Still Chronic Constipation

[BemLmom3]

Hi all

Thanks for reading. My daughter is 5.5 yrs old, her story is in my siggy. I think I do a good job of keeping gluten out of her diet except of a few times I knew she was cc. Her symptoms have always varied from moods, foggy/spacy, failure to thrive from 2.5yr to 3.5yrs, vomiting, but mostly chronic constipation. Even with her gluten-free/CF diet she takes daily mirilax, then with the mirilax if she gets cc she gets backed up. Last back up from cc she had a huge belly, looked preggers! After I did a "clean out" with mirilax her tummy went right back down. But now here we are a couple weeks later and she is not going and tummy getting big. Last normal poop was Sat. Sun she told me there was a little blood on the tp after she wipes, which always means constipation for her. Then yesterday I went with her to see if she went poop all day. Nope, none.

I fear I need to take more out of her diet. Corn maybe, soy? But gosh, then she really has nothing to eat! Her 2 brother's eat regular foods, so it makes it hard. I am VERY particular about all her stuff is separate, even utensils. She has her own eating area. She plays alot in her room where no one eats. And she has never been a child to put toys in her mouth. So you see, I think I am doing pretty good with the gluten-free/CF part, yet she still has to take mirilax? The gastro says it is ok to take daily, but it seems crazy to me to be on the diet and still HAVE to take a med for constipation?

Her is her basic diet, and how she feels about it:

Fruits, she loves most all, raisens lots

Veg, carrot, brocc, pea, and corn

Meats, tuna(starkist reg or wally brand) ground hamburger, bells and evans gluten-free nuggets, she likes these

grains, rice and the De Boles rice spaghetti, I make her pancakes from any of the mixes that say gluten-free(bob red mill) and Lundeburg(sp?) rice cakes, the honey nut

aunt B's honey bbq sauce or muir glen ketchup in rice and pasta or she hates those

she loves Jiff pb and honey on rice cake or the jelly that says gluten-free

Now for snack foods:dora cereal, rice chex, lots of frito's, cookies I make from bob red mills flour and mckormick vanilla

she drinks OJ with calcium and water mostly

Thats mostly her diet

What do you all think? I think of this place as the experts so I highly value any opinions to help my little girl's tummy. Oh and the constipation is really the only symptom that has not improved. She grew like a weed once we made the diet change!

[StephanieM]

SOme of the things I've used for myself as well as my kids (6 and 4) are as follows:

- peaches .. One peach a day keeps my son regular.. I don't care how he wants it, sometimes it's cut up plain, other times in yoghurt, or with a little sugar sprinkled, sometimes even with a little nutella spread on top.. As long as they eat fruit, I accomodate how they want it.

Apricots- I used the jarred ones when my daughters constipation was really bad.. I'd cut up 5 halves and mix them with yoghurt, or I"d even puree them and mix them with vanilla yoghurt

- perhaps she is eating too much rice products? Rice is considered a constipating food. (rice, bananas too)

- could you add flaxseed to her pancake mix, or homemade cookies with flax. Even dates, find a nice recipe with dates and see if she likes that?

- is she drinking plenty of fluids throughout the day? Is her urine light or dark?

- is she taking a calcium supplement or drinking too much milk? Calcium also tends to constipate in large amounts.

- I give my kids a fish oil supplement daiily. The kids ones are flavoured, and although they have fishy breath after, they love the supplements. Fish oil helped me when I had probs.

I do agree with you. It makes more sense to use natural foods, than meds to fix a problem> Meds are great intermittently to help, but I think you are best to try and find foods that will help her without a daily reliance on meds.

Hope this was helpful to you,

Stephanie

[teitei]

Hi all

Thanks for reading. My daughter is 5.5 yrs old, her story is in my siggy. I think I do a good job of keeping gluten out of her diet except of a few times I knew she was cc. Her symptoms have always varied from moods, foggy/spacy, failure to thrive from 2.5yr to 3.5yrs, vomiting, but mostly chronic constipation. Even with her gluten-free/CF diet she takes daily mirilax, then with the mirilax if she gets cc she gets backed up. Last back up from cc she had a huge belly, looked preggers! After I did a "clean out" with mirilax her tummy went right back down. But now here we are a couple weeks later and she is not going and tummy getting big. Last normal poop was Sat. Sun she told me there was a little blood on the tp after she wipes, which always means constipation for her. Then yesterday I went with her to see if she went poop all day. Nope, none.

