My 3 year old daughter has been suffering from cronic co...

My 2-year-old daughter's doctor prescribed lactulose for her when I discussed my concerns about her having a bowel movement every five days, even though the doctor said that was "normal". I was very concerned because my daughter had a raw, organic diet, and I couldn't imagine what it was that was causing her digestive system to be so inefficient, not to mention the pain each movement caused her was certainly making things worse!

Unfortunately, the lactulose didn't make her go any more frequently; it just made everything softer when she did go, but after 3 months of 3 tsp of lactulose every day with no change, we knew we needed to try something else.

We went to a naturopath who suggested adding ground flax powder, salmon oil, vitamin C and magnesium oxide to her diet (each of these in very small quantities), quinoa with her dinner, and twice daily tummy rubs with warmed castor oil, and now Lily goes twice every three days like clockwork, without straining!

Have you considered going to a naturopath?

Best of luck,

Sarah

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Hi There

I was very interested to read about your daughter's positive experience with a Naturopath.

I am 26 years of age and have suffered from chronic Constipation for as long as I can remember. I have been to the Doctor on several occasions recently as I simply can not go on like this, I feel constantly tired and lack energy.

I would defintely consider seeing a Naturopath for this problem, and was wondering if you can reccomend anyone ?

Thanks in advance,

Amy

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my 2 1/2 yo daughter has been having problems with her bowel movements eversince she turned 1 yo. she has been taking lactulose 5ml 2x day...at first she would have soft stools everyday...which is a great relief to us since she has this fear before of going bacause her stools were really hard and straining was extremely painful for her. but lately even if she has been maintained on iactulose, there are still episodes of really really hard stools every 2wks or so and we had to do manual extraction. it is traumatic for her but we are left with no choice rather than seeing her straining unsuccessfully almost every hour. now im concerned about using lactulose indefinitely; everytime i start to taper the dose she'd go back with the hard stools again. ive read that post about naturopath...tell me pls just how much/little vitamin c can u give?

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Hi there!

For Amy - I'm in Toronto, Canada, so I'm not sure I could recommend anyone. But I believe the UK has Naturopathic Certification, and I would guess that you should be able to find out which Naturopathic Doctors are in your area.

For Grace - Lily is only taking 100mg per day of Vitamin C. We give it to her in powder form, so it's only a 1/16 of a teaspoon (we actually found these really cute measuring spoons at a Kitchen Stuff Plus store for "Dash", "Pinch" and "Smidge", and the "Pinch" is a perfect 1/16 tsp!). My understanding of vitamin C is - for an adult - anything more than 500mg taken at once will just get urinated out of the body, to a maximum of 2000mg per day, and that anything more than that can be toxic. I don't think the vitamin C does much more than to boost the immune system while it fights whatever's going on in the digestive system.

Lily has been SO much better for over two months now with the following supplements every day:

1/2 tsp of ground flax powder

1/8 tsp (200mg) of magnesium oxide powder (twice daily)

1/16 tsp of Vitamin C powder

1 tsp Cod Liver Oil (Lily likes it, but you can use Hemp Oil or Udo's Choice Oil instead; it's the EFAs that are important)

1 Castor Oil belly rub (we rub this into her belly clockwise after her bath as hard as she will let us - we recite the alphabet (one rotation per letter) so we can get a good 26 rubs in!)

I've been told by MDs and NDs that the magesium oxide is the supplement that's helping the most (soft stools, and last week she had a bowel movement EVERY DAY!!). We started with 100mg twice a day and worked up to 200mg twice a day, and this made all the difference.

We have also just recently found this wonderful supplement called Salba. It's a seed grain (like sesame seeds) that has the same muciligenous properties as pysillium seeds (they produce a gel that helps things move more easily in the bowl). We grind up a tablespoon of it in a coffee grinder and then serve it to her in her dinner with all of the other supplements. Mashed sweet potatoes mixes well with ALL of the above items (minus the cod liver oil). The Salba bulks up the size of her bowel movement - they're pretty big, but still soft enough that Lily still doesn't need to strain.

I hope this helps!

Sarah:lol::lol:

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My 5 year old daughter has had problems passing a motion since she was a very young baby when she was "prescribed" freshly squeezed orange juice. The problem continued and we were then given Lactulose, this worked for a while but soon things got back to normal, although I feel her teeth were ruined by this medication.

Most of the "help" and advice we have been given has been anything but helpfull and she is at this moment under the dining room table hugging her knees and swaying back and fourth trying to make the poo go away. More soiled pants, and another day of not going.

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hi my son has had problems for 4 years we are at our wits end but remember the best advice is to never ever give up trust mums instinct and ignore the docs even a bowell doctor he follows nhs guidelines not health for the patient guide lines our son is 8 now and every 6 months they admit him to hospital for a day give him a liquid ennama up his bottom and he is fine but his condition reappears 3 months later good luck try the advise above also powdered bran in yogurt or porridge helps a lot even in biscuits andy

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