Chronic Constipation Hindering Potty Training

She may be allergic or intolerant to something in her diet. Dairy is a possible culprit. Bananas and chocolate can be extremely constipating as well. Bodies sometimes need a little help so that they can do what they are supposed to do. Her daughter needs to be given very small doses of a child probiotic 1-2 times a day to fix her digestive system. If she has been constipated since she was born, then she is full of toxins and my guess is that there may be other issues as well that will clear up once she is eliminating properly.

I have one son that has had mild constipation issues and when we started potty training he started to withhold his bowel movements.

Your friend should discuss a course of action with her daughter's pediatrician, but I can tell you what worked for us.

We did a couple of things to get through it.

First, we did a multi-stage approach to pooping in the potty. He would pee in the potty just fine. So we first let him tell us when he had to poop and we'd put a diaper on, he'd poop, and we switch back to underwear. If he had a false alarm, we'd switch him out of the diaper after a bit and suggest he try again later. We were fortunate that he did not regress to peeing in the diaper and we always reminded him that the diaper was for pooping not peeing. The second stage was to have him poop in the diaper, but have to be in the bathroom to do it. So instead of continuing to play, he would have to stay in the bathroom (standing or sitting on the floor) in a diaper until he was done. We'd give him a book or something to do while he was in there. The idea was to reinforce that the bathroom is where you go when you have to go poop. The 3rd stage was going to be to have him sit on the toilet in the diaper (and eventually cut a hole in the diaper so the poop went through), but he managed to skip step 3 and go right to pooping on the potty without the diaper after stage 2. It made for a less stressful transition and he still learned when to identify that he had to poop since he had to ask for a diaper.

The other thing we did to help was to start giving him (on the pediatrician's advice) some Miralax every morning. It was half a capful and we usually mixed in it with some orange juice because he doesn't get OJ that often so it was more of a treat. This made his stools softer and hard to hold, but we didn't have any issues with runs.

Now that he's well trained with going poop on the potty, we've tapered off on the Miralax. We just keep track of his bowel movements...if he is starting to skip going, we give him some Miralax the next day to keep it in check.

We also did other things like encouraging to drink enough fluids, gave him foods that might help, and monitored other foods (like bananas) that might hinder him, but it wasn't anything excessive. The kind of stuff one might do even without constipation issues.

My daughter just turned two so she is younger. But we have been battling chronic constipation and have been giving our daughter miralax every day for the past year. Even the miralax hasn't helped 100% of the time. She can't have banana which make the constipation even worse and lead to a suppository. Her ped said it was the milk most likely, even after switching to soy it didn't help or any other type of milk for that matter, we tried it all.
I was talking to a fellow mother at work which had the same issue. She started giving her son oranges everyday and his constipation resolved after about a month. I was kind of skeptical but anything to make it easier for my little girl. My daughter isn't a fan of oranges but loves orange juice. I started giving my daughter orange juice with water about a month and a half ago and I saw some results. I talked to my daughters ped a week ago and she said stop cutting it with water since it is 100% OJ(Simply Orange) and see what happens. I did that a BAM Poop everyday!!!! It isn't runny or hard it is firm and sticky which is fine. My daughter actually used her potty tonight for the first time for #2. She has still yet to do urine but that is fine.
My daughter other than this 4oz's of OJ in the morning with breakfast she does not get any other juice or sugary liquids. She gets water during the day and warm milk right before nap and bed.
To much fiber can also hinder normal bowel movements if the child isn't getting enough liquid to balance it. We haven't had to give her miralax in over a week.
Good luck!
So try some 100% orange juice and go for it.

do it in stages - she knows when she has to poop, so let her have a diaper but she has to do it in the bathroom only
after a few times of that she has to do it sitting on the potty, in her diaper still
after a few times of that the diaper should have a hole cut in it, so she is still wearing her diaper but some of the poop will go in the potty. Keep cutting holes bigger in the diaper till she is comfortable enough to not need it. Do not move to the next stage till she feels comfortable in the stage she is at.
Also increase water consumption, high fiber content foods (check fiber amount in the item, should be over 10% in each bread product she has) and fruits and veggies. Decrease milk, cheese, banana, bread products, rice, and apple.
I would also encourage her to ask her doctor to order a scan to make sure there is not a blockage in her intestines. I recently was reading up on clinical studies relating to this and a huge percentage of children with this problem had a blockage that needed surgical removal. Once it was removed all elimination issues were immediately resolved.

