CONSTIPATION,TODDLER,PAIN,HOLDING IT IN, BABY

I HAVE A 2 YEAR OLD LITTLE GIRL. AND FOR THE LONGEST TIME SHE'S ALWAYS HAD ISSUES WITH PASSING STOOLS. I NURSED HER THE WHOLE YEAR BECAUSE FORMULA WAS TERRIBLE ON HER TUMMY. LATELY BECAUSE OF HER BAD EXPIERIENCES SHE HAS BEEN HOLDING "IT" IN. SHE WILL CRY BECAUSE EITHER SHE IS IN PAIN OR BECAUSE SHE NEEDS TO GO,I'M REALLY NOT THAT SURE. SHE JUST STARTED POTTY TRAINING AND SHE WENT IN THE POTTY SUCCESSFULLY BUT AFTER A STRUGGLE, SWEAT AND TEARS (YES, IT GETS THAT BAD). AT TIMES, YES IT HAS BEEN A HARD STOOL. I'VE EVEN "HELPED" HER IN THE PAST. BUT SOMETIMES IT'S NOT HARD AT ALL AND I THINK IT'S JUST THE TERROR OF WHAT HAPPENED TO HER BEFORE.
I MENTIONED THIS TO HER DR. AT HER 2 YEAR CKUP. SHE SAID JUST TO GIVE HER MORE WATER AND FIBER.
I FEEL LIKE MAYBE SOMETHING ELSE IS GOING ON. I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO. LAST WEEK SHE WAS LITERALLY CROSSING HER LEGS AND CRYING. WHEN I PICKED HER A LITTLE POOP BALL FELL OUT OF HER BUTT..(SHE WEARS PANTIES IN THE HOUSE). I COULDN'T BELIEVE IT! I HATE TO SEE HER IN PAIN BUT I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO ANYMORE!
ANY OTHER MOMS' ADVICE WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED.

If she likes apples, everytime my kids get constipated I give them either diluted apple juice (for the little ones) and applesauce for a little older. It will not make it too soft, but very gentle for her to go. Have you tried distracting her a bit with a story while you are in there with her? It works for me at least, I hope this helps!:

PS- Pears work too - plums and prunes of course.

Mom2aPrincess

Try looking for something called hemp hearts. It's the soft, inside part of the hemp seed. They are very high in protein and very high in fibre. As well as being good for a multitude of things, if you're constipated it will soften them up and if you have the opposite problem they will help with that as well. They don't even taste bad. In fact, my 2 year old neice LOVES them. You can mix them in with yoghurt or applesauce or just eat them straight. This was mentioned before, but I remember my mom singing or reading to me when I was having the same problem when I was little and getting me to relax made all the difference.

My 2 year old is having the same problem. For 3 weeks she has strained every 5 minutes throughout the day. Each time she tries to hold the poo in and is very distressed. Her bottom is very sore but doesn't get a chance to heal. She has laxatives everyday from doctor. Her appetite has gone. Nobody seems to know what to do to help her. It's affecting our whole family life.

I have a teribly constipated 4 and a half year old. It all started when we took away her formula and started giving cow's milk, which was also the time when we took away her bottle. She did not take in enough fluids and started having terible blader and kidny infections cronicaly. We did try to increace har fluid intake but there are only so many cups and so many ways to make fluid intake seem interesting for a tow year old. After may tests that all came back negitive I gave back her bottle after a year and the current problem went away. but the real problem remaind: CONSTIPATION!!!
She seemed to pass normal stools but the pediatrician picked up on something that we chose to ignore, CONSTIPATION. Everything seemed to be fine! The last year got progresingly worse. She was potty trained but stil refues to pass stools any other way than her "traditional" way, wich is standing in her room. We tried rewards and we tried punishing her to force her to go on the potty but nothing worked, it only got worse. I't hit a new high when got so constipated that the stools were as big as her upper arm, (can you even immagine). December 2006 we were foced to seek help. Her stool was litteraly stuck!!! Her rectum was forced open with the stool to big to get trough and to big to go back in!!!! An enema was the only awnser for my little girl in pain, it was horrible! The pediatricion refered us to a pediatric surgion. He sugested enema's for 5 days to clear the constipation!!! I wanted to die. After our second visit he sugested that we laxate her with liquid parafin for a month beacause she holds the stools in(because she assocated stool passind with pain). It all went well and I thought she was better and she started atending pre-school. I stoped the laxatives after 2 weeks because passing a stool in the clasroom would be very embarising and she has problems with ajusting. Everything seemed fine, stools were passed everyday for 5 days and it all started again. I started laxating again but it was probably too late. Even with the laxatives everyday she didn't pass a stool for 9 DAYS!!! Today was another ENEMA day and she lost 900g grams after passing 2 stools. I belive that her mussels are to weak to contract. Se crosses her legs and cries when the need to pass a stool arises. She can hold it in for 9 days with laxatives. It all got better when I had full controll over her diet but since she started pre-school I lost that controll and the problem started all over again(breakfast and lunch is served at school). She was born at 29 weeks and her birth weight was 1.05kg. She looks like a three year old and is well on her way to 5 years. She now (after passing 900grams of stool today) wieghs 12.2kg. She is supposed to at least weigh 15.5kg by now and I am totaly stressed. CONSTIPATION IS MAKING MY LITTLE GIRL FADE AWAY. This is stress a little girl does not need. I tried everything to make her gain wieght and I am returning to work after a year at home due to second complicate pregnacy. This will only add to her stress and that concerns me because I belive that her problem is stress related(the stress caused by the fear of passing stools). I would like to know if there is anyone els who has experienced simular problems with thier children. Please reply. super stressed mommy

