Constipation

[Juliebove]

Ever since my daughter has been weaned, I have had trouble getting her to drink liquids. I have had to push and push and the best I could do was get her to drink a few sips. She just wasn't interested no matter what it was. Exception being the first time she had a sippy cup with a real straw. She kept having me refill it and unbeknownst to me, she was also having her dad refill it. We were away from home. In the restaurant, she pretty much blew out a diaper. Luckily we had been shopping so I had some spare clothes for her to put on.

When she was a baby she was underweight, but by the time she was 2, she was overweight. She constantly thought she was hungry. I thought this might partly be due to her undiagnosed food allergies. Her stomach was in constant pain and I think she thought eating would make the pain go away. But I also felt that she was confusing thirst with hunger. Hard for me to fathom because I am constantly drinking something. I can't stand to be thirsty so I try to prevent it from happening.

Now she is 10 and having problems. She has been 8 times to the Dr. with complaints of headache, stomachache, painful urination and wetting her pants. At first they suspected UTI's and then a yeast infection from all the antibiotics they put her on.

She has seen a variety of Drs. All told her to drink more water. And she did maybe for a few days but then she was back to lightly sipping and infrequently at that. I've cleaned off her desk at school and it is always cluttered with bottles of water, just sipped from or not even opened.

This last time to the Dr. she was given X-Rays. They found impacted fecal matter in the colon and said all of her labs with the exception of the one done that day showed highly concentrated urine which means she has been dehydrated.

The problem apparently is that her colon was so full it was preventing her from fully emptying her bladder. And the burning pain was probably coming from the concentrated urine.

I know getting her to drink more is the answer. So far I've had to lay down the law. She is not allowed to have a meal or a snack until she drinks a specified amount of water. The school teacher has moved her desk in front of the drinking fountain so she can not use the excuse that she isn't allowed to drink at school.

I've been having severe problems with her in the morning. She either won't get out of bed, or if she gets out of bed, she plops down on the toilet where she sits for at least a half an hour. By the time I get her out of there, she has 10 minutes before the bus comes. She has to hurry and get dressed, suck down 2 ounces of water (Often she just takes a sip and dumps the rest out) and get out the door. I give her an Ener-G chocolate chip bar, she has an Orgran bar to take with her, or she might have a couple of bites of cereal or a banana. Not good.

Then she comes home from school and two days of the week she has to change for dance and rush right off. Once again she might (if I'm lucky), suck down another 2 ounces of water.

They do have them take drinks of water in dance class, but they are only 2 ounce cups. I also buy her a bottle of water before class starts, but by the end of the night, she hasn't had but a few sips of it most of the time.

I am getting tired of it. How can I get her to drink more water? I have tried buying those little tubes of flavorings, but she doesn't really like them and her Dr. doesn't want her to have them. She wants her to have plain water only and maybe one diet drink per day.

I also need to find a way to increase her fiber intake. She doesn't much like fruits or vegetables. She does eat some. Probably not enough. She is eating more salads as she gets older. I did get her some fiber supplements but they are oat bran. Probably not gluten free, and she hates them. She has outgrown her gluten allergy but the Dr. said she needs to limit gluten to twice a week. She is still allergic to wheat. We have gluten free oatmeal but she doesn't like it too much. Sometimes I can get her to eat some apple crisp made from it.

She only likes white rice. Not brown or wild rice. Doesn't like dried fruit or nuts. Doesn't want to eat beans because she's afraid they will give her gas. She will eat sliced raw apples and baby carrots. She will eat green beans.

How can I get more fiber into her diet? How can I get her to drink? I don't want to keep hounding and threatening her, but right now that seems the only way.

[Generic]

I can relate to your daughter in a way. All growing up I had an overactive bladder. I get too cold I peed my pants, I heard water running I peed my pants......I remember having the concentrated urine problem as a small child 2-4 years of age or around there. It hurts horribly.

