Re: Re: New here, looking for alternatives for 2.5 yo DD

October 15, 2010

Sara: I see what you are saying about increasing the dosage of NC just for clean out purposes. That might work! Thanks. And, when you say liquid suppositories you mean Liquid Glycerin suppositories right?Reg NC for your daughter 1 tsp a day, I am not sure how much your 2.5 yo DD weighs. This week someone here (I guess , Thanks !) shared a link to NIH's article on magnesium that I referred and found it to be helpful and convinced with the dosage that I am currently giving to my DD. You would have already read it. It talks about the health benefits and also the health risk of magnesium supplements that you might want to refer to (if you haven't already). SankariTo: miralax From: sdeisenman@...Date: Fri, 15 Oct 2010 18:06:51 +0000Subject: Re: New here, looking for alternatives for 2.5 yo DD

Why not just increase the Natural Calm and maybe add some vitamin C for a day or two? I am giving DD almost a teaspoon of NC a day, divided into two or three doses, and it is really really helping. I can also recommend liquid suppositories for toddlers should intervention be necessary - those work great and less invasive than an enema.

HTH

Sara

>

> Lillu: Thanks! That was very helpful! Will also check out the link. As much as I would love to avoid giving her enemas, well I think I might have to give her one probably tomorrow. But, I am little nervous. This week so far has not been good at all. She only passed 2 BM's-medium ones. All the other times, she has been leaking couples of times a day and her tummy is distended. So, she is definitely backed up. And those medium ones are not hard at all. They are in fact soft because I gave her Miralax 1 tsp 2 times this week. Plus, she is taking Natural Calm 1/2 tsp in her juice everyday.

>

> Good clean out method can anyone suggest? (Please do not suggest MoM, it worked only for the first time the second and third time it just gave some slushy stools, no hard stools came out)

>

> To: miralax

> From: lillu0314@...

> Date: Fri, 8 Oct 2010 14:26:28 -0700

> Subject: Re: New here, looking for alternatives for 2.5 yo DD

>

> Well, I'm sorry to say that our DD goes into panic mode every time we have to do this. She has to be held down, so it's a 2-person job. I do not think it is all that painful. The nozzels come pre-lubricated and we apply another generous dollop of vaseline and gently push it into her little anus before inserting the nozel. One drawback to these is that the squeez tab is rather stiff and the nozzel is not tapered at all, but I think both are by design - the first to avoid premature expression of the enema fluid and the latter to avoid injury to the child's rectum. Still, I do feel that both could use some design improvement. Once we finish administering, she's fine.

>

> As for the efficacy of the enema fluid itself - it's fantastic. Like I said earlier, within minutes, she's having a movement. We have tried the Pedia-lax (sorry, I think I may have called them Pedialyte earlier!) enema with the longer nozzle designed for older children, but that one didn't work for her at all. We've also tried the glycerine suppositories, the "waxy" conical kind that you push in and leave, but again, those didn't work for her at all.

>

> Here's the product to which I'm referring: http://www.pedia-lax.com/Liquid-Glycerin-Suppositories.php

>

> Hope you don't have to administer, but if you do, try the above. Good luck.

>

> Here's also a quick, quite informative read: http://www.optimalhealthnetwork.com/Infant-Constipation-s/279.htm

>

> Someone earlier had asked about mineral oil. The author of the above article says that's a no-no, pretty much for the same reason as verbalized here. Has some other informative/helpful bits.

>

> To: miralax

> Sent: Fri, October 8, 2010 4:57:32 PM

> Subject: RE: New here, looking for alternatives for 2.5 yo DD

>

> Hi Lillu! Good memory!

>

> Yes, Ramkumar is my husband and lately he's been busy with his work and not able to spare much time on this! So I have taken it over.

>

> Thanks for suggesting pedialyte enema. I have not tried enemas before and how traumatic is this one to administer?

>

> Hope you don't have to go through this next time!

>

> Sankari

>

> To: miralax

> From: lillu0314@...

> Date: Fri, 8 Oct 2010 13:32:19 -0700

> Subject: Re: New here, looking for alternatives for 2.5 yo DD

>

> Hi Sankari (I remember you as Ramkumar, tough),

>

> We use the Children's pedialyte glycerine enema, liquid and it works within 10-20 minutes for us, without fail. Like you, we do not let our now 3 year-old DD go w/o a BM for more than 3 days. We used to administer it the morning or evening of the 3rd day (thank God we haven't had to in a very long time now, but we may need to either tonight or tomorrow morning ).

>

> Hope this helps!

