Seeking Suggestions on a 6Yr Old with Bowel Issues.

my 4 year old has the same issue and this is what i did (after talking to the pharmisist and the doc).

they suggested bene-fiber. it completly desolves in liquid and helps to get his BM's back on track. i also give him applesauce (fiber) at least once a day. that seems to help, and if i forget, i can tell a difference.

hope this helps :)

K.- I went through the exact same thing with my daughter. We even tried the same things. We had even taken her the Children's Hospital for testing to see if something was physically wrong, but there wasn't. The ONLY THING that worked for her was making her sit on the toilet every night until she went to the bathroom. We had to do this to get her body into a regular schedule for having bowel movements. It was a very hard thing and went on for YEARS! I am only telling you this to warn you, it will not go away over night. If it is the same thing, it will take lots of patience and persistance. You may want to take books in the bathroom, sing songs, things like that to make him relax while sitting on the toilet instead of concentrating too hard and getting upset. My daughter is going to be 10 this June and it was just this past year that she finally was able to start going on her own without us having to "make her" go to the bathroom every night. So Don't give up! He will get it eventually! Good Luck!

Hi K.-
Have you tried Acidophilus? It is a chewable wafer that your son can take and it will balance out his digestive system. My daughter had major constipation problems until I walked into a Natural Health food store and talked to them about what was going on. They recommended Acidophilus (which is found in yogurt). I give her 2 a day and she has been VERY regular ever since. It's an all natural product so you can't go wrong. We also tried everything under the sun with no avail. The acidophilus has been a God-send! Let me know if you have any questions!
J.

Hi Kristen, I for one know how frustrating this can be. I have a 5 yr old daughter that has had problems going # 2 since she was 6 weeks old. We have taken her to specialists and no improvements. My Ped finally prescribed her Mirilax. She has been on it for 3 years now and when we can get her to take it it works wonders. It is a non habit forming powder that you mix into a drink. Most of the time the child does not even know that it is in there. My daughter however has gotten wise to my game and watches me make her drinks. So I have to become very creative when trying to get her to take her Meds. She is on a double dose probably alot more than the average child, but your Doctor will decide how much is enough for your son. This is the only thing so far that has worked for her. We have also done all the things you mentioned in your post, and none of those worked for us either. I also learned that you should make your son sit on the toilet at least 15 mins a day. Be firm and make him sit there even if he doesn't have a bowel movement. This teaches them good bathroom habbits. I see that alot of the other responses also mentions Mirilax. This is obviously the only way to go since you have tried everything else. It is completely safe, and I would recommend Mirilax anyday over laxatives. That alone can scar a child into not wanting to go potty.

Good Luck and stay strong. This is a psychological condition that will eventually subside.

J. C.

My 13 year old son has problems like that also. But he bleeds the solution was more fiber, so now he takes fiber pills daily no bleeding. Take your child to a specialist asap.Your child if you wait,the childmight end up with more serious problems

Hey K.,
Sorry to hear about your son having this problem. I know it can be very awful. I have a daughter that has had a problem doing #2 and she has done well with oral stool softener. Although, I do have a friend that has a son who is 11 years old who had the same problem. He was impacted a lot because he was afraid to go and it kept getting backed up and harder for him to go. She tried laxatives, powder fiber mixed in his food and medications as well but none of them seemed to work. She finally started using enamas. I know this sounds unreal for a child but it actually is the only thing that would work. I would consult a doctor before trying this on your son though. Every child is different and I wouldn't be sure if this is the best thing for yours. Good luck. I hope everything turns out well. Sincerely, M. B.

Hi K.
I have a two year old that has problems from day one, sometimes not going for 14 days at a time. then we went to going in our room to in our pants 3-4 times a day .

We have been going to the cleveland clinic and what has been working is regular toilet sittings after every meal, he has to sit in the bathroom for at least five mintuesafter every meal, one of the excersie is blowing on a pin wheel, this makes then use their bowel musles with out them knowing that this is what they are doing ,
try around ten mintues after every meal to have him go into the bathroom and have him sit and blow on a pin wheel or blow bubbles or even make ghost out of toilet paper and blow on it. see how long he can blow the longer he blows (try to have him exhale for at least 15 sec or more ) the more the stomach muscle work to relax .
It is not going to work over night but you should start seeing a differene within a few weeks, but you have to be consistent..... to make him go after every meal and do the blowing exceries.hopefully you will start seeing a difference Good luck .I know it is very very trying One parent that has been there!

Hello K.. I've had the same problem with my child. He didn't have accidents at school, but I would worry because it would be 7 to 8 days before he would go #2. I didn't want to go the laxative route so I talk to his pediatrician and he suggested adding more fruits and vegetables. Lots of corn, beans, and salad. I had to make sure he was drinking more too. Also, I had to add more things with Olive Oil incorporated into it (cooking or salad dressings). Prune juice, raisins, and 100% natural juices helped too. He does much better now. I'm not sure if this helped, I know you tried a diet change before, I wasn't sure if this was similar. Good luck, I hope you find help for your little one.

MIRALAX! It is the only thing that worked for my daughter. It is not habit forming, meaning she won't need it to go to the bathroom later like laxitives, it is tasteless and I just put it in her drink with dinner, by the time she fills her belly at dinner she has to go. I adjust it based on the consistancy of her bowel. There is also what is called a cleanout phase, where you will give Miralax multiple times and a enema(sp?) if needed for 3 days, after that it's maintence. Hope that Helps. I would also ask your family doctor to send your child to a pediactric gastro doc.

