Consipated 3 Year Old Help! Been Potty Trained for Number1 for 6 Months Now

Pear juice, pear juice, pear juice!! Works everytime. Buy it in the baby food section. It tastes fine by itself or you can mix it in with apple or grape juice. I use it for myself as well and my sister, who has irritable bowel syndrome, drinks it daily and swears by it. Just use it regularly.

Hi K.,
We've had this similiar issue with both ours. Worse for our now 5 yo then our 3 yo. We found the best solution was almonds. Plain whole almonds providing he can chew on them without choking. We haven't done much of the over the counter stuff since the almonds worked so well. The kids do eat lots of fruits and vegies and I think that's extremely helpful (as well as healthy of course). Try straying away from a lot of dairy, particularly cheese as it will plug him up. Some of the other natural ideas are raisins, grapes, apples, avacados, prunes. Like I said, we have done them all and still serve a lot of the natural stuff but have had the most success with the almonds. One more note to that..don't forget the water. Plain old fashioned H20. Nothing added..and lots of it. New Year Blessings, L.

UUUUUGH! I KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DEALING WITH!! My 5 year old has ALWAYS had problems and now, when he goes, he almost ALWAYS clogs the toilet. We went to visit my mom not long ago and after a week of not pooping, I gave him a children's enema. He went that night and my mom couldn't use her toilet for 3 days. Blocked SOLID. Because not only are their BM'S LARGE, but they are hard. The glycerine suppositories even quit working for him and I have to occasionally give him a children's enema. Usually when we have to force a BM, there's blood involved.

My pediatrician gave me a "clean-out" guide to fully clean him out. One of the main directions was to provide 15 g. of fiber a day. It's hard! Fiber One bars have 9 g. each, but they're expensive. I even tried dried apricots, chewable fiber and Miralax.

The clean-out consisted of daily doses of Ex-lax, which I didn't like at all for a small child. I did do it for the first two days, which resulted in a major blow-out.

The clean-out also recommended Miralax daily in ADDITION to the Ex-lax. Drinks in-between meals, and try to use the potty right after every meal. I would make my son sit on the potty after every meal, even though he said he didn't have to go and more often than not, he would go.

He still has problems but I've found that increasing water intake and physical activity is great. It's hard in the winter time, but we just got a Wii and I have my son do the foot races on the Wii fit., and some tennis and baseball on Wii Sports. About 10-15 minutes and usually that gets things moving and he's actually been regular for the last two weeks. HALLELUJAH! One time, he was so backed up, I could feel a hard lump in his SIDE. Oh, it was awful.

Water, water, water! They even make flavored fiber packets you just add to water- uh..... Crytal Light or something? I can't remember. But I used those also, and they're not too costly. But remember to increase fiber intake gradually as to not cause cramping and gas, and with more fiber you must drink more water.

Good luck! I know how hard it is to make a 3 year old drink water when they don't think they are thirsty! And also remember that for some people, going 3 times a day is normal, and for others, 3 times a week is also OK. My son has been going every other day for the last couple weeks and I am in HEAVEN! They are still large, like, I don't know HOW that came out of my son, but he's not complaining of pain or anything, and he's very proud of himself.

Kiwi, avacado and kefir always really loosen up my kids. Also, making sure he is getting enough water is important as well. I've heard beets are effective but haven't tried them. Ground flax seed is also excellent for a number of things (brain, heart, bowels etc) and should help a ton with regularity. I often add it to a smoothy I make for the kids or you could add it to kefir/yogurt. Ground flax seed tastes nice.

Also, I just read the first response about a possible parasite. My husband and I are doing a "cellular cleanse" starting with the new year and so I'm doing a lot of reading on the subject. Well, I learned of the different types of cleanses and colon, parasite, liver and kidney. We have a dog so its very possible that we have parasites (ewe, yucky, yikes). Small things you can do to try to erradicate a parasite: eat raw carrots, rub raw garlic on their feet since most kids would not consider eating it!, raw pumpkin seeds (probably not likely that they will eat it) and freshly squeezed pineapple juice in the morning on an empty stomach (freshly squeezed or juice that isn't pasturized). If you're interested in learning more about a parasite cleanse you can google scott ohlgren or parasite cleanse.

Good luck!

My oldest boy had this same problem. Here is the only thing that worked. I filled him with water as much as possible, I spiked EVERYTHING he drank with mineral oil and corn syrup (tbsp of each). Out of everything we tried, this worked the best. Oh yeah, and we never gave him anything that might bind him up, no rice, bananas, dairy, etc.

Good luck, it is sad to watch.

It took me 2 years to potty train my oldest on pooping. Peeing in the potty was pretty quick, but she was scared to poop and would wait until she had her pull-up at night. We had to have the pullup 'cuz she doesn't wake up when she wets the bed, and she has a genetically tiny little bladder. We started using the children's suppositories and it took about 2 months of doing that every night before she got the hang of doing it on the potty. Honestly, I would say keep doing what you're doing. My daughter screamed through the suppositories, too, and we would just tell her that if she wouldn't go in the potty by herself, we would make her. After a couple months (she is extremely stubborn) she started going on her own and never looked back. Also, if his bowel movements have become big/hard, it's changing the shape of his colon and that makes future bowel movements that same shape. Keep doing the suppositories and that will help put the shape of his colon back to normal. Good luck, whatever you decide to do!

I'm not sure if your little guy is constipated or withholds - there is a difference. My son started withholding when he started eating meat around 9 months because he had one painful stool. Now at two, he gets a little over .5 a teaspoon of Miralax daily in his milk and goes several times a day without problems. His stools are always super soft and he eats a well balanced diet of fruits and veggies and drinks plenty of water. When we miss a day it is definitely noticeable. His stools will still be soft, but he will go very very little. It took us a lot of trial and error to get him on the right dose for Miralax. We did try other "natural" things but nothing worked as well or reliably as the Miralax. I would talk to your son's doctor to rule out any other problems and maybe try going back to Miralax - when we first started it took about a month to figure out how much worked and we've had to tweak it since - either more or less depending on his needs.

with me daughter we used pear juice and apple juice also it might be more of it scaring him the thing that finally got my daughter was we put her potty in a tent and she was out of sight and she did just fine it suprised us all good luck!!!!!!!

Constipation is not a normal state for anyone, much less for a child. It indicates an imbalance in your child’s system. Poor diet and lack of fluid are the most common causes of constipation. High fiber foods and fluid makes stools soft and passable. Most of the time, constipation in children is due to a diet lacking fiber and water.

Once your child is constipated, you need to look to natural ways to get things moving. Flax oil is one sure-fire way to get things moving. You can read more about healthful alternatives to childhood constiptation at
http://www.babybites.info/2009/04/27/constipation-kids/