1 year old Constipation

[prairiefire1987]

Hello,

Im very new here and very much wish id found this group sooner.

I wonder if anyone can help. my boy has been exclusively breastfeed since birth. He had never poo'd a lot and through his early month could go two week or so. I was told this was normal as there isn't much waste from breast milk. He has been slow to eat substainly intake of food so I didn't think much when even when he was 8 month old or so he still wasn't pooing a lot. Around 9 month he started to eat more. Around 9 months I noticed we were on day 10 of no poo when he eventually did there was a lot of it. The poo seems healthy in consistency and was soft but he did have to put in a lot of effort to get it out. a few weeks later we were on nearly day ten again. This time when he was pushing, he actually started hyperventilating. I think it was a combination of the pushing, his body trying to expel so much poo at once and this taking his breath away. I called the health visitor who said this can be normal and as long as the poo wasn't hard like rabbit poo then not to worry. I looked to reduce his dairy, increase fibre and fruit. I don't give him processed foods. He is now 11.5 months old. he tries to poo on a near daily basis. usually starts off with minimal effort but by day 5 he's pushing frequently throughout the day, going red in the face with very little reward. Today when I changed his nappy could see the poo clogged up his bum, I placed a clean finger there and he started pushing and 2 long poo's came out, toward the end I could see part of his rectum squeezing out he was pushing that hard. I came across the website ERIC and now feel like I've really let him down, taking the HV advice that this was normal when I think he actually is severely constipated and is withholding. i'm worried his Bowel has now stretched. I called the GP today and she has prescribed Lactulose. Can anyone offer any reassurance and other tips on how I can help him? I just don't want this to become a chronic issue for him.

[Dex17te]

We had the same but a few months down the line we appeared to be sorted. Best to get it fixed before he gets scared to push or in our case bleeds. It will be fine.

[prairiefire1987 in reply to Dex17te]

thank you for the reassurance. Did the lactulose work in the end?

[Robinia]

I think you’ve done an excellent job of realising what the problem is 😊 please don’t worry about long term damage. The bowel can recover- just takes time and soft easy to pass poo. Now you know the issue I’m sure you will find a way to manage it, good luck x

[Robinia]

Also if the lactulose doesn’t work you can ask for movicol instead and then ask for Senna as well if the movicol doesn’t work on its own

[prairiefire1987 in reply to Robinia]

thank you! we are on day 10 of Lactulose but it doesnt seem to be helping. im trying to up the dosage slightly but its sometimes hard to get him to take it. i put it in his smoothy this morning so i hope he got a good amount. its heartbreaking. I might ask for the movicol instead,

[prairiefire1987]

ive also tried two supositorys now - 10 days apart and they didnt do anything either!