount and gage as you monitor her bowel movements.
Good luck and let me know how it goes! It is hard to watch our little ones in pain!
K.

My mom is a pediatric nurse and she always recommends popcorn. Kids love to eat it and it moves things along. Offer her popcorn every day for a snack.

Hey D.,
My 5 year old son has been dealing with constipation on and off for years. We had a similar situation happen when he was 2. (Except for our doctor didn't do an x-ray, a physical exam and his history was enough to diagnose constipation). For my son the first part of the treatment meant suppositories to help clear out the impacted stool. Then we started him on Miralax (which was prescription then but now is over the counter). We also tried to up the fiber in his diet and minimize his milk consumption. Per our doctor's instructions, he was on the Miralax for a couple months and then you slowly start to wean them off. For my son, we've been mostly able to control the problem with his diet. But even then, we've still had to go back to the Miralax treatment one other time. At my doctor's suggestion, I just always keep some on hand and give him a half dose if things start to get backed up and that always gets everything moving again. Hope everything works out for you guys.

Both my kids have had short lived bouts with constipation around the time of potty training. I think as they became more aware of their own bowel habits they just put off going to the bathroom. We tried lots of things, but the Metamucil crackers were the thing that worked best. One cracker per day for a toddler was our pediatrician's recommendation. It's important to take these little super fiber crackers with a lot of fluids. We pushed fluids anyway and other high fiber foods. The problem resolved over time as they each got more comfortable using the potty.

If you are giving her a high fiber diet and she's really well hydrated, I'd just sit her on the potty after meals and at bedtime, and not make too big a deal of it.

D., I don't know what the treatment would be from a doctor, but I suggest offering your daughter things to get her bowels moving like raisins, grapes, bran muffins, ground flax seeds, grape juice, etc and limit her intake of milk and cheese. Just my 2 cents. Good luck!

My almost 3-year-old has similar problems for a long time. Someone I knew who had 5 kids said that she always gave her kids Green Machine by Naked Juice (they have it at Costco for pretty affordable in large quantities - I would freeze half of it if I needed to). So, since your daughter is 2, I would start with 4 oz or so and see what happens. Then you can water it down or give her more depending on how her body handles it. The lady who originally told me about this said she would give it to her kids when they were little, and the doctor said it was fine - it tastes really good too.

I hope that helps - it seemed more desirable to me than the other constipation remedies - Miralax (prescribed by pediatrician - gave it to him twice), suppositories, prune puree (didn't seem to work well), prune juice (didn't really like it), apple juice (didn't work), eliminating bananas (didn't touch it), etc. Miralax was the only other thing that worked, but of course, it's only short term as it's a drug, and probably not very good for the body - you can buy it at the store, though, so if you need something to clean him out temporarily, it does work. If you choose this route, you'll have to ask your doctor about the dosage amount.

You need to take constipating foods like cheese and bananas out of her diet until she is more regular. When my baby will take apple juice, we are fine, however now she wont take it, so I will be posting my own question too!

Benefiber has really helped my daughter with constipation. I just give her a small amount each day, mixed with water or juice and things get moving again!

My daughter, now 5, used to have horrible, horrible constipation where she wouldn't go for days. She had a great diet already (without bananas and applesauce), but I tried everything from huge quantities of fruits that started with "p", milk of magnesia, cornsyrup, remedies from the healthfood store, glucose mixes, suppositories etc. etc. etc. (all on advice of pediatrician, friend who is pediatrician, and talking to other mothers)

I finally took her to a gastroenterologist who prescribed Miralax for her. (1Tbsp/day dissovled in 6 oz juice. Reduce as bowel movements become more frequent.) You can now buy Miralax over the counter, but it was a miracle for us. I have no idea how many nights we would both be up crying because she would hold my hands as she finally passed #2.

The gastroenterologist explained that if you hold in poo, your colon actually expands. If your colon expands, the poo gets dehydrated and is harder for the child to pass. The colon also takes longer to fill so it doesn't signal the body that it needs to be eliminated, so you have a double edged sword. Whatever you find that works, make sure you use it for several days in a row until she is having at least one normal (not dried out) bowel movement per day (for at least 4-5 days). This will help the colon go back to its normal size.

Good luck!!

Try some Manzanilla tea, or more commonly known as Chamlmille flower, I am not sure I spelled that correctly but you can but it in the grocery store. It is all nautral. I never gave my son anything but that and it always helped him.

oh yes- i understand:)
we made alot of changes in my daughters diet.
We took out alot of wheat and dairy. Found she does much better without it. At least you can see if that is a factor.
They wanted to do lots of tests and we thought we would try other things first.
We switched her white grape juice instead of apple juice- she is a great water drinker.
There are tons of natural things to do you just have to research and find what is good for you.
We found homeopathics to be amazing as well as digestive enzymes for kids and probiotics.
If you have any questions I can give you specific brands etc but thought I would just share what worked for us. We did try some laxatives etc before finding more natural approaches and sometimes gave a good result but had side effects and as soon as she went off them it was right back. So our focus was getting to the bottom of why it was happening in the first place and solving that problem.
Good luck- I know it is not easy:)
D.

My 14 months old son had chronic constipation and I was struggling to release his constipation but prune juice, gripe water etc didn't work, then a friend told me about Toddlers magic tea that helped a lot and he started going daily without any pain.

For my 15 months old toddler who used to get constipated randomly, I started mixing toddler magic tea in his bottles and got him relieved from that constipation.

My third son had much problems with this. It would hurt to go for him, so he would hold it making the problem worse. Like you, my son's bm's were huge and very painful. I tried prune juice, which worked when he was younger, but when he was about 18 months he refused. I give him a fiber supplement in his juice and now he is much better, going poo much more often and it is much smaller.

Try warm apple juice or prune juice to help with the initial constipation. Regularly give them to her so she can be regular. I don't know how you feel about feeding food to her this early, but my doctor told me that apricots are a good source of fiber. Chocolate is a good laxative, ask me how I know.

Certainly work with your doctor to see why she is constipated. A baby that young, it is concerning. Do you breastfeed, formula? What can be changed in her diet to help? If it isn't her diet, what else could it be?

cut back on apples, apple sauce, etc, they are 'binding'. give her raisins, prunes, prune juice mixed with plum juice, just don't get crazy with it or you will have a diarreah problem! good luck!