Constipation in My 3Yr Old Daughter

Hi S., I too have been battling constipation in my daughter and the miralax works great. My daughter is 2 and I give her 1/4 capful daily and for the most part she goes every day. I would defintley try that.

I guarantee you that you daughter has food allergies/sensitivities. I'd bet my right arm on it. You should go get her tested. Also, start giving her probiotics and maybe kids chewable food enzymes to help her digest.
J.

I think you should talk to her pediatrition, most say dont give the child anything but prune juice unless prescribed by a dr. . Maybe she is so used to the laxatives and suppositories her body doesn't know how to work on its own.
AFter six days she needs to go immediatly to a dr.

Aside from the medicines others posted, she needs a LOT of water in her diet. Not soda, not koolaid, not Hi-C because the processed sugar can make it worse. You don't mention what kind of foods she eats. Do you know which foods are binding, and which are good for constipation? AVOID the processed foods like McDonalds and junky cookies. She should have seen the pediatrician by now after 6 days, it could lead to another problem. Call dr, asap, make appointment, and also ask what to add/take away from her diet.

I did Caro Syrup for my son who would go a week or more without a BM. Every time he had something to drink I always put 2 TBSP in it. At one point I also cut out ALL dairy and sweets and pushed the veggies and fruit in everything he ate. You can also do an enema at home, not pleasant but it is better than the ER. You also need to push water. Try to get her to drink the 8 glasses a day (pretty hard for a 3 year old but worth the effort).

Good luck to you, I know how miserable it can be.

Both of my daughters (now 6 and 3) have chronic constipation and have since they were 2 years old. Our pediatrician has them on a regular dose of Miralax, which has been wonderful! It is not a stimulant med. like a regular laxative...it just keeps extra water in the stools. Both girls started on an adult dose for about a week, just to get things cleared out, and then we gradually decreased by a teaspoon every few days. They now each take one teaspoon a day, and it keeps things just right. I am sorry you are going through this...I totally understand!

We have a 3 year old (30ish pounds) who has battled with constipation since trying to potty train. We give her a half of cap of miralax every day to keep stools soft. good luck!

eta: if things get bad for her (before we started the routine miralax) we gave her one square of exlax for three days in a row per our pediatrician. She said you have to retrain the bowel and get the BM's really runny so they have little control. If I can answer any questions you can send me a message.

My daughter had these same problems when she was young...where she would have a bm maybe once a week. More than looking at laxatives, the real question is WHAT is causing consitipation--then avoid it. For our daughter, we determined it was dairy. (side note--we replaced dairy with soy, but soy is the #2 allergen, so it did the same thing)
While we avoided dairy, we did have to give time for the bowel to shrink. It's so stretched out, it doesn't actually feel full, hence no urge to potty, until it shrinks down. We used prune juice to keep her regular while the bowel shrank, then we didn't need it anymore.
Once she could potty regularly, we would add *some * dairy back in. She craved it desperately, but if she overdid, she'd be consitipated again.
I encourage you to find the trigger food. Dr. Sears' The Discipline Book has a chapter on annoying habits, and he discusses bowel issues. I highly recommend it.

HI there,

I know you have had a ton of advice, but thought I would give mine as well..

My daughter has had this problem since 11 months old when I stopped nursing. We have done the miralax thing, but I didn't want her to have to be on it for the rest of her life.

I would strongly suggest getting her on a daily dose of probiotics. Go to the health food store and get the daily for kids. I wouldn't buy anything less than 3 billion per pill. You can also buy the liquid brand that has something like 50 billion in a bottle and give her 1/2 the bottle for 2 days. This will help get rid of the bad bacteria and add tons of the good.

Chiropractors can help a ton. Mine has helped both myself and my daughter.

Warm water every morning w/ lemon can help tons, as the lemon helps build up the acidity in the stomach.

Prunes, prunes, prunes... I would give her 1 baby food jar a day, or you could try pears as well. Both are great for consipation. If you want to avoid buying the baby food, you can buy a large bag at costco and then re-constitute 3 or 4 a day by adding them to boiling water for 10 minutes, or leaving them covered over night. ( dried prunes can make you more constipated as they take water from the stool ).

I would not add too much fiber to the diet until she is regular again as it can make the problem worse. It's not a bad idea to add it after she is normal though as it can help clean out your digestive tract.

The last thing we have done is added a powder magnesium supplement to her diet. I give it every few days and it helps keep her regular. We have had her tested for food alergies and nothing came back positive, so we haven't been able to find out what is causing this. Just trying to treat it and avoid her being on unnecessary meds / laxitives.

Good luck to you!

M.

Hope some of this

Miralax is the best, it works great. Ask the pharmacist how much to give her, they are great at knowing about that.

We have had good luck with magnesium - one in a liquid vitamin form and the other in an epsom salt bath. I always start out with the lowest possible dose and slowly increase by small increments if needed.

I have also had luck with treating for internal yeast via a supplement called grapefruit seed extract (a couple of drops in orange juice - again, I always start SLOW & LOW).

Some say that probiotics are very helpful too.

I am not a health care professional of any type - this has just been my own personal experience. When I wanted to try supplements I did alot of research myself and sought out the opinions of other qualified professionals (my ped was very little help to me though I like him personally). I would still check with my ped, though, before starting any new regimens, mainstream or otherwise.

Good luck.

as far as the karo syrup goes. get a sippy cup and put in about 2 tablespoons and then some water that might help. but easier and faster than any of that is what our doctor had us do with our son. Get a bottle of mineral oil at the pharmacy (or walmart target etc) its about $2 give her about 2 teaspoons full in a medicine cup or dropper. it has no taste. she will go within a pretty quick time frame. But be ready because when she does have to go she will need to be able to get to it quick lol. He had us do this for several days in a row. get her used to going at the same time every day. then take her in every day at the same time and sit with her till she goes. Make sure she is getting plenty of water in her diet. and also at least one glass of juice each day (real juice not hi c etc. but stuff like juicy juice cherry worked great for us) along with plenty of fruits and veggies. start skipping stuff like crackers / cookies etc. give her veggies and fruit instead. good luck

My daughter always had problems with that until we started using Miralax every day. We just put it in her milk in the mornings. In the cap there are a couple different lines and that's how we measured at first now I just put a small amount in but in the beginning our Dr told us to measure up to the highest line until she was regular then just play with the amount.

Good luck!

Is she drinking enough water? I know that sounds to obvious, but that's often a cause. When my daughter has any issues it usually clears up with LOTS of water, and I give her yogurt with applesauce and ground flax seed mixed in everyday. I've found that unless I'm really paying attention my daughter doesn't drink enough water (not juice). I just have a water bottle in hand and keep offering sips. Also, veggies, lots of veggies. 3 year-olds are notorious bad eaters, so if she's a finicky eater and tends not to eat whole grains, fruit and veggies, that may also make the problem worse.