In a previous post about my little Mr Farty Pants, I touched on the subject that he has always struggled to poop. This got increasingly worse as time went on and at around 9 months old, things changed for the worse.
He wouldn’t poop for days on end and when he did try to go he would stand bolt upright and tense his whole little body and scream in agony. I tried everything to help him: leg exercises; trying to sit him with his knees up on my lap; feed him apricots, prunes, raisins; and after a few weeks of these the effects started wear off.
I got increasingly worried and took him the GP to yet again be told that it was normal, but to help ease the pain, he give him lactulose. Again, this only worked for a short time. He was then prescribed a powder medicine called Movicol, and I was to give him half a sachet every morning. This did help again for a while.
It wasn’t until just after he turned 1 years old that I finally got referred to a paediatrician and he advised that we increase the Movicol to 2 sachets every morning and this would be messy, but we needed to clear him out. We then went back after a month or two, can’t quite remember, and the Doctor said that constipation in children was quite common and only 1 in so many children have it severely. He gave us a treatment plan on how to wean Bertie off the Movicol.
Within a week of being off of Movicol he went back to square one, it’s like we had done nothing to help at all. I put him back on one sachet a day until his next appointment in a few weeks time.
The Doctor said that he could feel a “series of boulders” in his tummy, which were “quite hard”. He told me to up his Movicol again to 3 sachets a day for a few days and then back down 2 a day. He again told me that it was common for children to be constipated, but this time I said but what if my baby is that one that is different?. The Doctor said there wasn’t a lot that cold be done till he was 2 years old, so we are booked in for some blood tests in January before our next appointment. He is 2 in early February so it’s close enough.
So, for the foreseeable future, he has to have 2 sachets every morning. We have also been assigned a community Nurse to help out with a few things before our appointment in January as he likes to refuse food a lot too.
On a happy note, in spite of this ‘little issue’ he seems to be growing well and following his centile for height and weight.
Mummy Bee Knows Best 