HELP,HELP-TODDLER "HOLDING IT IN"

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marymary

New member
I am desperately asking for help. My just turned 4 yr old is holding in her bowel movements. We've tried everything from not trying to make a big deal out of it to yelling to try to get her to go. she already eats lots of fruit & we've added more fibre to her diet, but nothing seems to help when she squeezes her butt cheeks when she's got the feeling to go. We've also tried flax seed oil, and resorted to using ex-lax. I know its all in her mind, but we're at our witts end and don't know what else to do.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
 
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I truly understand your child's situation since I've had constipation problems since a teenager and I'm still suffering from it even now. Western doctors will give you fibres and laxatives which don't help much. If your child is having lots of fruits and fibres, then she'll need to drink more water and juice, otherwise the fibres in her bowels will just aggravate the problem. Green leaved vegetables and yam have stronger fibres than the water soluble fibres of fruits. Exercises and walking help. Avoid fried food and baked food, since it is the main cause of constipation. Milk and honey help.

Have you ever come across the Chinese term "hot air"? It means dryness in the body, caused mainly by fried and baked food and dry weather. The browner the food is, the more hot air it has. As a remedy, we drink herbal tea. Sachets of Chrysanthemum and herbal tea help. Since your child is only 4, I don't recommend her drinking it too often. Nevertheless, a proper diet without fried or baked food is the remedy. From my experience, people with constipation need 2 or 3 times the fruits and water of normal people. Fruits like orange, watermelon, prunes and prickly pear are especially good for constipation.

Massaging her tummy also helps her bowel movement. Hope this helps.:gl:
 
My brother swears by figs and prune juice. His 6 year old daughter had dreadful constipation.

Attached is a great link on it- which may give you some ideas. Failing that, speak to a health visitor - they are incredibly understanding and can help her to realise that this is not her fault.

http://askdrsears.com/html/8/T081100.asp
 
child holding in bowel movement

wow; please let me know if you come across a solution. my 2 yr old daughter has done this since birth. very healthy happy child but wont let it come out. we are on day 13 of no movement. have tried everything there is.
 
My daughter had this problem for about 1 year when she was 2. That's the most terrible thing I've ever had to go through in bringing up my children.... seeing her face turn red with bead of sweats on her face and back, trying to squeeze IT out. Well..... at that time her diet was just horrible, no fruits or vegetables at all! You know how 2-years-old are!!!!

My daughter became lazy and scared of going to poo after a while, and later on we realized that she had constipation. It's a vicious cycle! She dreaded going to poo and the poo just got harder and harder. When I took her to the dr, I was explained that first we had to let her know that poo didn't always mean pain, so we had to make it soft so that she'd go willingly, not holding it back because of the fear of the pain!

It's a long term treatment, but it worked for her!
She was prescribed AGAROL, you can get it from the pharmacy in Central. Can't remember the name, maybe PANDA? It's World Wide House. She had to take 5ml in the beginning, but nothing happened, so we had to increase it to 8-10ml. It's not a laxative. I can't remember what's the name of the ingredient, it's just one kind of natural oil, that'll eventually be discharged from the body when she actually has some movements.
Is she constipated? Then, you might want to give her just 1 dose of laxative (my daughter was given SURLAX), just as to "clear away" the blockage, so the passage is clear the next time she has some movements.

The whole treatment took about 8 months.Thank God is over now! I'd recommend Agarol to anybody whose children have contipation problem.

Hope this help!:flower:
 
Hi there

You can try give papaya, prune juice and even giving barley with barley water. Heard that pumpkin can also help but no banana for constipation.
 
I sympathise. My daughter (now 4) started with awful constipation aged 18 months. Her diet has always been full of fruit, but she wasn't drinking enough. I gave her freshly squeezed oranges every morning, kiwi fruit, soft fruit, everything, and nothing made any difference. I bought homeopathic stuff and it made no difference. She had some anal fissures because her poos were so hard and big and there would sometimes be blood when I wiped her bottom. We tried a suppository in desperation and that was awful. I do NOT recommend it at all. It was traumatic for her, and for us. She was distressed at being out of control and we felt ilke we had betrayed her. In the end, I conceded defeat, and my paediatrician husband persuaded me to try using lactulose (a laxative, 5 ml in morning, 5 ml at night) over a long period of time c. 6 months and it made a big difference. Once we had cleared the blockage, everything was much softer, and her confidence eventually returned. Now she suffers from the odd bout of constipation if we have been on holiday, and she says ' mummy I need some medicine to make my poo soft' so we do it for a few days and then stop. It will get better. It's very common and very distressing for a parent. Hope you work it out.
 
