2 year old constipated ~ in pain ~ need a few suggestions please :)

DD1 is constipated :( She had been having more pellety stool for the last few weeks, but they were then often follwed by a loser stool. But today a couple of times she had gone to the potty and said she was doing poo's and nothing, then she sid twice that her bottom was sore, and me not actually thinking about what she was saying I didn't "click" :shakehead: :(

So what I need is a few suggestions for foods that I can give her to losen her up.

She eats lots of grainy bread, oats, fruit, yogurt, cheese, vegies and meat, so a good varied diet.

What should I avoid giving her as well, I don't want to exacerbate the issue further poor poppet :(

TIA xxoo

Try the more natural alternatives like prunes, pears or apricots. If it's really bad it may help to see the pharmacist at your chemist and get a single use enema (like microlax) just to get whats there out. there are also stool softeners available like coloxyl drops that may help in the short term.

Is she drinking plenty of water? I used to add prune or pear juice to DS's water.

She drinks plenty of water, actually lots of water :) But she doesn't have juice, mostly because of the amount of water she does drink we don't want her to stop drinking it and want juice all the time :lol: She love's pears so I can get her to have them more, and I could get some prune or pear juice and add to her water and reinforce that it is a treat :)

I agree with PP, lots of water adn i make a lentil pasta dish, that get s both the kids moving... poor litte bubs

Two words: Prune juice.

I work in a nursing home and this is the go-to-thing when it comes to constipation! And it's natural...

Thanks everyone :)

She'd gone off sultana's Squidipa :(

With the prune and pear juices, what ratio do you mix it with water and about how much in total/how often and how quickly would we expect to see a result :lol:

:think: I think that depends on how 'bad' is. If she is severely constipated, straight juice is the way to go. If it is to keep her 'regular' I reckon 1/3 juice, 2/3 water... but that is just a wild guess.... Maybe someone else will be able to help with that! I think you see the results in an hour or so?!?

You can get glycerol suppositories. I've had to use them with ds1 a few times. Oh corn!!!! Wonderful!!!!

I give DD1 pear puree when she cant go, it always helps.
When she eats bananas or too much cheese she gets constipated so on the day she has a banana I give her a few prunes too :D

I give dd dried fruit, lots of water or if she wont drink water then I give her really watered down juice. And fruit, like grapes or watermelon, with high water content

My DD had that when she was around 2 as well. Apparently it's pretty common when they're around toilet training age - they learn that they CAN hold it, and so they DO. And then it starts to hurt, and so they don't want to go, and it gets worse. :(
Anyways, I found that mixing 1/3 apple juice, 1/3 water, and 1/3 prune juice worked really well. If I didn't add the apple juice, she wouldn't drink it. She didn't like the taste of prune juice.
And, for what it's worth, the constipation issue continued off and on for a number of months with my daughter, but it did totally clear up, and now she's normal. :)
All the best!

Dried apricots and dates ar really good too.

With juices, if you're worried about her wanting it all the time, can you sneak it onto her cereal? I actually love the flavour of just a little bit of prune juice in my porridge. Then she's less likely to even know it's there. While you're being sneaky, a bit of psyllium husk on there too will get things moving.

Good luck!

I gave DD1 straight prune juice when she was 2.5 and constipated. It took about a day and a half before it worked though but it worked really well in the end. She got constipated a second time about 2 months later and I tried the prune juice again and it didn't work. The chemist gave me parachoc for her which did work in the end but the problem with parachoc is the active ingredient can get into their lungs if they lie down within 2 hours of the dose so I had to keep her upright. I really didn't like using it at all. Natural is definitely better but it is way more effective used earlier on.

I hope you get it sorted soon. It is horrible when they are constipated and in so much pain :hug:

I put psyllium husks on my cereal... works a treat :) Stewed prunes at work (also a nursing home) or pear juice. Seems to start working pretty quickly.

When DS was constipated while toilet training, I also used to massage his tummy in the direction of digestion to sort of "guide" things along. It worked

oops! Double post!

I had a problem with Oskar holding it in cos he didn't want to poo on the toilet or really in a nappy... doc told me to get Lactulose and just give 2.5ml (which is really small dose) once a day but I think he only had it 2 times? The thing is if her bottom is sore she might be also holding it in cos it is hurting and the problem with that is apparently if not careful cos it gets big and hard they can tear their bottoms and it can be rather nasty. So that is why he told me to use the Lactulose. I've never had to use it again, it just softened it up rather than made him go so it made it easier.

Thankyou all for you suggestions, I am off to the supermarket to get some supplies :D Where would I find psyllium husks? Because I can mix them into her porridge, I can also add juice to her porridge, she used to have fruit and juice in with her porridge, but for quite a while she had gone to yogurt mixed in with it. She had also been eating pears for desert at dinner, but hadn't done so for a couple of days, so I must get her back into them again as well.

