constipation

Probably fecal impaction.  You might wanna make her drink warm water.  She needs to stay away from sticky foods like cheese, chocolate, sugar and so on for a while until the hard stools are out. (Here's is something that a person wrote on another website.... "One of the purpose of the colon is to absorb water, so at the beginning of the colon (the x area), the feces are liquid, but as the feces travel in the colon, they become drier and drier. Now if the foods you ate were sticky, then the feces at the end of the colon (the stigmoid area) will be dry and sticky..This is often the same facts you can observe when you wash your plate after a dinner. Some foods require only a little effort to be dissolved and removed from the plate, however if you don't wash your plate just after the dinner and there are sticky foods on these plates, the next day you'll have to use a lot of warm water and maybe a dissolver to remove the dry sticky foods").  It makes sense.  Additionally, she should omit consuming fibrous vegetables.  These fibres do not digest and if there is a blockage they end up adding to the already hardened stool thereby making it longer or larger.  Let her have as much as soluble fiber instead of insoluble.  Check out if the cereal that she consumes is fortified with extra iron or calcium.- both tend to worsen constipation. Another food that is hard to digest is nuts.  If she is fond of nuts (usually found in chcolate) then soak the nuts overnight to get the enzymes that help the  digestion process activated.  Fruits and cooked vegetables are the best. Exercise helps.  Exercise that focuses on the stomach muscles say riding a bike helps to tone the muscles back in action.  The hard stool also needs to be lubricated so please let her have flaxseed oil (1000 mg) softgels x 1 a day Lots of Vitamin C induces bowel movements.  Squatting helps. Right now movicol/miralax seems to be the only option until all of the old poop is out. Gluten in food sometimes can be one of the reasons for fecal impaction so please have her checked for that.  Sitz bath helps because the blockage is already in the last part of the colon (although you may have to be a bit creative for a 6 year old to understand its importance)..

Hi my child had the same problem. It took a few trips to doctor and a trip to A&E to get sorted. The doctor gave lactulose first which was no good as she was really bunged up, then said she would grow out of it. When

She hadn't moved her bowels for 3 weeks I took her to hospital, they

Confirmed she was bunged up. She was passing overflow for a while

Previously. The consultant prescribed picolax bowel prep and dulcolax

For 3 days. Very messy and unpleasant but effective. This emptied her

Bowel and she was then prescribed movicol twice a day. She is still on

This and has had no problems since. My advice is to visit doctor, try to

Put child on toilet 20 minutes after each meal. Give plenty of water and exercise. Prune juice may also help. I hope you get sorted because from

Experience this can be difficult for the whole family. Let me know how

You get on.

Janice

That's ok. I hope everything gets sorted, fingers crossed !

Janice