Any Suggestions for Constipated Toddler?

You mentioned that before the constipation he was suffering from diarrhea. Maybe he isn't as constipated as you think -- he might have been pretty cleaned out from the previous phase. I'd just bulk up the fiber and wait another day or two. Good luck!

HI

Try keeping a food diary for him to see if anything is trigger.

Boil sweet potatoes and let him eat them. Use a little cinamin if he does not like the taste. They are high fiber and will help.

He does have systems of irratible bowel or allergies.

Good luck

Apple juice works for my kids. Also try prune juice and myralax it used to be prescription only but is now sold over the counter my Daughter has used it since she was a baby. Good Luck!

My Daughter had the same problem around the same age and it can get scary. It is more common than most people think though and your Doctor will be able to help if the mineral oil doesn't seem work. Likely he/she will prescribe a "miralax" (or generic equiv) and you will simply mix it in with juice or water. In the absense of a real medical reason for the problem it's usually just anxiety and once your child gets used to going (several weeks) you can usually start weaning them off of the meds. So if the Mineral Oil isn't helping anymore I would go see the doctor. But don't worry.. it's perfectly normal.

Benefiber. I have a little one in my daycare who has to have it in her drinks every day or she becomes incredibly constipated. Since she has been on it daily there has been no problems at all.

D.,

I have always found Dr. Sears to have good information about anything to do with babies and children. In fact this is how we got through my daughters recent bout with the stomach flu. He always suggests the natural remedy first and then suggests other options including contacting your child's pediatrician. One suggestion he does discuss is Culturelle (a great probiotic you can find at most drug stores including Wal-Mart). I have copied the web address for Dr. Sears' information about both constipation and diarrhea. I hope this helps.

Take care,
H.
http://askdrsears.com/html/8/T081100.asp
http://askdrsears.com/html/8/t081500.asp

Hello D.: I am sorry that your child is having this problem, unfortunately I cannot give any solutions. I do on the other hand have a 2 1/2 year old grandson that I have custody of who has the same problem. He has been under a doctors care for almost a year with it. He is going to Riley in February if this last "Idea" does not work. Does your child have trouble sleeping because of the gas? Corbin just squirms, kicks, rolls and finally makes a rumble here and there then sleeps a little then starts over again.....ALL NIGHT. He is currently on Ducolax and a liquid called Senna. Well good luck and don't wait too long to get him to a doctor. It good be a very simple thing, but who knows.

I know this is late, but my Dr. suggested Kyro syrup in water. I am not sure of the ratio, like a table spoon to 4 oz of water? You'd have to ask, but it did help. How about whole prunes or raisins?

Try Cod Liver Oil, I know it sounds bad, but it works, and it's very good for you. I buy the oil in soluble tablet form in the vitamin section, and than dissolve a couple in warm milk. Is your toddler drinking milk? I have two boys, the oldest is twelve, the youngest two. Both of my boys had to switch to Soy/Rice milk. There digestive track couldn't handle the pasturized milk. They had constipation problems also. Hope this works.
Deb

My 1-2 year old had the same problem and we converted to soy milk and she is completely regular... and she outgrew it. After 18 mos (6 mos to 2 yrs) she's now drinking regular (2%) milk. And of course as some of the other moms suggested, prunes work like a charm. Good luck!

Try Plum juice or prune juice, and the Kashi WHole 7-grain crackers, lots of fiber.

Acidopholis or Bidipholis works good. I always use this with my children. They are probiotics (good bacteria). They have special chewable childrens kind also. A health food store like Whole Foods or Organica are the best places to get this. You can ask someone there, and they will know exactly what you need. You can also buy it at regular stores now, but it's not the same since it's usaually added to and so on.

My pediatrician told us to use Benefiber in the milk. It worked great. You might want to check on some food allergies that may be causing this change in his movements.