Hi,

My baby is 1 year old and she had constipation problem. She had this problem for about 3 weeks i started to give her a bit more fruits, less of the foods that may constipate her and more water by offering it to her whenever she took it. May sound too simple but it really works. I have noticed that everytime she gets less water she gets a bit constipated. Even works the same way on me. :) I also agree with a comment above about prune juce, also peaches and try in the morning warm water with a bit of lemon juce, or just couple of slyces in the water before she has anything in her tummy. This advice i had from my doctor to me.
 
THanks everyone for your advice. It's funny because we ran out of flax seed so she didn't have any for about a wk & then started to go, on her own too. Not sure if that had anything to do with it but we've stopped giving it to her. She does still have prunes. Plus we're trying to not make a big deal out of it and told her "when you have the feeling, u just go" and that seems to work. WE do however make a big deal when she actually has the bowel movement and she gets so excited and calls all of us to come see. Hey, whatever works, right?!
 
Holding it in - i need help too

hi, i have a 5 year old son and have been strugglying with this problem for about 3 and a half years. I have been to the GP's, pediatritions, clinic's and many other parents and of course preschool teachers. I thought we had moved past it but it has all started up again. I am at my witts end. we have tried Actilax, chocolate laxatives, Coloxial, Suppository and of course prune juice and weetbix. He eats loads of fruit and we are not big on friend food. Its now been 6 days since he has opened his bowl. Ive tried to talk him into it, ive tried the screaming and yanting and raving, tried reading to him on the toilet for nearly 2 hours. He screams when he needs to go and runs to the toilet but when he gets there its gone 'back up' For years he held it in and i think its now a habbit. The last time i saw the pediatrition he said that the next step was a hose up there to flush him out and he said its very tramatic. Something i would like to stay clear of if i can. This can not be good for him and im sure is rather dangerous. Not sure how bad it is as no one has given me straight answers on it. I'm a single mother of 4 children and have never had this problem with any of the other 3 kids. I have written down the suggestions below and hopefully i can find those items in our chemist here in australia. If anyone knows of anything else it would be greatly appreciated. thanks - JOELY:thanks
 
have you tried the drink 'yakult'? my nephew has always had bowel problems and drinks this. the extra 'good' bacteria seems to help. also lots of extra fluids.
 
Yakult

:thanks I will buy some of that this morning and hopefully that might help. Since waking this morning at 7am he has ran to the toilet about 30 times. AND still nothing....The choc laxative i gave him last night has kicked in but he still holds in it. He has great muscle control. Its hard to explain to a 5 year that its BAD to do it and he will get sick. thanks again for your responce. I will try it :)
 
wow, i can't believe so many people are having the same problem. we have the same problem with my 18m.o. temporarily ok now, we tried EVERYTHING as well, moved from formula to cow's milk, prune juice, lots of water, chinese soup.

BUT one thing i want to mention, my MIL got 開奶茶 translation to English reads ('Hoi Nai Chai') from Yu Yan Seng. it's a Chinese remedy that you need to boil up. it's all pre-packaged, but it says it helps with kids constipation. i'm a bit suspicious of giving her such things at first, but this seemed to be helping a bit, i think with the help of a lot of other things as well. Just another thing you might want to try. we are giving her this about 2 times a week now.

For those who don't read Chinese, you can just print this and show it to Yu Yan Seng, or lemme know i can find the English name on the package when i get home.
 
We give ours 'Hoi Nai Chai' too on a weekly basis - supposed to help with 'hot air' too. My baby biggest stretch of no poo is 4 to 5 days and now he is on solids, there's no problem. Heard that pears are supposed to be good too for constipation.
 
want to write to this thread again, as we've found a very good solution and i'd like to share. it's 'rice water', basically, when you cook rice, when the water comes to boil for a little while, we take that water our and let bub drink it like water. just a small cup every day, and it's working wonders! her poopoo has gotten a lot softer, she's not scared anymore, and gets to go willingly almost everyday.

it's actually better than the hoi nai chai as you cannot drink that that much. this 'rice water' i think it's the most basic thing, just like us eating rice every day, so it's ok to have it daily, and it's really working for us.

hubby's grandmother gave it to him when he was a baby, MIL started with my baby and it's really working, hope this helps!
 
Try "Danilax Misture" Lactulose Solution. My little girl got the same problem and she is 13 months. She is taking it everyday and she is doing very well. My family doctor recommand it to me when I was pregnant and recommand it to my daughter as well. It is very good caused there is no side effect to it
 
A lot of times constipation is related to food allergy. Get the kids tested, try US Biotek test. It tests for 95 common food items. Avoid food that the kid is highly sensitive and of course the allergic food. Half the time, it helps solve more than just constipation.

Rgds

e
 
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