Constipation, etc.

[Anonymous]

I think I’ve posted about Brodie’s poop issues before… anyway, sigh – he just pooped (he’s still in diapers) & as usual he was straining a LOT & miserable. By then end he was in tears, sweaty, etc. He then started crying hysterically. When I changed his diaper it was rock hard (again, as usual) but this time had bright red streaks of blood & a tiny bit of mucous. That’s the 1st time for that… I didn’t see anything (hemmoroid, etc) externally so I’m assuming it’s internal – but also assuming it’s from straining since it’s bright red. Am I correct to assume that?

Couple of questions:

I’m going to start doing Miralax (the probiotic alone helped a LOT @ first but now we’re back to the same) – suggestions for a starting dose for him? He’s 2.5yo & 29lbs.

Do I make an appt w/ Ped GI? I’ve been contemplating this for a few wks now.

I just worry that since his stools are usually very hard, greasy & stinky (sorry-tmi) that he’s not absorbing what he should from his food. We try to limit dairy (mainly milk & cheese) & wheat to some extent b/c I suspect some type of sensitivity but haven’t had him IgG tested yet. I’m a bit leary of that too b/c I’ve talked to some ppl locally that did IgG & many of the items that showed up as intolerances were the exact things their kiddos were eating a lot of (ie: bananas) & not necessarily things they were intolerant to… so it’s so hard to know what’s for real & what’s not.

I also worry since we should be starting toilet training soon (hopefully) & I don’t want this to factor into that. Also, he’s probably holding in his bms until after preschool b/c of the pain/straining. He’s never gone there & usually goes shortly after coming home.

Any suggestions? I seriously can’t believe how much our house revolves around poopy diapers.

[Anonymous]

Hi Erin,

Not much advice except that I would probably call and make him a GI appt just to see if they have any advice. I didn’t realize Carter and Brodie are just 3 weeks apart in age! I won’t hyjack, but will post you a funny potty training story. Let’s just say we are putting that off for a while.

We never did the miralax, but sounds like it would be a good idea for him…..

Hugs!!

Ann Marie

[Anonymous]

I would say that the bright red streaks were probably an internal tear inside the anus from the rock hard stool. If it keeps happening, then I would be worried. Not sure about the mucous hmmm…. I do think the miralax will help you tons and from what I have heard as luckily we have never had poop problems is that you just have to adjust it to what works. I know that Jill has used it and I believe that Naomi (Bensmama) has used it for her daughter, not sure if she used if for Ben. I might PM them if they don’t chime in about it. Good Luck.

[Anonymous]

Hey Erin,

I am so sorry Brodie is still having constipation issues. Kade used to hold it like that too when he was in daycare, it makes it so much worse but it’s so hard to explain to them.

kaden also gets constipated and when I took Kaden to his original feeding eval @ KKI (he was 31 lbs at the time, so MUCH closer in wt to Brodie) they rec’d 1/2 capful of Miralax daily in a cup of juice. I am sure the dose would be close to identical for 29 lbs, if not slightly less. I hope this helps!

We used to use it for Landen too, until he was about 10 months old, but his dose was much smaller (as his weight was)

HTH!

p.s. I agree that the bright red blood is from a tear. Not sure about the mucous, but if it wasn’t a lot, then I would keep an eye on him until you can speak to a pedi GI. Maybe he is just really sensitive to cow’s milk. I think constipation is a huge red flag for that.

[Anonymous]

i would prob eliminate all dairy/soy.. maybe add more fruit??apples…grapes.. etc..?

[Anonymous]

Thanks ladies (& Jill for giving me the dosing info)…

I gave him 1/2 capful (which ends up being 2 tsp fwiw) w/ juice this morning & he’s already pooped (hardly ever goes every day). It was softer & he only strained a little… not perfect but better.

I think I will make an appt w/ Evan’s ped GI for Brodie to coincide w/ our next appt (so just 1 dr. visit).

I’m hesitant to eliminate all dairy &/or soy b/c he eats so little. Since I switched him from whole to 2%, then 1% (currently) he’s started eating more, but still very little fruit (grapes, raisins & dried fruit are what we’re stuck on right now – sometimes a banana or mandarin orange but not in a while).

Thanks again!

[Anonymous]

I agree w/ Beth…. the blood in his stools sounds like it’s probably from an internal tear from the hard poops.

I would try giving him some flax seed oil daily. This is a natural laxative and also has many health benefits! I give it to my son along w/ his yogurt everyday! He goes regularly everyday and has hardly ever had a problem w/ constipation.

Hope he feels better…

[Anonymous]

erin—i wouldn’t even think about potty training him until you have been able to work out comfortable bowel movements for him or you will end up with more problems than you have now. my potty training policy is that i don’t believe in potty training!!!LOL!LOL! don’t let anyone convince you that he “should” be trained at a certain age. by the time he hits kindergarten, no one is going to know if he was potty trained at 2 or 4 1/2.

the red streaks sound like he probably has a fissure from straining on hard poops–not serious in and of itself, but you definitely want to eliminate the constipation that is causing them.

if it were me, i would make an appt. with a ped gi.

[Anonymous]

Ohhhh….I hear you! The quality of my family’s life is directly related to my children’s poop! And it’s been this way for 4 1/2 years. All 3 of my boys are or were on Miralax. My 4 1/2 year old still is. My 6 month old baby still is. My 2 1/2 year old has grown out of it! My oldest was taking 2 adult doses a day to get his stool a PB consistency. He is talking much less now. Anyway….I have a few things to mention.