I fear I need to take more out of her diet. Corn maybe, soy? But gosh, then she really has nothing to eat! Her 2 brother's eat regular foods, so it makes it hard. I am VERY particular about all her stuff is separate, even utensils. She has her own eating area. She plays alot in her room where no one eats. And she has never been a child to put toys in her mouth. So you see, I think I am doing pretty good with the gluten-free/CF part, yet she still has to take mirilax? The gastro says it is ok to take daily, but it seems crazy to me to be on the diet and still HAVE to take a med for constipation?

Her is her basic diet, and how she feels about it:

Fruits, she loves most all, raisens lots

Veg, carrot, brocc, pea, and corn

Meats, tuna(starkist reg or wally brand) ground hamburger, bells and evans gluten-free nuggets, she likes these

grains, rice and the De Boles rice spaghetti, I make her pancakes from any of the mixes that say gluten-free(bob red mill) and Lundeburg(sp?) rice cakes, the honey nut

aunt B's honey bbq sauce or muir glen ketchup in rice and pasta or she hates those

she loves Jiff pb and honey on rice cake or the jelly that says gluten-free

Now for snack foods:dora cereal, rice chex, lots of frito's, cookies I make from bob red mills flour and mckormick vanilla

she drinks OJ with calcium and water mostly

Thats mostly her diet

What do you all think? I think of this place as the experts so I highly value any opinions to help my little girl's tummy. Oh and the constipation is really the only symptom that has not improved. She grew like a weed once we made the diet change!

My 6 yr old son with Celiac (and Down Syndrome and possibly Autism) has always been constipated on and off. I thought the gluten-free diet would make it worse because he has lost the fiber in the whole wheat breads he used to eat and I was right. I am going to try adding flax seed, but something that usually helps him is a product called Juice + Fiber. It's available here:

Open Original Shared Link

Hope you can find something that works; I know it's frustrating. I stopped the Miralax after I found the Juice + Fiber. It worked that well.

[Wolicki]

I suffered with C for 10 years. Now I take 2 probiotic capsules daily and have no problems. My son had the same experience. For us, it works better than yogurt, but we eat that daily too. Hope that helps. Also in tthe labdays before celiac disease, benefiber worked great. Check the lable though, I dont know if it's gluten-free, because we don't need it anymore. Be well.

[Ahorsesoul]

See is she will eat some yummy large raisins (2 to 3 dried prunes a day). Sometimes it helps if you tell her these are only for gown up girls and you are not sure she's old enough for them.

If she will eat soup beans (kidney, navy, lima, etc) that might help the constipation also

Jelly Beans

2 - 10 oz frozen lima beans, cooked 5-7 minutes

1/4 lb butter

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup water

Mix the butter, sugar and water together in a pot.

Bring to a boil and simmer until thick and creamy (about 10 minutes)

Toss in lima beans

Over medium heat stir until most of the syrup has disappeared

I personally use less sugar. Then I use a less water and just add water if needed

during the cooking.

[taweavmo3]

I know it may be hard, but I would definately try eliminating the Chex, Dora Cereal and Fritos. These have all caused major gluten reactions in my daughter, and even in my son who isn't quite as sensitive. I discovered this after months of trying to figure out what was making us all so sick. I never thought it could be the "gluten free" Chex.

Since then, I have become very skeptical of companies who have "gluten free" products,but who also make wheat products as well. I steer clear of companies like Wellshire Farms (they've had recalled products b/c of high gluten content), Van's (also recalled pancakes), and Amy's. We also can't tolerate foods made in a facility with wheat. It's a pain, and I do make most of my stuff from scratch....but it has become a necessity.

I do trust Kraft, we have never had any problems with their products. And of course, companies like Kinnikinnick, Namaste, Enjoy Life, and Glutino are great.

Hope that helps some. Your poor little girl, I can imagine that is really painful to deal with on a daily basis. Hope you find some answers!

[chiroptera]

Speaking of beans, there is a recipe floating around for black bean brownies. We used to eat them on Weight Watchers before going gluten free but I bet they could be made with a gluten-free flour. I swear, noone ever would guess they had black beans in them!

[Raven's Mum]

Raven's had on going issues with constipation and bowel blockages. Of course she has CF as well so she's kinda doubley ''bunged up''. She was on the Mirilax for awhile, too. She LOVES prune juice so I always try to have some on hand. This is something I can't use with Raven because of her CF but I've had great luck with it with dogs and my son. It's Slippery Elm Bark Powder. Might be worth looking in to.