Not Pooping, a Vicious Cycle

Have you tried butt paist? That was one of the few things that worked for my sons. They got bad rashes. It could also be a yeast infection that is causing it.

If your kiddo has a bad diaper rash, the best thing I've found is a concoction one of the ICU doctors I work with has come up with.

It's a mixture of an anti-fungal (lotrimin, if you want to go over the counter, or nystatin, if you can get your md to prescribe it), 1% hydrocortisone, neosporin (the kind with the pain relief), and desitin. If you get all these things and mix them together in equal parts, you've got almost the perfect diaper rash ointment - it's got an anti-bacterial agent (the neosporin), an anti-pain agent (the pain relief portion of hte neosporin), an anti-fungal for yeast (the lotrimin or nystatin), an itch relief (the hydrocortisone), and a moisture barrier (the desitin).

Really slather this stuff on your kiddo's toushie after a bath and after every single diaper change. And when you wipe, try to wipe the poop off, without wiping off the diaper cream. The cream is there to act as a second layer of skin, to protect the skin. Over zealous cleaning and excessive wiping simply worsens rashes.

I'm a pediatric ICU nurse - if there's one thing I specialize in, it's poop and diaper rash. :)

Once your kiddo gets use to having a bum bum that doesn't burn all the time, it'll be easier for him to poop, and you might have more success with Mirilax.

If he continues to develop the burning diaper rash, you'll definitely want to procede with allergy testing, etc. And you can also ask your doctor for some ointment to protect your kiddo's toushie from the alkalizing agents of poop.

Good luck!

My grandson had a lot of problems with diaper rash... it would flare up so badly, and it would even bleed!

One thing we found that was a problem was acidic things... too much juice, tomatoes, anything naturally acidic......

Maybe look at his diet and see if there is something that is making his urine and poo more acidic?

Also..... we would put a thick layer of diaper cream (something like the zinc oxide that doesn't come off easily...) all over his butt..... and NOT try to wipe it off when we changed him.... if it wasn't coming off when we wiped off the poo and urine, we didn't try to get his butt clean of the diaper cream.... and that way, we were irritating his skin even more.

It is normal to have voluntary fecal withholding once kids have had a painful bowel movement, either for constipation of painful rash reason.
For my daughter the kind of diaper we used made a big difference, and of course only the most expensive Pampers Rash Guard helped, together with a lot of diaper cream.
Has the doctor suggested a bland diet for a while, to take out anything acidic? How about potty training and leaving diapers off altogether? This might be a great incentive for big boy underwear.
Miralax is not a laxative but makes the stool absorb water so that it remains soft, so if he has no harness/pellet issues, then I would think he does not need this medicine. My daughter is on Miralax for severe constipation and it requires long term use for the colon/large intestine to shrink back to normal size and for the "urge to go" to come back (which always being full takes away).
PS: we finally requested a referral to a GI doc since we saw our pediatrician 3 times over the summer about painful intestinal cramps and pellet like poop and nausea. Her suggestions were more water, try Miralax (which seemed to cause diahhrea so we stopped but GI explained that is seepage around the hard stool) and she even put her on an acid blocker for the nausea for a while. The GI took an x-ray and saw that the whole large intestine and the colon were full of hard stool. She had our daughter follow a clean out routine for 2 days (similar to when you have a colonoscopy) and then put her on a full dose of Miralax for about 3 months.
If you are not getting results, then perhaps it is time for a specialist. Good luck.

Is there a nervous issue going on?
Grind some magnesium, its a natural way to soften stool.
If your boy has a emotional disorder that's a whole different story, but he's only 2,5 and there is probably nothing wrong but DIET. Feed him right, treat him right, and he will sh*t right.

Our little one is 20 months, we give her half a capful miralax without fail everynight and our dr recommended resinol for her butt. it is thick and smells like a bandaid. it takes a few days for the miralax to work. Also i switched her to lactaid 2% milk, and no cheese unless she has a lot of movements that day. So far its working great. She was also holding her poop because it was hard and hurt to come out. Hope this helps yourlittle man

My little guy had toddler's diarrhea for a few weeks once, and as you can imagine that would definitely irritate his skin. I asked the nurse for suggestions, as it seemed like we had tried just about everything. She suggested Paladin, and it worked! We usually use a zinc-oxide formula, as that's what most diaper creams are. Guess he needed something different this time.

Good luck!

Hi, my son also had the same problem. He holds his poo, and everything as u said. My boy only drinks vanilla flavor drink, so I had to bring pediasure bottles, and every time he drinks milk, I mix little bit of pediasure so that he drinks properly.... Then one time I brought pediasure, but the bottle is green nd on it, it is written for digestion so I brought it... Then this problem began, like irritation on butt, very little poop, .... All those symptom u said... Then after little observation, as I asked on this blog for help, got help, and I changed back to my original bottle... The very next day he went properly... and now he is trying to control accidents... As when ever is in need for going to poop he used to ask for diaper, but when this problem started there are lot of accidents..... Now going back to his original routine and problem is solving little by little... If possible, think properly, if u have changed anything in these past 6 months in his meals or milk or anything... U may find something... As these types are just very minor.... It may be our fault for changing his routine or anything, thinking about giving them best food, we may have changed something important... Just think what are the changes u have done... And as far as irritation is concerned, I have tried every possible cream available, but no result. Then one day I took wet tissue, and put a drop of diluted hand sanitizer... and patched it to his butt crack put the diaper on it... Sorry it may be little crude, but could not see his suffering... So had to do this.. Then there is no irritation, as tissue is wet, and drop of sanitizer is there, so no irritation... But I changed after every hour and rubbed his butt with cold cream, so that skin won't have any problem.. We I had to do this because from morning to evening he used to hide in closet and scratch his butt... Poor fellow.. At first I thought he was playing, but when I saw him secretly, he was actually scratching his butt... So has to do that...