Beyond Irritated!

[norahsmommy]

My 14 month old is chronically constipated. I have eliminated many foods from her diet due to constipation issues, painful bm's, weird colored stool, seeing all her undigested foods in her stools and so on. I took her to the doc today because she hasn't pooped since Friday and its Thursday now. They prescribed a stool softener and had an x-ray taken of her tummy to make sure there were not problems that kept the stool from passing. The doc I really dislike called me to let me know about the results. He said she was full up with poop (surprise) and that her colon looked a bit swollen. He said to Finnish the prescription then start her on a half cap of miralax 2 times a day. Then to up it to 2 full caps if that doesn't work. He gave no indication of when that would stop but the prescription I have will last for at least 2 weeks. It was alot. So alot longer than 2 weeks on a stool softener. He said it was likely she was just not getting enough fluids. That is NOT true because she is constantly drinking and has plenty of soaking wet diapers. Then he suggested running a humidifier in her room. When I mentioned that I thought it was food related and NOT due to lack of liquids he just skimmed over that and repeated the lack of fluid thing about 3 more times. So questions, is miralax gluten free?? and is it habit forming. Stool softeners have never worked for her in the past so why should they now, they don't work for me either for that matter or for my father. He can take them for 8 days straight and have NO bm's at all. I really wanted a referral to a pediatric GI but they didn't see a reason for it at this point. I gave her her prescription stool softener tonight before bed as it said to and she threw it up. So that didn't work.

[mushroom]

I can so understand your frustration! Are you in an HMO situation where you absolutely must have a referral? If so, do you have the financial wherewithal to go outside the system, having explored the qualifications of a good pediatric GI? I would think at this point, having read your previous threads and posts, that this might be money well spent. Perhaps then you would have evidence to present to your HMO about what your daughter needs. If you are not thus restricted. If this is not the case then I would find another doctor immediately, because the one you have is not helping her.

[CathyG]

I had the exact same problem with my son. He was so bad that he had internal bleeding - he was in so much pain every time he had a dirty nappy and some times it would take over an hour for it happen. It was heartbreaking - I did everything, took him to all the doctors and gave him all the medication under the sun (which never worked). The way that I fixed it was to put him on a lactose free formula. It took a few days, but he became much more regular and the pain was gone.

The only thing is - that even still to this day, his poops are still a funny green colour, but that's the lactose free formula that's doing that.

Goodluck and I hope you manage to sort it out soon. I know how awful it is to watch them go through this.

[shopgirl]

Miralax is gluten free and is absolutely not habit forming. It's an osmotic which means it just pushes extra water into the intestines to soften things up. It's not a stimulant.

I was prescribed it and had no problems other than a little extra gas. Just make sure she's drinking a healthy amount of water. I don't know what it would be for a baby but I always drank at least 64 oz. a day and was fine.

[Cypressmyst]

This sounds like me when I was little. Take all dairy out of his diet. No milk, no cheese, nothing with casein in it (It likes to hide in things) and maybe throw in soy just to be sure, it likes to be sticky in the same way that gluten and casein are and can cause similar problems. I've been dairy free for a few months now and the one time I accidentally had some I stopped up for days. Gluten and Casein are kissing cousins, both very bad news.

Best of luck to your poor baby and you. Please let us know how it turns out!