What the heck??!

[kfcboston]

How on earth did DS push out an intact suppository after 18 hours in there??!?! Since Friday he has been pushing with everything he's got, but to no avail. This is first real bout of constipation, although we used a suppository once before b/c he went 11 days without pooping and I was in a virtual panid. That one took 8 hours but it worked. He hasn't done any real pushing yet this morning, and it HAS only been 6 days since the last BM, but all he's gotten in addition to the supp. itself is a couple little squirts.

I'm planning on seeing if he's still pushing to beat the band today, and if so, I'm officially worried!! Any thoughts? Thanks!

Edited to say: DH is confident he inserted it correctly, although that's the only thing I can imagine went wrong??

[Momof3Labs]

Is Charlie bf'd or formula fed? Have you talked to your ped? The reason I ask is that it is common for bf'd babies to go 5, 7, even 10 days without pooping, and that isn't considered constipation either. (Constipation results in dry, hard poops when they finally come.)

Otherwise I can't help you - we occasionally had a poop-free week, but never used suppositories.

[kfcboston]

Since we've introduced solids (he is still BFed with some formula supplementation on days I work) he has vastly spaced out his BMs too, ut that's not the issue with him now. It's the straining and pain. This is a new thing for him. I tried a second suppository this morning and got a palmful or so of "peanut butter"-type poop, and the suppository stayed in. He just still seems uncomfortable, poor kid. The nurse in my ped's office had nothing new to add, except maybe mineral oil.

Maybe I'll do another suppository at bedtime if he hasn't pooped by then? I just hate to see him so uncomfortable and pained. :-(

[Momof3Labs]

If you are getting peanut butter-type poop, then it isn't true constipation, it's just infrequent pooping.

Try baby prunes or pears, or even a little bit of prune juice. These always do the trick for us!

[kfcboston]

Well, one of the peds in our group practice has suggested milk of magnesia. It's clear there's a hard stool in there blocking things up, including my ability to get a suppository in there. Hopefully this will work. We'll feed it to him via a bottle in the morning......

[Andrea S]

In the hospital sometime we will do rectal temps to try to get things moving.

Andrea
mom to Andrew 8/14/02

[kfcboston]

Yea, we tried that too, a few times. Nothing. However, I'm pleased to report that the milk of magnesia apparently worked and in short order. Let's just say my mom was nonplussed to see that this development had to occur on the ONE day she has him this week.
:P