I used to have this issue a lot with my older son. Try prune juice or pear juice, and load it in him if you can. He may get diarrhea from that, but that's ok. Then, make sure he does not eat any sort of cheese, yogurt, bananas, etc- anything constipating. Limit his milk intake to 2 glasses/day, and no more. Also, make sure he isn't holding in his stools. If you see him doing that, try to get him to go. Try rubbing his behind. He'll probably try to hold it in for a while because he has learned that pooping hurts. My son got so badly constipated from holding it in that he actually got encopresis. My pediatrician told me it is ok to give them the OTC fiber- like benefiber. I would put some of the fiber powder in all the dished I made, and when my son was constipated, I put some in his milk or juice. Don't go overboard, but this helps to regulate them. Sometimes with little ones you can't get them to eat fiber rich foods. Finally, if you have to, they have suppositories they sell OTC that your doctor would probably suggest you do. My pediatrician gave us a prescription for this powder stuff that helps them to go. As a word of caution, use 1/4 of the amount they say. I used half the dose the first time I used it for my son, and he had such bad diarrhea for a few days after that. That stuff is powerful. Good luck!

Juice, I prefer apple, it'll make his stools soften. I have to do that with a couple of kids in my daycare. They go regularly now.

I had this problem with my youngest daughter...we tried oil, prune juice, childrens suppositories, etc. I finally had had enough with forcing her to do all this awful stuff! I called our doctor and he gave me a powder you mix in any drink (even water) because it's flavorless and has no consistency to it. Ours started with the letter "G"...I cannot remember what it was called...but your doctor will know! We called it a "special drink" and it works within days! She became regular and all is well now! She had some condition where she wouldn't "empty out" because it hurt or took to long...so she would let out what came easy and held the rest. That, of course, created a problem!

She's good now and has good potty habits! Hope this helps you!
J. C.

Hi - I don't think anyone mentioned mango juice or mango nectar yet. Works well and is very tasty!

Hi,D., the thing I know that works for me and my family is prunes and apple sauce. Mix it make a sauce and give it to your little one, one or twice a day. You can use prune juice too. It should help for constipation. Good luck,Barb

Hi D.. My son has had the same problem on and off since he was an infant. He is three now. I have found that limiting his milk intake has helped immensely. For some reason it really constipates him. I only give him 1 cup a milk a day and then yogurt and other low lactose forms of dairy for the rest of his required servings. I also find that if he is really bad a glass of orange juice does the trick. I also regularly give him prunes as a snack and make sure he eats LOTS of fruit. Avoid bananas and guava though they will just make it worse. Once it got really bad and the doctor prescribed a powder that really helped but I can't for the life of me remember the name of it. It was tasteless and I just sprinkled it on his food.

My son had a lot of diffuculty when he was potty training. Our Dr. suggested using Senecot. It is over the counter & all natural. We simply mixed it with his milk and he had no problem taking it. I know it's miserable! Hope you get through this soon!

Miralax. My 19 month old takes 1 teaspoon a day mixed with his morning milk. You can buy it over the counter at Walgreens. The doctor told me to give my son 1/2 a capful but that was way too much. 1 teaspoon a day does the trick for us. But since your little guy is backed up pretty bad I would go for the 1/2 capful. It is so terrible to watch your child be in such pain. Miralax has been a miracle!

Miralax is over-the-counter, now. Check with your doctor for the dose but my 5 year old son takes half a capful a day. It's a white powder that you just mix into a glass of water or juice or whatever. He's been chronically constipated for a couple years. As a result, the muscles have been stretched out and he has fecal accidents quite a bit. It looks like diarrhea but it's actually constipation (the loose stuff flows around the hard stool).

We tried diet for awhile but he's been on medicine for the past few weeks and it seems to help better. If you want to try diet.... avoid applesauce, apple juice, bananas and dairy. Load up on fiber -- raisins are good and high fiber cereals. My kids love FiberOne granola bars -- there's 9 grams of fiber in each bar!

Good luck and talk with your doctor now about it. Don't put it off like we did... I wish we would've known what was going on when he was 2... now he's 5 and in kindergarten and it's so much harder to correct (it takes awhile for the stretched out muscles to get back to normal).