>

> To: miralax

> Sent: Fri, October 8, 2010 3:27:00 PM

> Subject: RE: New here, looking for alternatives for 2.5 yo DD

>

> Sara:

>

> I know how you feel and I have been going through something similar with my 2 year old daughter for almost 11 months now. She is not potty trained yet and we just started to. Like your DD, mine is also a big holder. She would be going 3-4 days regularly and 5th day there would be nothing. Even if it stays in her system for a day, the second day it gets little firm (not hard though) and the withholding cycle gets started which ends up not going for 2-3 days, sometimes even longer before I give her a suppository that would make her go after 3 to 4 hours. But, I always have this feeling that my DD is not emptying her bowel completely as I expect two bigger poops after 2-3 days of nothing but she would just do 2 medium ones and be done for that day. Yesterday was another day that I had to give her a suppository in the morning and send her to day care. In the evening I heard she held the

> suppository for good 2 hours and just let the suppository out without any poop! I have been using the children's glycerin suppository (not the liquid one, though). Do you suggest anything that works better than this?

>

> Well, how does this all started, long story short, when we gave her wheat products for a week (the biggest mistake I ever did) when she was 15 months old that made her constipated for 2 to 3 days or so. Before that, she used to go daily every single day with 2 to 3 BM's. Her pediatrician told us that she just has some reaction to wheat (may be her lil' tummy is not able to digest the complex protein in wheat) and that she is not allergic to wheat and put her on Miralax. At that time, we did not know anything about this medicine and she was on it for like 2 months. At that point, we (my husband and I) researched more about Miralax and its side effects and found this wonderful website. We wanted to stop it immediately and cut it cold turkey and put her on Natural Calm which worked good for 2 months (with some bad spells in between). She started having issues again and was again on Miralax every now

> and then and in between I tried flax oil for a while. Like you and all others in this forum, I never always felt comfortable to keep her on Miralax. I wish I could stop giving it to her and never fall back to it ever. But like yours, that is the only thing that has been working well for my DD. At least she goes without fear but the leakage is another issue if she is on it. I was never able to find a right dosage of it.

>

> We had tried Fruiteze and my DD won't take it. I have been thinking of getting the Aloe Juice from the health food store and stop the miralax. The problem is every time that we try new that are natural works well for a while and stops after sometime! And I hate to go back to Miralax again. Very frustrating! Though I am very thankful to have found this site that has people who have more knowledge about this that shares it and suggests wonderful natural remedies. Thank you All!

>

> Sankari

>

> To: miralax

> From: monikamsw@...

> Date: Thu, 7 Oct 2010 10:07:56 -0400

> Subject: RE: New here, looking for alternatives for 2.5 yo DD

>

> Sara,

>

> I know some people who have kids around your DD's age who use a lot more Natural Calm than that. I would think you could at least double that dose if not more. One mom gives her 3.5 year old 4-6 tsps of it. I don't know that I'd go that high. We do a well rounded ½ teaspoon along with 's aloe vera juice and have gotten her completely off of miralax that way (my DD is 3). We do ¼c of aloe vera juice 3times a day…

>

> Hope that helps a little!

>

> From: miralax [mailto:miralax ] On Behalf Of Sara

> Sent: Wednesday, October 06, 2010 11:12 PM

> To: miralax

> Subject: New here, looking for alternatives for 2.5 yo DD

>

> Hi all,

>

> I tried to post this entire message earlier but it wouldn't let me put a subject heading in and for some reason it seems not to have posted, argh. So here goes again, abbreviated version this time.

>

> My 2.5 yo DD has been constipated since she started solids....we have tried everything including a very strict elimination diet, but to no avail. The only thing that has helped her to date is Miralax but I am very uncomfortable keeping her on it for so long. Currently I've been giving her 1/2 teaspoon Natural Calm magnesium as well as 1/2 teaspoon (about 1500 mg) of vitamin C in the form of calcium ascorbate per day, in addition to an excellent whole foods, high fiber diet and as much fluid as I can get into her (about 2 or 2 1/2 cups per day). This allows me to cut the Miralax dose to about 1/2 of what the GI recommended - about 1/4 cap - but I'd love to be rid of this stuff altogether. Also is it safe to continue indefinitely with Natural Calm and vitamin C daily?

>

> DD has withholding issues and is extremely scared of going potty - to the point where she started being unable to pee either and would hold it for 24+ hours. Forget about having a BM - she would go more than a week and we'd wind up giving her a suppository after days and days of sheer misery for us all. It is very stressful and hard on the whole family so Miralax at least allows her to go - but I'm worried about the cost.

>

> Thoughts and suggestions are very very welcome!