DD1 doesn't have a problem doing a poo on the toilet or potty, she actually has only done two in nappies for the past few months (one when she was sick and one partway through getting her nappy off). she's actually pretty proud of being able to do it, so i don't think she would be holding it in, and what got me yesterday was that she was sitting on the potty saying she was doing a poo, and then getting up and say oh no poo :( My bottom hurts :cry:
I will get the pear and prune juice into her today and also do some massage if we don't get movement happening soon we will get something a bit more substantial like the other suggestions above, because I guess it only gets worse... :( I would feel horrible if she ended up tearing :(

Thankyou :hug:

I got my psyllium from a health food store. I'm sure they sell it packaged, but I think mine you can just buy what you need.

in coles the psyllium is in the health food section with grains like LSA etc and I think it was in about a 250g packet.
pity about the sultanas cause just a handful of those works a treat with my boys. corn is also another one that works in a similar manner to sultanas for the boys. and as others have said a nice warm circular massage works wonders

hope it sorts itself soon so you don't have to take on other measures

I was told to put about a dessert spoonful of brown sugar in some warm water to soften things a bit. I might try this as a last resort before going to the pharmacy.

Supermarkets and health food stores will have psyllium husk. Don't use too much, because it does kind of gel up the porridge a little. But you can add it to all sorts of stuff - if you bake any cakes or anything, you can substitute it for 10% of the flour to up the fibre content.

I was also going to say, but forgot :doh: - lay off the cheese until she's all sorted.

Anything yet??? Oh and just to clarify, when I asked if she was possibly holding it in.. I meant if she's constipated and it's hurting her bottom cos it's really hard or something, maybe she is holding it back (or tensing) cos it's hurting her. Anyway, hopefully she's sorted now.

Not yet, she had a really unsettled night last night and wanted the potty, but only did a wee, then this morning when i dropped her off at Daycare she wanted the toilet, did nothing, then wanted the other toilet so we tried that too and nothing, poor little sweet :(

I have her pear juice and water, along with quite a bit of pear last night, along with a heap of corn. I have prune juice and the psyllium husk, I could only get it in a 500gram pack, but Woolies had it in the Healthfood section, I mixed some pear juice into her porridge this morning and some psyllium husk, but she only ate a small amount of it. I spoke to her carers as well, and asked them to hold off on the banana, I didn't realise about the cheese, I can't remember what wa on the menu today either. but we will avoid it at home as much as we can until things get moving.

If we don't get anything substantial today I will add in the prune juice and I can also try the brown sugar :)

Sorry Ozziehoffy, I did misinterpret your post, you are right she may be holding it in because it is hurting, if it doesn't move soon we might need to look at a supository or something to soften what is there - if that is possible....?

Thankyou all for your suggestions :hug:, it is so much better to be able come here and use natural remedies before looking at a medical solution :D

Hopefully we get some movement today :crossfingers:

i hope your little one has some movement too

Thinking of you and your little girl. Hope she's feeling better soon. Maybe a warm bath would help too or a tummy rub. It might sound funny, but if she is in lot of pain, maybe it would hurt less if she 'goes' in the bath? :dunno: Might be a bit icky, but maybe it would help your little bubba.

:hug: sweety, :pray: everything will ease soon...

:leap: :dance: :excited:

We had movement :D

At daycare late this afternoon, apparently it was HUGE :lol: well it had been quite a few days since she'd done something, and longer for something other than pellets :(

Thankyou so much for all of your suggestions DD1 is soo much happier for your help :hug:, we will make sure we keep up with the good fibre so we don't go down this path again soon

:dance: :dance: woohoo!!!!!

Woohoo for poo!!

YAY!!!! Awesome news :) lol @ HUGE. I find that it's water Oskar needs more of when he starts doing pellets. Hard to keep up with little kiddies and their intake and know if it's the right amount of whatever it is they need to keep on top of these things.

Don't worry about the misinterpretation lol.....easy to do, probably didn't say what I meant clear enough hehe. All good :hug:

How's yr bubby? more regular now ??

Up and down actually... we will get a good run where things seem to be moving nicely, then back to pellets again, but at least it isn't going as far as last time.

She is eating lots of grapes and pears at the moment, which seem to be helping, but if we miss a day then it's not soo good.

We'll just keep the fruit going, and I am putting pear juice in with her porridge each morning,, jsut have to remember to not forget it, also have trimmed back the amount of dairy to help things move :)

Thankyou for asking :D

also try vaalia yoghurt, it's really good with keeping things on track, and try giving her a small amount of parachoc at night, it's parrafin oil and is very mild, but helps things along. remember too that if she is constipated, DON"T give her a lot of fibre, it just makes more poo, you need to give her stuff that will basically just go through her body, like yoghurt, juice, vege soup etc. i didn't know this until a few weeks ago, when dd would get constipated i'd up the fibre even more, but it was making it worse!