@lorenzomcgoo Does she eat any dairy? Cutting any foods that might be constipating may help. Prune juice and pear juice can be great natural laxatives. Also adding a probiotic might not be a bad idea. Edit: when my son was 2 went through an intense “holding it” phase and was only pooping once a week. We were giving him prunes, prune juice, senna, etc. and he was STILL holding it. Cut out most dairy, and suddenly all the stool softening magic started working. Once he wasn’t afraid of pooping, we starting giving him his regular amount of diary and was fine after that.
Struggling treating 2 yr old’s chronic constipation
- Thread starter lorenzomcgoo
- Start date
@lorenzomcgoo Senna every day for a couple months was the only thing that worked for my son. It got him in the routine of doing a poo every day and gave his passages a chance to shrink back to size. Had to experiment a bit to find his perfect dosage. All done on drs advice. One day he just said “no more” to the senna tablets and we stopped. 2 years later we’re still on 1 poo every 2 days (stopped going every day once the senna was cut) and he can finally do poos without too much straining. Tbh I can’t believe he took them, just cutting them in half the smell was strong enough to make me retch but I was pregnant.
christianarmywife
New member
@lorenzomcgoo Mine likes milk of magnesia better and then she doesn’t have to drink a bunch of water. We do 7.5ml once a day with a syringe. A doctor can give you a dosage and it’s easy to play around with.
@lorenzomcgoo We make whole grain bread with freshly milled flour. It’s super high fiber and always does the trick (for the grown ups too)
petronoris
New member
@lorenzomcgoo We’ve been doing the Miralax thing for over a year, but I also want to recommend HyFiber for kids. We give our son 2 half caps daily in various beverages. We left it home by accident on a trip once, and discovered how much it helps alongside the Miralax. Our goal is to eventually wean the Miralax and just use the HyFiber. I know your issue is drinking liquids, but I wanted to share!
@lorenzomcgoo My daughter went through a phase around that age as well so we would feed her a couple of spoons of prunes from the prune packs with her dinner. If she ate a larger meal or something with a lot of meat that I thought could cause more constipation then I would give her a a little more. It helped. After about a year we slowed it down to every few days then none at all because she just wasn't constipated anymore. Doctors suggested high fibre foods like pears and beans but they weren't cutting it. Or she wasn't able to eat enough of it to make it effective. With prune we were able to maintain softness in the stool.
@lorenzomcgoo All of the fiber options helped but nothing worked well without lots and lots of room temperature water. Take them some where to run a lot and get really thirsty. Only offer water. If they eat veggies those work better than fruit.
angelbelle
New member
@lorenzomcgoo I’d stop the miralax and try chia seed pudding, calm magnesium nightly and the chocolate fiber bars from Trader Joe’s.
@lorenzomcgoo I’d also stop the miralax. Check out https://www.facebook.com/share/VdjaKJScMheDHHzQ/?mibextid=WaXdOe Parents Against Miralax support group
Bioray has a product called Pooper and that helped tremendously for my son. And magnesium supplements
Bioray has a product called Pooper and that helped tremendously for my son. And magnesium supplements
ecclesiastian
New member
@ecclesiastian Apparently some kids have had serious issues after taking Miralax. It is not actually recommended for kids per the manufacturer, no testing has been done for safety if I recall correctly. But because so many people have used it and mostly been fine, doctors have assumed it to be safe.
ecclesiastian
New member
@jonhansen Got any citations for that first sentence? Miralax is not absorbed systemically so has essentially no side effects other than short term diarrhea if you take too much
@ecclesiastian I’ll dig a bit more for better citations but the AI generated summary from my Google search is as follows:
“Miralax (PEG 3350) has been the subject of controversy for years because of a 2014 study that found 167 children taking Miralax had severe emotional or psychiatric side effects. The FDA has received reports of adverse events from 950 children after taking Miralax, including mouth ulcers, suicidal thoughts, mood swings, aggression, and seizures. Other parents have reported serious side effects, including:
Tics, Rage, Uncontrollable tics, Hitting, biting, and pinching, Anxiety, Behavior issues, and Paranoia.
The FDA has approved the use of Miralax for adults only, due to lack of clinical trials in children. However, many doctors believe Miralax is safe for children as young as 6 months.” Edit: I just remembered that there were also issues with Miralax being contaminated with something at some point, which wasn’t a high enough dose to impact adults but was really bad for kids. Allegedly this issue has been resolved.
So maybe the issue isn’t the Miralax itself but possible contamination during processing. I understand that scientifically it shouldn’t cause issues due to how it works, but if there is something in it that shouldn’t be, that would explain kids reacting badly.
“Miralax (PEG 3350) has been the subject of controversy for years because of a 2014 study that found 167 children taking Miralax had severe emotional or psychiatric side effects. The FDA has received reports of adverse events from 950 children after taking Miralax, including mouth ulcers, suicidal thoughts, mood swings, aggression, and seizures. Other parents have reported serious side effects, including:
Tics, Rage, Uncontrollable tics, Hitting, biting, and pinching, Anxiety, Behavior issues, and Paranoia.
The FDA has approved the use of Miralax for adults only, due to lack of clinical trials in children. However, many doctors believe Miralax is safe for children as young as 6 months.” Edit: I just remembered that there were also issues with Miralax being contaminated with something at some point, which wasn’t a high enough dose to impact adults but was really bad for kids. Allegedly this issue has been resolved.
So maybe the issue isn’t the Miralax itself but possible contamination during processing. I understand that scientifically it shouldn’t cause issues due to how it works, but if there is something in it that shouldn’t be, that would explain kids reacting badly.
@ecclesiastian Hey no need to be so close-minded and judgmental. Just sharing in case OP was interested. It’s a group that offers alternatives for gut health based off experience. This is a crunchy moms thread after all