First, as everyone has stated, the blood is probably a tear in the colon. Small amounts of mucous could possibly be caused from the constipation, but is more likely caused by a food sensitivity. I would first get the constipation under control, you probably already know but constipation is characterized by the consistency of the stool, and nothing else. So, your goal is stool the consistency of peanut butter. I speak from a lot of personal experience (including 4 or 5 ped GI’s advice) when I say Miralax is safe and not habit forming. You could actually use quite a lot of it if you needed to, although you probably won’t need a lot of it. I have run into 1 GI that said he’d prefer me use prune juice which didn’t work so he wanted us to use Enulose, which I hated. Once you get the constipation under control for a week or 2, you would know better what issues you really have that aren’t constipation related. And then you can tackle those.

The greasy explanation makes me think your babe does have a food issue. I know that one of my boys has milk issues, one of them has soy and milk issues. When they ingest these things, their stools are greasy and dark. Unfortunately, the allergy testing may not give you the answer. I had my oldest tested for allergies 4 times. Each time the results came back totally different. The test you are talking about did just as you suggested. He came back reacting to everything he ate. The reason for this is the immune system is still so immature. The skin tests were horrible. One came back normal, the other one, he didn’t even react to the test histamine. The other one was a different kind of blood test that showed normal. All of these tests were done at 2 1/2. After all of this, a GI explained to me that none of the food testing is accurate until at least 4 years of age, when the body has had a chance to develop the anti-bodies. My son obviously has some major food issues though and always has. Now that he is older I have been able to figure some of it out. They just did the IgG testing again. And even though he has the eye “shiners” and a rash around his eyes nose and mouth much of the time, the test came back negative. My point here is, you may have to do an elimination diet to find out what is bugging’. You can’t completely rely on the testing.

As far as the potty training goes. I would FOR SURE get the constipation under control first, especially because it sounds like he is already holding it in. This fear can cause issues for years (I remember holding my poop in for days in middle school, to the point it would keep me awake at night.) I believe in not potty training until it the time it will work best for you and your family. Don’t worry about anyone else!

An appointment with a GI would be a good idea. Has anyone tested your son’s stool for microscopic blood? Or have they looked for inflammation? These are good indications of food intolerances. They can’t really explore these types of options until the blood and inflammation from the constipation is resolved though.

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Hey Erin,

Ok, I will give you my thoughts…the blood thing, well that has been pretty well discussed. Now this goes against popular opinion, but I just wanted to throw it out there…when I was researching mucous in the stool, I read that if it was occasional, that can be normal. However, I think it would be beneficial to eliminate dairy/wheat just to see what happens. Also, does he drink juice? When I started potty training Brianna I was told to give her lots of juice becuase it helps keep stools soft so going poop isn’t “hard” 😉 Just a thought if you don’t want to do the medicine thing.

Keep us posted.

[Anonymous]

We used to have a HORRIBLE time with constipation in this house. One of the main topics of conversation for a long time was whether or not Paige had pooped that day!

For my kids, a magnesium supplement has done wonders! I use Now brand magnesium citrate powder and mix it directly into their drink a couple times per day. It’s very safe and effective, all natural and drug free, and you don’t need very much. My kids only need about 1/4 teaspoon daily (about 1/8 teaspoon twice a day) and we have no more constipation! I only wish I had learned of it sooner! Here is the one we use:

http://www.iherb.com/ProductDetails.aspx?c=1&pid=1101

MFPIx22008-10-05 01:06:30

[Anonymous]

We also use Magnesium citrate for our pooping issues and it works pretty fast.

i open one capsule and use half twice a day mix in Kendra’s food.

i use this one:

http://www.iherb.com/ProductDetails.aspx?c=1&pid=2634&at=0

i may have a discount coupon for first time customer. let me know and i’ll try to find it.

[Anonymous]

Hey! Claire has had long standing constipation issues, which I am hoping she is slowly growing out of… BUT, she was at one time so back up, it showed on XRAY all the way into her small intestine. She was around 1 year at the time, and the doc said to give her a full dose of the Miralax each day until she got it all out. We did, and boy did she poop! Good grief.

Anyway, we ended up having to back off that dose a little because her stools were too loose. I kept trying to back her off it more later, but we ended up on about 1/3 a dose for her each day to keep her going.

When we were at the potty training stage for her, the doc said it was SUPER important that we keep enough Miralax in her that she is unable to withhold the stools. In other words, they need to be soft enough to just slide right out. Sorry if tmi, but he said that if they can hold it, they will to avoid any chance of it hurting them again. So, he said to make it nice and soft for a LONG time before you try backing off again, OR before you try potting training, so there is no negative feelings associated with going potty.

Hope that makes sense.

Good luck to you. I’m SO glad Ben doesn’t have this problem because, like you said, WAY too much poop time is spent at our house.

[Anonymous]

Thanks ladies for all the responses!…

well, Brodie’s been on a juice strike the past 3-4 days. No clue why b/c he normally loves juice. I’m wondering if he’s been getting it “straight” (not watered down) @ preschool & then comes home & when I offer it watered down he doesn’t want it.

Anyway, I’ve been having to mix his Miralax & Probiotic (not @ the same time) w/ his milk instead.

I’ve been giving him 2 teaspoons (1/2 capful) of Miralax daily & although he’s been pooping more frequently (even went a bit @ school on Monday) w/ a lot less straining… they’re still fairly hard – definitely FAR from peanut butter consistency (like Chris suggested).

Does this mean I should up his dose?

No one is telling me he needs to be trained yet… I’m just thinking ahead. He’s fine in his current preschool class in diapers but to be in next year’s class (he’ll be 3yrs 4mths) he has to be trained.

erinntx2008-10-08 10:32:01

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