The "G" stuff the other mom was thinking of is Glycolax, which is just generic Miralax.

I would stay away from any kind of medicine, he's only 2 and this happens. Lots of apples, raisans, and grape juice too (only the 100% kind though). My son has problems sometimes with his stool being too large to pass, and when it does it hurts him and makes his bottom bleed a little. His pediatrician has always gone the natural route before he prescribes stuff, which I love about him.

Anytime you give fruits and juices you have to remember they are naturally high in sugar. Make sure its not late at night! Also juices are deceptively not 100% juice, including those horrid V8 drinks (splash, etc) might have a full serving of fruit but also have an enormous amount of sugar in them. Might as well give them a gallon of Mountain Dew to drink! Find a natural grape juice, like at a local health store or GNC, that's 100% juice, not from concentrate. Apples have always worked very well for us too.

Too much sugar can lead to loose stools though so moderate; yogurt is great for the runs, and in general. It cleans out the intestines and gets your body the healthy bacteria it needs.

My daughter who is 3 has the same problem because she drinks alot of milk and does not get enough fiber to balance it out. Our doctor recommended Fiber Juice which you can get at fiberjuice.com and it does work . We just give her a cup a day or a 1/2 cup depending on how she is doing.

Hi D.,
It sounds like your baby is impacted. I've dealt with this issue you're going through many, many times and it's no picnic! Try putting him in the bath; warm water does really help. Give lots of water, too. Avoid the juices. Roughage, like grapes or raisins or any veggies will be helpful. If you have to go with an invasive route, try the glycerin suppositories for kids. Have plenty of vaseline, too.(I have even used a Fleet product, but only a tad bit of it. This was due to no b.m. for about a week and half, though!) Sometimes just the stimulation of that area gets the ball rolling. What I"ve used after baby delivery for my own "problems" is this wonderful stuff called, "Fruit-Ease." It's endorsed by Riley Hospital even. We got it online a few years ago, and it's a mega-tub--you really don't need such a large amount of the stuff, but hey, you never know! It's like a prune/fruit puree paste. Works wonders. Good luck with the job, and try the first mentioned things. But, look online for the Fruit-Ease. I havent' checked for it lately. Hope some of this will help. M. (mother of 5--with recent newborn!)

My son has stints of constipation as well (a little over 2)...he's been like that since birth. What sets him off is if he drinks too much milk without eating a lot of food. I know that sounds stupid, but he'd rather drink milk all day long than eat a balanced diet. I've resorted to mineral oil in his evening milk, more fruit - peaches, pears, plums (anything with a "p" helps #2), make sure he drinks a lot of water or juice/water combo and worse case scenario - give him a suppository. They have them in the pharmacy department - they are made of gelatin and dissolve.

You've gotten some great suggestions. I just wanted to add that be sure to talk to your dr. to rule out encopresis (sp?). That's a dangerous condition where they get all clogged up and only diarrhea can pass through.

Increase his fiber intake - fruits,raisins, wheat breads and pastas, even juices. My daughters had the same problem but our peditrician refused to subject them to over the counter or meds because of their age and the possibility that their bodies would eventually build up a resistance. Instead she simply said to add more fiber to their daily food intake and it actually did the trick. Now my two daughters not only eat and snack healthier but they've never had any reoccuring problems. Good luck!

We purchased the clear tasteless metamucil or one of those types of fiber/regularity powders to stir into our son's drinks (approved by our doc) and it did wonders for him. You might want to try one of those. I didn't do the whole dose recommended for adults obviously, but it did really help.

Also, when he's constipated, grape juice helps alot too!

Prunes and prune juice. Apples and bananas can actually cause constipation. Keep giving him lots and lots of water. You may want to talk to the doc anyway. I don't think it's normal for them to cycle between constipation and diarreah.

Mineral oil can actually have the OPPOSITE effect sometimes! Try prune juice watered down with a bit of water. Its natural and has no side effects.