Off Miralax and loving it

[Guest guest]

Hi - my 9 year old son had been on Miralax for 11 months, during

which time he backed up 3 times and had to undergo many xrays and

clean outs. It made him so flatulent that the kids at school called

him Fart Boy. Participation in sports went down because he never

felt well enough, and this is a kid who's father was a college

football player. He has a genius IQ but did not make it into the

gifted program at school because he spent half of the time the test

was given in the bathroom cramping up thanks to the Miralax.

An endoscopy showed no motility problems, no lactose intolerance,

and no celiac's disease (or gluten sensitivity), but he did have

eosinophilic esophagitis, which wasn't surprising because he's a nut

allergic kid. He never ingests nuts, but it still wasn't

surprising. The GI wanted him to stay on Miralax, take Zantac at

night and Prevacid in the morning. I added the Zantac and Prevacid

as directed, but immediately stopped the Miralax cold turkey since

there was clearly no physical cause for his constipation and no

reason to continue. In the 14 days since stopping it, he has pooped

14 times. I upped his fiber intake easily by adding one single

serving packet of Benefiber to diet root beer that he likes to drink

two times a day. He drinks a combination of plum juice (3g per 8

oz) and white grape juice, and is now as regular as clock work. I am

so happy to have him off of that drug. He is now HUNGRY a lot of

the time which he NEVER was on Miralax. He requests second helpings

now which almost makes me cry because it was such a struggle to get

him to eat anything while on the Miralax. He was skinny to begin

with and was literally wasting away before our eyes. He basically

lost weight over the course of the year he was on Miralax.

Just wanted to share a success story that would never have happened

without being on this group, and learning about the delay in gastric

emptying that Miralax causes, the lack of efficacy after 30 days,

and the increased absorption in constipated kids. Thanks to

everyone who helped us.