Constipation question(s)

[Anonymous]

My four year old has been dealing with constipation for the first time this week. Sunday he had a large, painful/difficult to pass (but otherwise normal looking) stool. We started him on Miralax the next day (2tsp Monday and Tuesday) but he then didn’t poop until Thursday. We have been giving him 4/5 tsp of miralax since Wednesday and the doctor said we could give him up to 8tsp a day to clear everything out. I’ve been hesitant to give him that much because he has been going, but it’s weird— he went three times on Thursday and yesterday, but it comes out in basically a big fart, and it’s just kind of a very thick, sludge-like pile. I have read that poop can come out around an impacted stool— does it seem like that’s what’s happening here to anyone who has dealt with that? I mentioned it to the doctor and she said just keep giving him more Miralax until He basically has diarrhea.

The other complicating factor is that he has a cold and has had really low appetite (which the doc thought might be related), although he has eaten more today. The doctor also suggested the Miralax may be causing stomach cramps, though. But I know constipation can do that, too!

He did complain of a stomach ache once today, but otherwise has been acting generally normal.

Sorry for all the details but would appreciate hearing from people who have gone through it!

[Anonymous]

My daughter is often constipated (doesn’t eat any dairy but cheese…) but I don’t give her any Miralax. Sometimes she has normal, soft stools and sometimes she has hard pebbly ones. I don’t think your son will get impacted from a few days of constipation.

[Anonymous]

I dealt with this and didn’t love the effect of Miralax. I’d recommend natural magnesium calm, lots of fluids even some fresh fruit juice or a smoothie and mommy’s bliss constipation. That’s what really got my daughter going.

[Anonymous]

Lots of water. Stone fruit like plumps or pears work well too. It will clear up. But watch out for holding in poop if he is aftraid repeat the pain. Weir poops could be due to the cold as well. Viruses have weird effects on kids.

[Anonymous]

Google “encopresis” and figure out if you think there’s any chance that’s the issue. If you think it’s at ALL a possibility you want to go to a pediatric gastroenterologist for a property diagnosis and treatment. This is NOT quick to resolve and NOT something a pediatrician can handle properly. Ours misdiagnosed which meant it too longer to get to the GI doc and longer to resolve. Please don’t make the same mistake as us - it’s something that can easily take a couple of years to resolve as it is.

[Anonymous]

It could certainly be watery waste coming out around the compacted part - our DD ultimately had to have the pediatrician do a manual extraction.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My four year old has been dealing with constipation for the first time this week. Sunday he had a large, painful/difficult to pass (but otherwise normal looking) stool. We started him on Miralax the next day (2tsp Monday and Tuesday) but he then didn’t poop until Thursday. We have been giving him 4/5 tsp of miralax since Wednesday and the doctor said we could give him up to 8tsp a day to clear everything out. I’ve been hesitant to give him that much because he has been going, but it’s weird— he went three times on Thursday and yesterday, but it comes out in basically a big fart, and it’s just kind of a very thick, sludge-like pile. I have read that poop can come out around an impacted stool— does it seem like that’s what’s happening here to anyone who has dealt with that? I mentioned it to the doctor and she said just keep giving him more Miralax until He basically has diarrhea.

The other complicating factor is that he has a cold and has had really low appetite (which the doc thought might be related), although he has eaten more today. The doctor also suggested the Miralax may be causing stomach cramps, though. But I know constipation can do that, too!

He did complain of a stomach ache once today, but otherwise has been acting generally normal.

Sorry for all the details but would appreciate hearing from people who have gone through it!

He won’t get cleared out like this because poop is coming out around impacted stool. A cleanout consisting of 4 caps of miralax and 2 exlax at 6 pm is what my GI prescribed. Then continue on a maintainence dose of 1 cap a day for 3 months repeating the cleanout every two weeks to 4 weeks. Then slowly begin to reduce the miralax

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Google “encopresis” and figure out if you think there’s any chance that’s the issue. If you think it’s at ALL a possibility you want to go to a pediatric gastroenterologist for a property diagnosis and treatment. This is NOT quick to resolve and NOT something a pediatrician can handle properly. Ours misdiagnosed which meant it too longer to get to the GI doc and longer to resolve. Please don’t make the same mistake as us - it’s something that can easily take a couple of years to resolve as it is.

Yes to all of this. I tell everyone to go forward with a pediatric GI consult with any concerns about ongoing constipation issues as we're dealing with all of this with my youngest.

To OP- someone else also posted about a miralax clean out- our GI has us give 3 capfuls of miralax along with the regular dose of ex-lax squares for 2 days. He takes ex-lax ongoing and then does a the cleanup but just for 1 day a month to keep things moving along.

[Anonymous]

Pear juice
Prune juice he probably won’t like. Mushy prunes in baby jars could work, if he tolerates that ..

But, the pear juice like from canned pears. 100% juice, not syrup. And *not* the canned pears themselves.

[Anonymous]

OP here-- thanks everyone! It turns out, the lack of appetite and weird poops were likely related to his cold. Our other child now has the virus and has similar issues. Our son's poops is still a bit weird, but he's had no miralax for the last two days and things are still moving. So, hopefully he's alright for now. Appreciate all the info in case this comes up again. Thanks!