Constipation Archives

witholding for 3 years

dear dr.stoll,
My son has been withholding his stool for three years. He will be four this September. I breastfed him for the first three weeks of his life. Unfortunately, it did not work for us and I had to change him to formula. Of course, once I began the formula his stools were less and they were very difficult to pass. And just like previously mentioned on your opening page, he was afraid to pass the stools and began to hold them. Initially we tried changing formula. Then we tried bowel retraining suggested by our pediatrican. The retraining consisted of suppositories every other day for three days and then an enema every day for five days. This did not work, so our pediatrician referred us to a gastro MD. By this time our son was a year old and bowel movements, on his own, came about once per month. The first recommendation from the gastro MD was the mineral oil and metamucil regimen. Considering how difficult it is to get 11/2-2 year-old to drink metamucil before it gels up, this did not work either. We tried this for about 8 months. Next, We tried Miralax and Metamucil. This still did not work. From about the age of 2-21/2, he never had a BM on his own. I had to give him an enema every 2-3 days to prevent tearing and even more painful BM's. By about his third birthday, he was finally having BM's on his own with the assistance of mineral oil, milk of magnesia, fiber capsules, water, and whatever else seemed to work at the time. I have really tried to be consistant with each regimen but none seem to work. I have tried not giving milk and cheese products to giving him nothing but water. To make things even more difficult, he has asthma and now has to have breathing treatments everyday two allergy shots a week, and an antihistamine everyday. It seems everytime he turns around something is being shoved down his throat or up his rear end. He is potty trained as far as pee pee is concerned but whenever he shows signs of needing to have a BM I put a diaper on him. Sometimes the process for him to go can take 2-3 days. For the past two months I have left the diaper on him. I am concerned about him starting pre-school (or being able to at least) and the fact that everytime he has a BM it is soft and somehow he's still holding it. We've had x-ray's, scopes, and a barium enema. I know nothing is physically wrong with him. Right now i am giving him 4tsp of mineral oil every night. He is stooling about every 2-3 days. Should I now begin to add in some type of fiber supplement/laxative? Or do you have any other suggestions? Will this be something that will eventually go away? Have you ever heard of using flax seed? I apologize for the long explanation, but I am a RN and it is just habit. Thanks Brandy Taylor

Re: witholding for 3 years

Re: witholding for 3 years

Re: witholding for 3 years (Archive in constipation.)