I’m copying here an email I’ve sent to a private doctor in case we can get someone to see us. We’ve been struggling with my daughter since birth but GP insists she’s fine. I don’t agree but I don’t know what to suggest is wrong as that’s what they ask me every time ‘what do you think is wrong??’ I would really appreciate any insight or suggestions as to where we can go from here with her? Thank you so much for reading.
I hope you don’t mind me emailing you directly. I found Dr’s details on the BUPA directory. We have BUPA cover and I am concerned about my daughter’s bowels. She has had issues with bowel movements since a few weeks old, and has required daily lactulose ever since to maintain soft and regular bowel movements.
We are now up to 16ml a day which I feel is a lot for a not-yet-18 month old toddler! I haven’t had any luck with my GP who states she is normal but my first baby never had this issue and passed normal breastmilk bowel movements until 6 months when we started weaning into solids. Phoebe’s bowel movements have smelled like vinegar, and had mucus in them since a few days old and she also had solid bowel movements from around 3 months old (despite only ever receiving breastmilk) which is when we started her on lactulose. She only needed around 2ml a day to keep it soft enough to pass at this stage but as she weaned onto solids the dose has slowly crept up to where it is now.
From birth to 6 months old she also had issues with weight gain, passing down from the 75th centile at 2 weeks old to the 35th by the time she was 6 months old. She always passed plenty of urine and I am very confident my breastmilk supply was always sufficient for her, so I don’t know why this could have been. Once she started solids she took to them well and from 7 months old onwards her weight gain massively improved and she is now on the 70th centile.
During the first 6 months she was breastfed it was suggested to me by breastfeeding consultants that she may have an allergy. I tried removing several common allergens from my diet over a period of 4 months. This started with dairy, then removed soya, then egg and then oats (as is replaced my dairy intake with oat milk!) all of which had no effect on her bowel movement or weight gain. I re-added these to my diet with no effect on Phoebe but as weaning progressed I thought if it was an allergy it could become more apparent. This did not happen so this closed off what I thought was the most likely cause of her symptoms.
We have just plodded along until now as we were managing on the lactulose but her dose has had to go up several ml over the past few months snd I’m aware the maximum recommended dose from 1-4 years is 20ml a day, which we are now approaching. During this week we are going to attempt to switch to movicol but I have always been uncomfortable that we are just managing and symptom and we don’t know the cause of this constipation.
My hope was that she would grow out of it but it seems to only be progressing as she grows, although I am relieved she now gains weight well.
As we have BUPA cover I was wondering if Dr would consider seeing us, because although my GP is not willing to refer us to gastroenterology at our local NHS hospital I may be able to get them to agree to processing a private referral for us however I don’t want to waste their or Dr’s time.
Thank you for reading and hope to hear from you soon,
Talya
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