Hi, my daughter is the same way. She hates going poop and she is 2 1/2. Sometimes she will hold it for days and when she goes there is hardly and poop and she complains her butt hurts. I am not sure what the answer is; however, my doctor did say if the child has experienced pain in the past then going now could be a bad experience. My doctor did prescribe a powder perscription that is suppose to help soften the stool. By doing this you are hopefully taking away the horrible experience. I did it for awhile and we are now back to screaming and crying. So, honestly I am not sure there is much help until the toddler learns to go on there own. Good luck!!!

I see that many of you are experiencing potty troubles and your pediatricians aren't offering much more advice than "water and fiber". I just want you to know that I have learned that there are two types of fiber. Soluable and Insoluble. If you give your toddler more "fiber" (typically insoluable - think bran muffins) you are actually going to make it more difficult for them to pass a bowel. Insoluble fiber stays in the gut longer and requires a LOT more water to help it move. As toddlers can be finicky with their food and drink intake...you are not likely to get them to drink enough water to ease the load of large amounts of insoluble fiber. I recommend that you Google a list of soluable fibers and create entire meals, snacks, etc out of those foods. This has "cured" the potty troubles for our 2 year old daughter and we haven't had a problem since. We try to make sure that she begins each meal with a soluable fiber so that any insoluable foods will move along with the "good stuff". Also all her snacks are soluable which helps with eating some meals at school.

Hello my son having same problem with Constipation and he is only 1 year old. I think main problem is food, try to give more vegetables or soups, no rice no pasta, more water. Our doctor gave us Glycerin suppositories but its doesnt help always and i stop using it. In my country our people use baby soap to help children make stool, but its can be used from 1 year old. Make it like suppositories and put it in and out dont keep it inside its only to make stool go out easy. Its better than when child keep stool inside. Dont use it everyday for long time. Try to let ur child make stool everyday or atleast every two days so it wont come harder. Its very painfull to see ur child pain ;;. I feel myself terrible mother becouse maybe i am giving him wrong food, or not enouph water. I am trying to let him make stool everyday becouse if he will not make it in one day next day it become more harder and bigger. I hope this will help someone. Dont let your baby keep it inside for many days please. More time its stay in, more bigger and harder it become.

My 4 yr old son had been battling constipation for about 1 - 1 & 1/2 years. The best and happiest solution I found is to give him a chewable fiber pill everyday. There are powders out there you can mix in drinks like benfiber and metamucil, but I know that those can be grainy and might not taste that great. They do have some now that are supposed to be nongrainy or chalky and are tasteless, but we haven't tried those. The fiber pills I use and work great are called Fiber Choice. They are chewable, sugar free, fruit flavored and are scored so you can break them in half for younger kids. The other great thing I found out about online is ground flaxseed, which you should be able to find in most grocery stores or health food stores. I believe it also comes in liquid form, but I use the ground stuff. I mix it (about 1/2 tbsp) with frozen and/or fresh fruit (strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, mango, whatever) and a little juice, sometimes a little ice, in a blender and voila a tasty fruit smoothie that has fiber right in it. You can add a little yogurt for protein, but dairy products tend to add to the problem of constipation. I also make them into popsicles and he thinks he's getting a treat, when really he's getting fruit and fiber all in one. It helps him go and makes it softer everytime. Also make sure your kids are drinking plenty of water if you start to give them a fiber supplement. Also peaches and pears and plums/prunes are good natural laxatives, as well as grapes and I also give my kids dried cranberries.

I know exactly what you are all going through & I wish I could help you all. My daughter, who turned 3 in March, has had bowel movement/constipation problems since she was about 6 mos old. It has been horrible & has caused many problems. Her pediatrician told us to give her juice, give her apples, increase her fiber, etc. She was put on a laxative by the time she was 1 yr old. We finally got so fed up that we went to a pediatric GI specialist when she was 2 1/2 yrs old. He continued her on the laxative (Miralax powder) but w/a weaning schedule that would take about 8 mos. Well, with 2 mos to go and just 1/2 dose every other day, we're back to square one. I thought going to a homeopathic allergy specialist/nurse was helping, but after today I'm not sure what to think. She did determine that my daughter has food sensitivites that can cause constipation, so she's working on that w/her. There's no question that my little girl associates pooping with pain & physically holds it in. On the laxative, it just came out. Now that she has to push a bit on the lower dose, it freaks her out & she holds it. We're at our wit's end & don't know what to do. She spent 35 min on the toilet this AM holding in her poop. My husband & I are frustrated, angry, sad & scared by this. It sounds like you are all in the same boat. I guess it helps feeling that we're not alone, but in the meanwhile is there someone out there who can help our kids? If it's all in my daughter's head, is our next step a therapist? I just want her to poop normally & see it's no big deal. How do we end this vicious cycle? If anyone can suggest a way, please help. Thanks.