My concentrated urine came from my mom limiteding what I drank an hour or two before I went to bed, so I wouldn't pee the bed. No biggy, except when she put me in those extra cozy footed PJ's I got too warm and sweat alot, thus causing my urine to concentrate. Knowing now that all this was caused by my celiac. I have had dehydration issues most of my life from the celiac, and not absorbing well. Whatever I drank trickled straight on through. I felt like a big giant britta pitcher.

So at times I would limit the amount of anything I would drink, otherwise I would be in the bathroom every 5-10 minutes.

Does your daughter like iced tea or juice? maybe chocolate milk or hot chocolate? I realize it isn't straight water, but maybe you can start getting her to drink other things, I would think something is better than nothing. Maybe you could try lemon juice in her water. I know when I was a kid I hated water.

As for the fiber issue, I had a product recommended to me by a GI Dr. when I was taking percocet for gall attacks. The product is callled miralax. You can buy it over the couter at any pharmacy, it comes in a purplish/pink bottle. You simply mix it into whatever cold/hot beverage you want. It dissolves completely with no taste. It causes no cramping or urgency to run to the bathroom. Quite nice really. You take it and the next day you have to go at your leisure. Simple.

Also try doing a google search for kid friendly high fiber foods. There is some pretty sneaky recips out there.

Has the Dr. sent her to a urologist? There may be something bladder related going on some how.

Best of luck! You can tell your daughter it happens to other people too. I'm an adult now and still have problems from time to time.

[Juliebove]

I can relate to your daughter in a way. All growing up I had an overactive bladder. I get too cold I peed my pants, I heard water running I peed my pants......I remember having the concentrated urine problem as a small child 2-4 years of age or around there. It hurts horribly.

My concentrated urine came from my mom limiteding what I drank an hour or two before I went to bed, so I wouldn't pee the bed. No biggy, except when she put me in those extra cozy footed PJ's I got too warm and sweat alot, thus causing my urine to concentrate. Knowing now that all this was caused by my celiac. I have had dehydration issues most of my life from the celiac, and not absorbing well. Whatever I drank trickled straight on through. I felt like a big giant britta pitcher.

So at times I would limit the amount of anything I would drink, otherwise I would be in the bathroom every 5-10 minutes.

Does your daughter like iced tea or juice? maybe chocolate milk or hot chocolate? I realize it isn't straight water, but maybe you can start getting her to drink other things, I would think something is better than nothing. Maybe you could try lemon juice in her water. I know when I was a kid I hated water.

As for the fiber issue, I had a product recommended to me by a GI Dr. when I was taking percocet for gall attacks. The product is callled miralax. You can buy it over the couter at any pharmacy, it comes in a purplish/pink bottle. You simply mix it into whatever cold/hot beverage you want. It dissolves completely with no taste. It causes no cramping or urgency to run to the bathroom. Quite nice really. You take it and the next day you have to go at your leisure. Simple.

Also try doing a google search for kid friendly high fiber foods. There is some pretty sneaky recips out there.

Has the Dr. sent her to a urologist? There may be something bladder related going on some how.

Best of luck! You can tell your daughter it happens to other people too. I'm an adult now and still have problems from time to time.

The Dr. said she should have only water. She just outgrew a dairy allergy so she has to limit her milk. She does have rice milk sometimes, but mainly on cereal. She won't drink tea. She does drink orange juice, but that's not good when you're having urine problems because it can cause more burning. She was drinking cranberry juice when she had the worst problem but otherwise won't drink it. I keep buying different kinds of juice hoping she'll want those. I want to limit the juice though because she has a bit of a weight problem.

The Dr. said not to give her a laxative because it would make the problem worse. I was a bit astounded by this because my friend's daughter went through the same problem and she had to take laxative. Something mixed with juice. My friend put it in an insulated sippy cup. I can remember thinking how embarrassing that must have been for the girl because she was about 12 then and it was the kind of sippy cup a toddler would use.

My daughter did see a pediatric urologist when she was 4 or 5. He found nothing wrong at the time.

I believe this current Dr. has nailed the problem. She said she herself suffers from the same thing. It's hard for me to relate because I have never had this problem.

Thanks!