Give That Women a Degree!

I'm ready to start my own practice. All I need is common sense, the internet, and I'm ready to diagnose the world’s problems. Heck, I'll be better than most of the pediatricians out there, at least the ones that I've seen.

I've decided that Doctor's are worthless. The only thing they are good for is handing out drugs.

Okay, so this post turned out to be a little gross -- this happens when you’re talking about poop. Consider yourself warned.

Googie never liked nursing. She just didn't like to cuddle, and has always been very independent. Nursing took way too much time, and required her to be too close to mom for longer than she wanted to. She tried to quit nursing at 2 months old. She'd go 4 or 5 hours between feedings and not even complain. If I tried to make her latch on she'd scream, cry, arch her back, and refuse to suck. It was a power struggle for a long time and I hated it.

At 4 months I stopped trying to force her. She still was on an exclusive breast milk diet until 6 months, when I couldn't stand pumping anymore (it gets old really fast when you have to pump from 1-1:30, feed the kid from 2-2:30, take an hour break and pump again from 3-3:30. It makes it really hard to get anything done). Then we started her on formula and rice cereal. That's when her real problems began.

She didn't poop for 12 days. And when she finally did it was so hard we had to pull her diaper off so she could get it out. And it was green (too much information?). I'd called the doctor when it had been a week since she pooped and they said that it was nothing to worry about and sometimes kids do that. She would pass it eventually.

This went on for a month (she pooped three times that month). She screamed and ripped every time she went. These were adult size poops coming out of her little 7 month old body. It was the saddest thing to watch. I took her to the doctor about it and they had me put her on a non-constipating diet. That means lots of pear juice, vegetables, and no rice cereal. When after a month (four more poops) she still wasn't improving I took her back. They didn't really believe me. "You just have to be careful with what she eats. No bananas, no rice cereal, no apple juice."

We stuck strictly to the diet. Nothing helped. At 9 months old she started pooping on the toilet. It took her so long to get them out I had plenty of warning to get her up there. And I figured it's got to be easier to poop sitting up then it is lying on your back.

Finally one day when she was ten months old, after she'd had an unusually big poop, and a large tear, I got fed up with it. I called the doctor and told them I'm bringing her in today, when is your earliest available appointment. When the doctor came in I made her look at the tear in her bum, and they finally started taking me seriously. I was so excited they finally believed me! -- They gave me a prescription laxative and suppositories.

Really I was disappointed. The laxative helped, and the suppositories melted all the hardness away, but there has to be a reason her body does this, some underlying cause. It's not normal. But every time I asked about it they just told me it would go away by the time she was two.

Fast-forward to her two year appointment. She is still just as constipated as ever. When I ask about it the doctor (different one than the first) says just to give it another year. It'll go away.

Now I'm really frustrated and starting to think she will never be regular. It seems like no matter how much laxative I give her I can't get her completely loose. She's always hard, and usually big, the laxative helps her not rip, but it's just not enough. 3 weeks later (last Thursday night) when she rips yet again I get on the internet.

Google search: Chronic constipation in toddlers

I come upon this website that says "if fiber and laxatives haven't worked on your toddler’s chronic constipation they may be lactose intolerant, or allergic to milk."

This finally made sense to me, and I figured it was worth a try. We had nothing to lose, if we took her off of milk and milk products and things didn't improve we really hadn't lost anything, but if they did we had everything to gain.

It worked. Two days after I took her off milk she pooped in her pull-up! She hadn't been able to poop in a diaper for 18 months. I was thrilled. I realized that this meant we would probably have to potty train again, but it is totally worth it. Now three days later she is pooping without screaming, crying, or ripping. Oh happy day.