I put a teaspoon of Miralax in my daughter's morning milk, any drink will work, every day until she got used to going to the bathroom. Even then I would go every other day until I "weaned" her off. It worked great. Since she is constipated right now, I would get a suppository to clear her up, and put on a pull up or diaper so that she will just get it out. My niece had a lot of problems and ultimately had to go to the hospital because of her constipation. I know it might seem counterintuitive to go back to a diaper or pull up but it's easier than a hospital visit. After she is cleared up start the miralax.

My daughter had this problem as a toddler before we started potty training. What finally worked was a combo of Pedialax (Miralax flavored for kids) and Benefiber. I found the Benefiber was more effective than the Pedialax. We started with Pedialax but it was several weeks of both to get her on track then several more weeks of just Benefiber (1 teaspoon once a day for maintence and 1 tsp 2X a day at first both mixed in a drink). Also I did use the child suppositories if needed (if I saw her straining and not able to poop or it was more than 3 days).

I had a little girl in my childcare that had the same problem. Once she was old enough to potty train she would do ANYTHING to not poop, especially at my house. Her mother (who is a nurse practicioner BTW) began putting just a little (like 1/2 a tsp or even less) Miralax in her milk each morning. The Miralax helped to keep her stools soft enough for her to be able to hold them when neccessary, but also made it hard for her to hold for long periods of time.

I also had a freind many years ago with this problem, bribery works. I wrapped a present for the child in bright pretty paper she knew she had the present waiting for her when she finally pooped. She was very stubborn and she went 4 days, but when she finally did the deed she shouted "I get to open my present"!!! (the present was just markers and a coloring book, but she enjoyed them)

Good Luck!

M

She needs to talk to the pediatrician as self treating is not working. My son just had a bout with encopresis, which is holding till it starts to leak. It takes some time to deal with, but it works. We had to add mirilax and change his diet to fruits/fibers/meat - no dairy, carbs, etc., and sitting on the toilet for 15 minutes after each meal to get relaxed about pooping. It's working. It took about 2 weeks to get his stool to "pudding" consistency so it doesn't hurt when it comes out. Carbs are back in but in a limited way.

Mom needs to talk to the doc cause if pooping hurts, the child is NOT going to want to go. The daughter not an adult and doesn't understand why she needs to poop. The adults need to make it easy for her.

I have been in your friend's shoes. There is no quick answer except to not stress over it. The bigger deal that Mom makes about trying and accidents, the more stressed the child will be and the more she will hold it in.

My daughter can go sometimes 12h between bathroom breaks.

Here is what helped us.
1. Get a soft chair that is low to the ground and easy to clean. Get one for each bathroom, or at least each level of your house.
This is the one we used.
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Safety-1st-Comfy-Cushy-3-in-1-P...

This one is similar and Princess and has a side handle.
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=1425...

2. The DVD Potty Power was a BIG hit and help!
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_11?url=search-al...

3. Any time she used the potty and had any bit of success, she was rewarded with M&Ms and high-fives.

4. Any time there was a mess in the pants, there were stern words, but no spanking. Spanking is NOT helpful when potty trainging. We went upstairs, (at a snails pace) to the bathroom, even if my kid was yelling to hurry up because she felt icky. 'well, you should think about that before messing your pants. you knew you had to go, nothing was stopping you from getting to the potty.' There she took a shower. Put on fresh clothes, in the bathroom. This got old real fast for both of us, which also helped her understand. I kept about four pairs of clean underwear in each bathroom.

When my son first started training, he was afraid of the dark bathroom, so I put the potty in the middle of the kitchen floor! That worked. Then after a few days, I moved it to the next room, the laundry room. That was fine. Then we finally moved it to the doorway of the bathroom, where we kept the lights on all day so it wasn't dark. That finally did the trick as to keeping it in the bathroom.

As for the constant constipation, has she talked to her dr. about using Miralax? For us, we were told to give her 1/2 tsp a day. We give it to her in either orange juice, chocolate milk, or strawberry milk. It does not work right away. It sometimes takes 2 -3 days to soften things up in there. During her really bad spell that included an ER visit because she held it for 6 days, we gave it to her for a whole month straight. Even if she was using the bathroom regularly.

She can also try introducing probiotics like Activia yogurt. That works well too on constipation.