Please Help

[karly1824]

Hi im new to this forum and so far have found it to be very helpful..i hope you dont mind but now im going to pick your brains..
Ok so my son is now coming up 26mths and ever since i can remember we have had problems with him moving his bowels in the early days we had situations where after a week he was so uncomfortable that i would insert a cotton bud to help him get started...it wasnt all hard it was as if he held it in and then a hard plug formed...anyway after months of going to the docter and been given lactoluse on a daily basic (sometimes as much as 6teaspoons a day)
we were referred to the hospital..they put him on both senna and lactoluse and sent us away now nearly 18months down the line after having to keep food diaries because the doctor thought i was feeding my son crap he is still on 20ml lactoluse and 10 senna a day our last visit to the hospital it was decided that we would try and reduce his medicine slowly but this isnt working as soon as i do this he stops going..if at his next appointment we havent reduced it they want him to go into hospital have an operation to take a part of his bowel and back passage away to analyse it now i wondered if anyone had a similar story or anyone can advise me on whether this could be food related ie is he intolerent to certain foods now i have no idea where to go for food intolerence advice but want to look at every possibility before i put him through an ordeal in hospital please help if you can as his next appointment date looms im getting so worried
many thanks
karly

[Pam]

My daughter suffered from constipation as a result of milk intolerance but she also got griping pains with it (it was a dose of lactulose that drew attention to it). Ask the doctor if you can try some suppositories for a few days instead of lactulose (not pleasant having to insert them but they usually work within 30 minutes or so). Then try cutting all milk out of his diet - use soya/rice/oat milk and a dairy free margarine. Remember that cheese, chocolate, yoghurts, ice cream etc are all made with milk and milk is often hidden in processed foods (sorry if I'm stating the obvious but I did once hear someone in a clinic say that they were giving their child loads of yoghurts to make up for the fact that they couldn't have milk). You must stop the lactulose if you are trying a dairy free diet though as it is actually the sugar part of milk. You can make a similar type of syrup with brown sugar and water which is quite effective, but you might find that the problem resolves itself by taking milk out of his diet anyway (when I switched to a dairy free diet for myself I certainly noticed a difference).

You could do with a referral to see a dietician as you shouldn't really remove a whole food group from his diet without taking advice to ensure that he his receiving all the nutrients he needs, but I don't see any harm in trying a milk exclusion diet for a few weeks.

Come back and let us know if you find any answers or come and ask questions if you need to know any alternatives, most of us have been doing it for a while and have tried lots of different products.

[Bet]

My daughter suffered serious constipation @ the same age as your son and before we realised she was milk intolerant. Of course we also were giving her loads of lactulose which has milk in it. By the end she was definately holding it in out of fear - like you say, once the hard stool is passed everything else comes out a lot easier. Getting her out of nappies helped us a lot - I think in her own mind it was more difficult for her to hold it in without the nappy there - however she was 2 yrs 7 mths old by then and at 26 mths it may be a bit too soon for your son to try this.

Are there any other symptons which suggest a dairy intolerance? - bloating, excessive gas, irritability, not sleeping well etc - my daughter suffered all of these symptons as well.

A cranial osteopath we were seeing at the time regarding my daughters problems helped her once when she was constipated. She started to massage a certain part of her - I think to the left of her stomach which she said encouraged bowel movement. Within 5 mins my daughter went to the toilet! Not sure if this is something you could find out easily or not but it sounds like your son has quite a severe problem. I can sympathise tho' having seen my daughter go thru it as well.