[bmarsicano]

my daughter is almost potty trained, she's 4. The one problem I've had is her bowel movement. When I first brought her home it was fine, but when I started potty training, she started withholding and when she did have a bowel movement it was the size of a tennis ball and hard. I've given her enimas, rubbed her back when she went, warm water baths. She always soiled her underpants a couple of times before she actually went potty. I've been giving her aloe vera juice and coromega, no change in that, but others are improving. She screams when she has a bowel movement and starts crying because it hurts to push it out. Her ped said to make sure she drinks, eats veges, etc. and she doesn't like to drink that much and forget about veges and fruits. She'll eat them for a while, then stop. I'm going to call her ped tomorrow and see if she can recommend a specialist, but for what?? My mother thinks there has to be something else wrong for it to keep coming out like that. I give her the pedialax strips once a day and that seems to make it less hard. Has anybody else gone through this and what could you recommend.

Thanks,

[RavenSong]

If I were you, I would ask your daughter's pediatrician to check her out for an anal fissure. This is a small tear in the rectal lining that is often caused by constipation and hard stools. It causes a LOT of pain during defecation, which may be why your daughter is screaming in pain when she has a bowel movement.

BTW, when you use the abbreviation for bowel movement here on the forums, the site filters automatically change the letters B.M. (without the periods) to the word birthmother. So you might want to spell out the entire term instead of using the abbreviation.

[Bcelli]

Well, I was certainly expecting someone to flame furiously over that post - but I get it, now. Thanks for the education, RavenSong. If I refer to myself and others as AP, will the filter change it to Associated Press? Just kidding.

My son had to go to the ped once for stomach pains. They Xrayed him and turns out he was just full of it. While he hasn't quite had the difficulties as your daughter, OP, it took his system a LOOOOOONNNGGG time to regulate and while his movements are normal he still has the most maloderous eliminations.

Our ped gave him some Miralax and that helped clear the plumbing pretty well. We are all fruits and veggie eaters so that helps as well. Will your daughter eat applesauce? That might help. Also avoid cheese. Kids love it; intestines - not so much.

[MominPA]

Maybe some good old prune juice. Miralax might be an option too. I would stay away from foods that are good for diarreha.

My son use to hold it in since he didn't want to interrupt what he was doing or he didn't like going while at school. He liked only going at home. He kept on having accidents and I was pulling out my hair. He was 5 years old. I spoke to his doctor about it and he told me that pieces of the feces break off and the child doesn't realize that they are going.

[bmarsicano]

OK, so how do you edit what you wrote? I've looked and can't find anything. Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks

[MominPA]

I believe the edit button goes away once someone replies to your post.

[BrandyHagz]

I edited.

The edit button goes away after 60 minutes. The option to delete goes away after someone replies.

(As a side note, I hope this post offers some insight into why birth mothers find 'b.m.' offensive. It's FAR different than jumping to 'associated press' when being used...)

[BrandyHagz]

I will add that I did have this issue with my now 13 year old son.

On recommendation from his pediatrician, we used Glycerin Suppositories every night as part of his ‘before bed’ routine. That way he would move his bowels every day and not get stopped up.

He would lay down on the couch and I will insert (and have to hold it in...I know, gross for some of you)...then he'd have a movement right there. I had proper 'protection' on the couch...and this was FAR better than dealing with the larger movements.

He outgrew it eventually, I think around age 4 or so.

[momraine]

You have a limited time in which you can edit. However if you PM me or a communitee monitor then we can fix it for you.
My daughter did have the problem, but hers was caused because they were put on pots (little enamal ones that each child had under thier crib, I was told that my daughter was potty trained at 9 months) they were spanked if they went in the diaper, so they learned early to hold it. It took her a while to get regular. She took fiber tablets for a long time, her doctor reccomend chewable fiber tabs, I think they are called fiber choice, she still takes them when she has a problem. When she had a really bad problem there was a kids laxitive that is root beer flavored that I would put in half a cup of real root beer and she thought it was a treat. It worked every time.

[bmarsicano]

Would the liquid enima work the same way as the glycerin ones? I have given her the liquid ones before, but never 2 days in row. Maybe I should try it to clean out her system. Her ped did say that the one time the newer "stuff" was coming out but it was being held up by the older "stuff" that was already hard. I'm just trying to get her to go more "normal" if there is such a word, little bowel movements like a marble not a tennis ball.

[DPline]

Fiber-Sure is another great thing we have used. It has 5 g of fiber per serving and comes in a powder that disolves completely. I can put a teaspoon in my daugher's juice or in a glass of water and my daughter has no clue it is in there. (It does not mix well with milk though. It makes the milk kind of 'chunky.')

My daughter had some withholding issues when she was younger and still gets constipated on occassion, so every couple days I mix some Fiber-sure in her juice just to help things out. I don't want her to get to the point of being dependent on it to go, but ever couple days seems to help keep her 'regular.'

Good luck!

[blueprints]

We had the same problem.... it's a condition called...
Encopresis

<H2 xmlns=""><H3 xmlns=""><H3 xmlns="">Definition </H3>Encopresis is the voluntary or involuntary passage of stools in a child over age 4, which causes the soiling of clothes.
See also: Bowel incontinence
<H3 xmlns="">Alternative Names </H3>Soiling; Incontinence - stool <H3 xmlns="">Causes </H3>Encopresis is frequently is associated with constipation and fecal impaction. Often, hard fecal material remains in the colon and the child only passes a soft or semi-liquid stool around the impacted stool. Leakage of stool may occur during the day or night. There are rarely physical causes other than constipation (sometimes present since infancy).
Other causes may be related to:

• A lack of toilet training
• Toilet training at too early an age
• Emotional disturbance such as oppositional defiant disorder
• Conduct disorder

Whatever the cause the child may develop associated shame, guilt, or loss of self-esteem. The child may try to hide the discovery of the problem.
The following may increase the risk for encopresis:

• Being male
• Chronic constipation
• Low socioeconomic status

<H3 xmlns="">Symptoms </H3>

• Inability to retain feces (bowel incontinence)
• Passing stool in inappropriate places (generally in the child's clothes)
• Secretive behavior associated with bowel movements
• Constipation and hard stools
• Occasional passage of very large stool that almost blocks up the toilet

</H3>

</H2>

[bmarsicano]

Blueprints,

I just read about this and it fits my daughter perfectly. I guess I'll move back to Miralax as opposed to the aloe vera juice. Thanks for the info.

[manon]

Along the same lines as the glycerin suppositories, I think, you might also try locally applying vaseline or KY Jelly to make it not so painful when she does go.

There really are a lot of different new fiber products that are pretty tasty & it would probably be a good idea to give her something regularly every day or every few days.

Best wishes.

[ophelia72]

bmarsicano, Can I just tell you I think this was a very important post. Being a waiting Mom having info like this is great. It may be embrassing but I feel like the whole post was educational and informative on different levels one on your poor daughters condition and sensitivity on posting info and using abbreviations. B.M. should only be for bowel movement it is used in the medical community for years. Let's give birth mothers respect and spell taht one out. That is just my opinion though. Thanks again and lets keep even the embrassing questions coming I knowI learn something everytime. AND I feel that this community is safe enough and loving enough that we are there for each other.
XOXOOXO