Constipation in Toddlers

Hi everyone, we have an adorable ( im biased ) 2 1/2 year old little boy who has always been regular with his bowls, (2 times a day ). The last few months we've ( day care & myself ) decided it is time for him to go from nappies to pull-ups to undies, as he has been telling us he needs to wee wee, (which has been an absolute blessing ) but we've noticed that he will not do poo's for days when he is in undies, at one stage he was rushed to hospital for an enema, luckily though the poor little thing had an explosion just before they were ready to insert...this has happened 3 times now,
( nappies undies pull-ups nappies undies pull-ups ) he is so frightened of doing a poo without a nappy on that he literally is running around saying mummy mummy stuck, poo stuck, & crying, it just breaks my heart...
Please, if any one else has gone through this sort of delema i need your help.
Worried sick... jakes mum

I understand your pain. When I TT Lindsay he did exactly the same thing. He wore a night nappy for awhile and he would go in that first thing in the morning before I took it off, but when he stopped wearing a night nappy he refused point blank to poo in the toilet too. he would hold it in for days until I put a nappy on him to do it just so he didn't get constipated, because he would get pains in the belly from holding it in.

In the end I just made him sit on the toilet before he actually had the urge to go and he just did it. Getting him to do that first one was all he needed and after that he was fine.

Try what I did with Lindsay and get him to just sit on the toilet before he needs to go, and gets that rushed "I need to go NOW" sensation, cause he might hold it in so he doesn't do it in his pants, but thne can't do it cause he's holding it in IYKWIM? Also get him to drink plenty of fluids and even a little watered down prune juice to try to keep it soft for him so is doesn't hurt so much when he does do it.

Good luck

Hi there Jakes mum,
We went through a very stressful time with DD and constipation. She had a bout of constipation and from then on was to scared to go to the toilet because it hurt. Before this she was perfectly potty trained. But once the pain started that was the end of it. We had to take her to the hospital I think about 2 or 3 times because she would get to a point where she couldn't hold it anymore and would try to poo but it would be to big and too compacted to come out and would get stuck on the way out. Very scary thing to see your poor darling with her little bottom stretched to the max. Anyway this made things worse cos she got even more scared. Ended up taking her to the doctor who said to put her on parachoc (liquid laxative suitable for kids) and that she would probably need to be on it for a few months. The whole point being that it would soften the poo and they would realise that its not going to hurt when the do it and eventually go by themselves. All in all it eventually worked. But we took her off the parachoc and used a natural alternative. If you put 1 teaspoon of brown sugar in their sippy cup it actually makes your kid poo. Works fantastic for DD she became really regular on it. So maybe that scroller will help you.

Hi there girls, thanx for your replys, im definatley going to try keeping him on the toilet longer, its just a mattter of timeing it i suppose, we've tried the kids laxative from the hospital (twice, for 4 weeks) great to start with, but as soon as undies go back on trouble starts again, haven't tried Prune Juice but a nurse told me about dialuted Pear Juice which he loves & it works for a while but again as soon as we try the undies its back to the terrible pain of it all, im so worried that he will be a three year old still in nappies...thanx again Carla

What about trying to put his undes on the outside of his nappies or pull ups? That way he might still feel like he's in nappies, but it looks like he's in undies - this may do a alot for his self esteem in relation to this.

I don't mean to pry, but is there a reason why he is afraid to poo in his undies? Has someone yelled at him before for having an accident in his undies? (Not saying it's you, but might have been at child care?) Perhaps thats something you need to look at as well.

Good luck!!

When I took the nursing bottle of my daughter, she had many episodes of constipation. We finally solved the problem with Lingonberry (Vaccinium vitis-idaea) shoots extract.
The treatment for toddlers is 25 drops (1 ml), 2 times daily with a little water between meals. The treatment lasts for up to 3 months, then take a break for 1-2 months, and you can resume.