My daughter is having the hardest (no pun intended) time with her poop. She is 3.5 years old and is still not completely potty trained because she absolutely refuses to poop in the potty. She has constipation issues and sometimes has really hard poo (like a rock!) that is obviously painful to pass. She cries and freezes up and will not sit on the potty. I guess I could make her sit on it, but she should want to do that on her own. I have taken her to the dr who told me to give her miralax in the morning. I have also switched her to chocolate soy milk in the mornings instead of cows milk. The problem is that if her poo is not rock hard, it just slides right on out and its like she doesn't even know its there. I only give her half a capful of the miralax and sometimes it works great and sometimes it doesn't. Does anyone have any advice on something else to give her and/or how to convince her to put her poo in the potty? She is so stubborn and I am so frustrated with having a 3.5 year old still in pull ups!
Thank you!
-L. B
Miralax definetly works. I used it for my son around the same age. After a day or two, I realized he needed less than the recommended dosage to get the job done.
I would significantly reduce your Miralax dose. My son had the same problem with 1/2 capful. We played around with the dose (remember it takes several days for the effect to show up). We went to 1/4 of a capful, then eventually weaned him to 1/8 of a capful. If her stool is runny at the current dose, she is taking too much. Just experiment until you can find a good consistency. Also, if the Miralax doesn't work, you might try Generlac. It is a similar medicine, but each kid reacts differently. The Generlac worked for my son for about a year, then suddenly quit one day, and we had to switch to Miralax. The way we finally got my son pooped trained was through stories. I would start every night before bedtime telling him this really good story. It was usually about a time my brother and I got into trouble, etc. However, right when I got to the good part, I would stop. I would then tell him he could hear the ending after he pooped in the potty. I didn't make a big deal of it and didn't push for him to go right then, just let him know that is how it would be. He is a very curious child, and couldn't stand not knowing what happened. Almost always, within a day he was sitting on the potty, wanting to hear the ending. Anyway, that worked for me. Good luck with this, I have been there!
Hello Leanne,
You can get oatmilk instead of soy milk. stop milk products for a few days. buy some pear baby food and add a tablespoon in her morning chocolate soy or oat milk. milk of magnesia helps a lot. the flavored ones taste so yucky and you can't hide the flavor in the choc. milk...so just get the regular milk of magnesia. keep in mind that milk may be the culprit why she has such hard stools. I had to take milk out my daughter's diet for that same reason.
by the way, if you compare pears and prunes, (at least baby food) they have the same amount of fiber per serving ... however, pears are so much more versatile...you can mix it in to just about anything! and pears don't give you the gas pain that prunes can cause Good luck! ~C.~
Leanne-
I feel your pain...My son went through the exact same thing. I took him to his Dr and a Gastroenterologist because it got so bad. They both said to use the Miralax which I did for quite a while. I had the same problem as you with the Miralax, his stool was so so soft it just came right out and he would have accidents all the time. I got so frustrated with the whole situation and the doctors were zero help... I also tried to adjust the dose of Miralax but it never worked. I finally took him off the Miralax completly and put him on a HIGH fiber diet...and I mean HIGH fiber. Everything from the bread he eats to the snacks he eats have fiber in them. I also make sure he drink tons of water (he loved the Capri Sun Roaring Water-flavored). I give him a small dose of Benafiber once a day and make sure that he stays physically active to get things in his system "moving". If he does have a day where his stool is very hard I distract him when he is on the potty so he will not get upset that it will hurt and I hold his hands so he can brace himself. He always gets a small treat if he goes #2. It's difficult because constipation is part mental (the fear of it hurting) and part physical...if you can get them over the fear they tend to go more often which help to prevent constipation. Best of luck because I know what a challenge this is! BTW we are expecting baby #2 this summer as well, Good luck.
Magnesium should do the trick. They sell flavored liquid Magnesium at the drug store that you could mix in with her juice. Of course there's the old standby of prune juice, if you can get her to drink it. ;-) I don't know that I would do soy milk, as I've heard it's hard to digest, you might try almond or rice milk (that's what I've had my boys drink).
I have to agree with the previous post on the pull-ups. As soon as I stopped using them we had a few accidents, but overall potty-training went much faster after that.
Hope that helps!
Miralax worked wonderful for my daughter and now she goes normal with no problems, i would give her 2 teaspoons in either her milk or juice before bedtime, i would do it every night until i saw her become regular on her bowel movements and then i went every other day and then every 2 days etc.. and now she is off of it completely. Also applying vaseline on the outside of the rectum can help the stool pass through easier. Hope this helps out. good luck!
My daughter had the same problem. After a few days at Cooks they figured the soy was making it worse. Her doctor had me take her off soy and stay with the miralax till her stool was liquid then she should stay normal. Hope it helps.
I had this issue w/my daughter. I had her on prescription laxative, but it was such a hassle because she'd be constipated and then take the medicine and have such loose stools that it was practically diarrhea. It was hard to figure out how much/how often to give her the medicine. Finally, I stopped using it and just started putting Benefiber in her drinks, our spaghetti sauce, anything I baked, etc. If you can dissolve it in whatever she's eating, add a teaspoon or so to up her fiber intake.
I know it sounds messy, but get rid of the pull ups. Put her in training pants. It will be a lot more uncomfortable and she won't want to do it in her pants any more. It should only take a couple of days. As for the hard stools, make sure she is getting plenty of fluids and apple juice is good for softening up poop.
GL!
I use the fleet suppositories. My poor 3 year old has been impacted to the point that it required manual removal in order to help him pass it - now we use Fleet's at the first sign of constipation, and keep it up until the stools are normal without it. I've also had to use a kiddie enema on him - that was a MESS, but it worked. As for encouraging continence, my five year old has started pooping in his pants, so I don't know what to tell you there.
S.
