chronic constipation

[sudoko5]

Hi my son has had constipation problems for years. When born he passed meconium during/right after birth. But then didn't poo for 2 days and had to go to the doctors to get his stomach massaged. I breastfed for a year and he had extremely loose poo most of the time. However I have never seen him go to the toilet and not strain no matter the consistency of his poo. He then was very hard to toilet train and was sent home from nursery regularly with diarrhoea- but he was not sick he just frequently had very loose poo. We also had nights of crying with pain of tummy ache from 3 years on that I can remember. we treated this ourselves using syrup of figs. Then although toilet trained at 4 he started having toilet urgency issues. he was referred to the urology dept. at the hospital. He had a bladder scan which showed his bladder muscle was not working well- his bladder had a constant drip. we were told as he grew older his muscle would strengthen. He then started having wet beds. hes not a big drinker and is not good at eating veg. Last year he had lots of tummy aches and headaches and seemed to have a loss of energy. So he was referred to a paediatrician. The paediatrician did some blood tests- including coeliac disease. There was nothing found. Then she did a scan of his bowel. It showed the bowel very swollen and full indicating constipation. we got movical prescribed and followed the instructions for disimpaction. this was last june. We then had him on 2 sachets for maintenance. by January this year I was not doing movical every day thinking it had been long enough. he had started having stomach aches and headaches again and I realised he wasn't going as often. It was every 4/5 days. so we did disimpaction again and then kept him on 4 sachets maintenance dose. He is still fairly loose but if I decrease the movical he stop going daily and quickly gets constipated. since February he has had continuous tummy aches and nausea as well as frequent headaches. his vision has been checked, hes ok with bright lights and is never sick despite feeling sick, so its not migraines. Hes now 10 1/2 years old.

I have read online about hirschsprungs disease and it does seem to fit his history of chronic constipation/ diarrhoea since birth. the condition is usually found early but can be found in an older child. Does anyone have similar experience with their child or experience of hirschsrungs disease in an older child??

[Robinia]

My son has just had rectal biopsy to exclude Hirschprungs. From what I have read it is unlikely if meconium is passed soon after birth. Also the surgeon told me usually with Hirschprungs there is no soiling. The surgeon found that my son’s rectum was massively enlarged because of severe constipation that stopped responding to medication and he’s now using transanal irrigation- today was the first attempt and it worked!!!! Possibly your son is once again constipated. It might be worth doing another disimpaction and introducing a stimulant like Senna. Also have you considered food intolerances?

[flowerlov]

Poor boy. x Children can also have a slow, sluggish moving bowel. It can all be linked to Autism. / Hypotonia / Hypermobility. I have also hears that if large bowel stretches, it will loose the strength to move poo down intestines. Get an MRI scan, it saved my daughters life. Constipation caused sepsis in my daughters bowel. x She is getting better now, but still has burning red cheeks.? Take care, demand results, your boy needs it sorting as I have heard horror stories when the bowel gives up after too long having these problems. x