Constipation 14 month baby

[EKP601]

My 14 month old son has been suffering from constipation for the past few months. My GP will only prescribe Lactulose and I’ve tried prune juice, lots of veg and fruit in his diet etc but nothing seems to help. He does regular bowel movement which is soft but he’s in a lot of discomfort every time. Hate seeing him in pain and looking for advice ...

[Staceyronnie]

Hi EKP601

At the start of our journey with my little one at 2.5 years old, we were prescribed lactulose also. This only served to make it more difficult to pass as the sugar in the lactulose changes the consistency of the contents of the bowel making it very very sticky. I would revisit your gp or try another if you find your current gp to be unwilling to explore other options. At one stage I had video recorded my little one screaming and crying in pain when trying to go to the toilet and played it to my gp. This seemed to convince him there was something a little more than unbalanced diet going on here.

Movicol was a game changer for us and luckily we have a great continence service in our town that takes self referrals so we didn't need a gp to refer us although after seeing the videos he did suggest it. The continence team will prescribe the treatment best suited to your little one and advise how to carry out disimpaction if your gp is still unwilling to help.

This is key I believe, trying to achieve regular bowel movements without pain when there is already a blockage there simply won't happen. Your little one may need to be 'cleared out' through disimpaction and then have maintenance doses daily of movicol or something similar.

There is lots of information on ERIC website that you could print and take with you to your gp, they should be following these guidelines but most gp's don't recognise how many children suffer from constipation and seem to think a change in diet will fix everything. It won't unfortunately and a lot of children will need some form of intervention and longer term treatment to overcome this issue.

Please do ask if you have any questions, I feel like our years of struggles could at least help someone else see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Good luck you and your little one ❤️

[EKP601 in reply to Staceyronnie]

Thanks will definitely look into this route and I want to see a different GP x