Help! Terrible constipation in DD

[joonbug]

I put it here because I need as much traffic as I can get...
DD has had gastro issues since birth, reflux, slow stomach emptying, aversion to food. She's on 4 teaspoons a day of Miralax, which has her going usually twice a day. If she doesn't, she stops eating and even starts throwing up. But her bowel movements are very loose (the feeding people want them that way), which is not contributing to her potty training :(. Plus, she started having stomach cramps, so I thought to lower the dose a bit. We were doing 3 tsp each morning and she was fine, still going twice a day but it was more predictable and not as loose. Then, at the end of last week, she stopped going. No bowel movement Saturday, but her stomach bothered her, crying, holding her bottom, after increasing the Miralax, she had a couple hard pellets and then two massive blowouts. So we thought we were in the clear. Then yesterday no poop. She was getting slightly uncomfortable, complaining about her tummy, today was terrible. She has had screaming and crying bouts most day, I don't know what to do! Do we go to er? We ended up there for constipation when she was 18 months old.. Suppository didn't work either.
Her diet is unfortunately aiding constipation, won't really drink juice, lots of Pediasure as it s been the only thing that makes her gain weight. What do I do?

[elephantmeg]

aww, hugs. The ER will just do an enema or a supository. I guess since the supositories don't work maybe a kids fleets enema? I'm sorry!

[wendmatt]

Will she take milk of magnesia? That's what I would give to dd (pink medicine) if she wasn't going, we have had similar issues over the years and MOM always did the trick. Poor baby, that is awful

[dogmom]

Try putting her in a warm bath, I have found that to help relax things and sometimes that will help. At the very least it will help the cramps. I would go to the ER if you felt her pain warranted it. What does your pediatrician say? Can you call him/her?

After this emergency is resolved I would think about going to a GI specialist at this point.

[Katigre]

Could it be something more serious like a partial bowel obstruction that would require surgery?

[joonbug]

Thank you Ladies. I gave her a tablespoon Milk of Magnesia, hope she ll poop today. I had a thought it might be something more, like an obstruction, but she had such two blowouts on Sunday that it looked like it got all flushed out. She 'should' be fine (a day or two of no poop followed by big blowout happened before, but not with such terrible cramps, and then she was fine). But she isn't.. Sigh. Scared here, will need to call the pediatrician today, maybe the feeding people.. We used to go GI doctor at a regular basis (actually, we were through 3 different ones as I wasn't happy with the lack of proactive care) and the last one, a great one nevertheless from a children's hospital, discharged us, he didn't even think DD had reflux (after a number of tests, including endoscopy, came back normal).
I ll try calling the feeding clinic first and see what they say, they re the most familiar with the DD medical history... Maybe they can recommend a GI working with them.

[wendibird22]

:hug: How frustrating it must be for you all. Have you tested her for gluten intolerance? I ask only because the chronic constipation, stomach ache, reflux, etc are consistent with gluten issues. In children it's not very easy to test for (blood tests are typically inaccurate) but an elimination diet might prove useful.

[PunkyBoo]

Boo has been on miralax for acouple of months. He has a habit of withholding since we pt'd him, but he was having cramps and lots of leakage and big blowouts with the miralax. His ped suggested that the dose was too harsh onhis systemwhen taken all at once. She had me split it into 2 doses- so he gets 1.5 tsp in his morning juice and another 1.5 tsp in a cup of water or milk (or whatever he has with a snack) about 5 pm before dinner. The cramping and leakage havestopped. He still doesn't go daily but he's not screaming in pain for 5 minutes before pooping anymore, so he's likely not withholding anymore. So I'd suggest splitting the dose and see if that helps you. The ped told me that would have been the first thing the GI would have tried anyways so now I don't even feel the need to see the GI.

[joonbug]

We saw the pediatrician. She upped the Miralax so that DD poops everything out, it'll take some time but she seemed to have been getting more and more constipated for a while... Now she's stuck up. Plus give prunes and more fruit and veggies. poor thing pooped 4 x today but at least she feels much better so I guess it s working. I'm going to make an appointment with a GI as well, so we'll see what new ideas he might have. Thanks All, surprised to hear a lot of kids gets constipated!

[Simon]

I am glad to hear she is doing better.
Also consider if/how her diet is changing with the seasons. Ds2 happened to be eating a lot more apples lately and that is causing him trouble. Well, apples + rice and a little too much banana is enough to cause problems here. We have to really restrict certain foods, or at least space them out through the week.