I have a similiar problem with a 7 year old. After potty training finally at 3 when he turned 5 he started going in his pants "sometime". He is quite able to go when he wants to but goes in his pants for attention. I am not sure if this is what your son is doing or not. But we are seeking therapy from a ped phychiatrist. We took him to a ped stomach dr and she said everything is ok physically and told us it was behavioral. Hope this helps

Hi K.! You really MUST take him to a pediatric gastroenterologist!! I am very surprised that your pediatrician has never sent you to see one to this point. If he doesn't want to refer you for some reason, I would just go online, find the nearest childrens hospital, and request an appointment with their gastroenterology department. Most (at least Columbus, Akron, and Rainbow Babies) children's hospitals have an outpatient clinic where you can request appointments. It may take a few days for someone to call you, but you should be able to get an appointment with no problems!!! I would NOT let this issue go ANY further. There are LOTS of things that could be going on, and it really needs to be evaluated!!!

I really feel for your 6 yr old, and for you as the parents of a school-aged child who is having these issues. I'm sure your 6 yr old would prefer to be independent in all manners of pottying!

A few questions/suggestions:
1) Question - I'm curious about the diet changes... would you be willing to describe in detail what changes you made, what (if any) foods you avoided and for how long these changes lasted, how well you stuck to them? Is there any one food that your son simply loves, adores, and cannot live without?

2) Suggestion - this is perhaps a bit of an "out of the box" approach, but it could be quite effective on many levels (for your son, for you as the parents, and for your infant both in the short and long term/prevention of future bowel issues), but have you considered having your 6 yr old help your 3 month old learn to use the potty? This would be a really positive role in which to include your son and would also really highlight/reinforce in a very experiential way for him the universal signs that mean "poop is coming" (not only for the baby, but more importantly for him!) so that he may be more aware of and better able to attend to his own elimination (sensations, timing, frequency). Plus there's always the added fun and incentive of "everyone in our family uses the toilet" and the increased self-esteem that your son would likely experience in knowing he helped his baby sister learn to use the potty. (By the way, siblings are often very, very good at noticing when the baby has to pee/poop, they're quite tuned in and intuitive.) For more information on this out-of-the-box approach, please see:
viviente.com/2005/10/how_to_do_parttime_pottytraini_1.html

And there's a group of moms local to you who potty their babies, if you'd want to talk to someone or see a mom/baby pair in real life who practices EC:
groups.yahoo.com/group/CincinnatiDiaperFreeBaby/

I very much hope for your son that he will soon be able to independently control and be in charge of his own bowel movements - I'm sure that would be incredibly wonderful for him (and quite a relief and joy for you, too)! :)

We had a similar situation with our 6 yr old daughter. She just couldn't go. We took her to the doctor and he put her on Miralax. It worked great. It didn't effect her like a laxative. It put her on a normal schedule of bowel movements. It is a powder than it tasteless and odorless and you can put it in a drink or food. She did use it once a day, now she only uses it maybe once a week. I had tried so many other methods and this was the one thing that worked. Hope this is helful information. Good luck and God bless!

I have a "God Daughter" who has suffered with that for 2 yrs now. The Doctors tried different thing such as enemas and sent her to a Nutritionist. She would hold it to the point her underpants wear dirty cause it hurt so bad to push, and sometimes it was right there and she just couldn't. It did come down to her diet she stopped all pizza, breads, mac-in-cheese basically carbs and honestly explained to her that vegetables well help her use the bathroom easily and with out the help of veggies it WILL continue to hurt and have accidents. She also uses a Fiber mixture that you can purchase at the grocery store that you can even mix with water and you can never taste it. Once she sat her down and explain it SIMPLY & CLEAR what could continue & how to fix it she really understood and even if she don't like she does it. (try using the hold your breath while you chews the stuff you don't like method) It work!!!!! I even use it when I go to my mother-in-laws house eat, hold you breath, & drink water right before you breath and it's just like never tasting it.(lol..lol) For the last 2 months she uses it about 3x a week. I hope this could help you cause seeing them go through something you can't control is the hardest!

What kind of issues are we talking about here? Is he witholding the movements because of pain? My son had that problem and we use miralax - it's a stool softener/fiber supplement that has really helped.

My daughter (15 months) is on glycolax and that is working great for her. It is a powder, but you might want to try it if you have not already.

I have a 12 yr old with bowel issues also. my pediatrician said to give her mineral oil and it has helped sooo much

I know this well. My daughter who is not almost 7 had problems from birth. We believe that hers started as underdeveloped muscles and as she got older, they got stronger but she learned that gowing hurt so she started holding. We had to manually extract it every two days or she would litterally go weeks without going. When she went to preschool we decided it was time to take her to a specialist for two reasons, we were afraid that it would start to traumatize her and we were afraid that she would tell someone and they would misunderstand what she was saying. She had at that point started having accidents in her underwear because she would hold it and eventually it would just come out. We went to see a Pediatric Gastroenterologist at the Cleveland Clinic. She did a bunch of tests and determined that there was nothing physically wrong. So we started using a calendar and stickers. If she went 5 out of 7 days a week she got something (usually a small toy). She is finally over the problem and we have been Miralax free for almost a year. Anyway, my suggestion is to see a specialist, find out if it is a physical problem or an emotional one. Then you have a better idea of how to proceed. Good Luck

K., try Kefir. I have no idea why but it worked wonders for my son. He used to have the runs all the time and now he has no issues whatsoever and if I worry about a problem developing from a certain food I just give him some Kefir. There's a brand called Lifeway that has all kinds of flavors. Meijer has it tin the dairy section and Kroger sometimes has it.It also worked for a friend of mines baby as well. I think it has something to do with benificial bacteria. My sister has had success with the specific carbohydrate diet. (SCD)