>

> Thanks so much,

>

> Sara

>

October 15, 2010

Sorry, In my previous e-mail, I meant to say 'Health risk of too much magnesium in supplemental form'.Thanks,SankariTo: miralax From: ramkumar_t_s@...Date: Fri, 15 Oct 2010 16:04:32 -0400Subject: RE: Re: New here, looking for alternatives for 2.5 yo DD

Sara: I see what you are saying about increasing the dosage of NC just for clean out purposes. That might work! Thanks. And, when you say liquid suppositories you mean Liquid Glycerin suppositories right?Reg NC for your daughter 1 tsp a day, I am not sure how much your 2.5 yo DD weighs. This week someone here (I guess , Thanks !) shared a link to NIH's article on magnesium that I referred and found it to be helpful and convinced with the dosage that I am currently giving to my DD. You would have already read it. It talks about the health benefits and also the health risk of magnesium supplements that you might want to refer to (if you haven't already). SankariTo: miralax From: sdeisenman@...Date: Fri, 15 Oct 2010 18:06:51 +0000Subject: Re: New here, looking for alternatives for 2.5 yo DD

Why not just increase the Natural Calm and maybe add some vitamin C for a day or two? I am giving DD almost a teaspoon of NC a day, divided into two or three doses, and it is really really helping. I can also recommend liquid suppositories for toddlers should intervention be necessary - those work great and less invasive than an enema.

HTH

Sara

>

> Lillu: Thanks! That was very helpful! Will also check out the link. As much as I would love to avoid giving her enemas, well I think I might have to give her one probably tomorrow. But, I am little nervous. This week so far has not been good at all. She only passed 2 BM's-medium ones. All the other times, she has been leaking couples of times a day and her tummy is distended. So, she is definitely backed up. And those medium ones are not hard at all. They are in fact soft because I gave her Miralax 1 tsp 2 times this week. Plus, she is taking Natural Calm 1/2 tsp in her juice everyday.

>

> Good clean out method can anyone suggest? (Please do not suggest MoM, it worked only for the first time the second and third time it just gave some slushy stools, no hard stools came out)

>

> To: miralax

> From: lillu0314@...

> Date: Fri, 8 Oct 2010 14:26:28 -0700

> Subject: Re: New here, looking for alternatives for 2.5 yo DD

>

> Well, I'm sorry to say that our DD goes into panic mode every time we have to do this. She has to be held down, so it's a 2-person job. I do not think it is all that painful. The nozzels come pre-lubricated and we apply another generous dollop of vaseline and gently push it into her little anus before inserting the nozel. One drawback to these is that the squeez tab is rather stiff and the nozzel is not tapered at all, but I think both are by design - the first to avoid premature expression of the enema fluid and the latter to avoid injury to the child's rectum. Still, I do feel that both could use some design improvement. Once we finish administering, she's fine.

>

> As for the efficacy of the enema fluid itself - it's fantastic. Like I said earlier, within minutes, she's having a movement. We have tried the Pedia-lax (sorry, I think I may have called them Pedialyte earlier!) enema with the longer nozzle designed for older children, but that one didn't work for her at all. We've also tried the glycerine suppositories, the "waxy" conical kind that you push in and leave, but again, those didn't work for her at all.

>

> Here's the product to which I'm referring: http://www.pedia-lax.com/Liquid-Glycerin-Suppositories.php

>

> Hope you don't have to administer, but if you do, try the above. Good luck.

>

> Here's also a quick, quite informative read: http://www.optimalhealthnetwork.com/Infant-Constipation-s/279.htm

>

> Someone earlier had asked about mineral oil. The author of the above article says that's a no-no, pretty much for the same reason as verbalized here. Has some other informative/helpful bits.

>

> To: miralax

> Sent: Fri, October 8, 2010 4:57:32 PM

> Subject: RE: New here, looking for alternatives for 2.5 yo DD

>

> Hi Lillu! Good memory!

>

> Yes, Ramkumar is my husband and lately he's been busy with his work and not able to spare much time on this! So I have taken it over.

>

> Thanks for suggesting pedialyte enema. I have not tried enemas before and how traumatic is this one to administer?

>

> Hope you don't have to go through this next time!

>

> Sankari

>

> To: miralax

> From: lillu0314@...

> Date: Fri, 8 Oct 2010 13:32:19 -0700

> Subject: Re: New here, looking for alternatives for 2.5 yo DD

>

> Hi Sankari (I remember you as Ramkumar, tough),

>

> We use the Children's pedialyte glycerine enema, liquid and it works within 10-20 minutes for us, without fail. Like you, we do not let our now 3 year-old DD go w/o a BM for more than 3 days. We used to administer it the morning or evening of the 3rd day (thank God we haven't had to in a very long time now, but we may need to either tonight or tomorrow morning ).

>

> Hope this helps!

>

> To: miralax

> Sent: Fri, October 8, 2010 3:27:00 PM

> Subject: RE: New here, looking for alternatives for 2.5 yo DD

>

> Sara:

>

> I know how you feel and I have been going through something similar with my 2 year old daughter for almost 11 months now. She is not potty trained yet and we just started to. Like your DD, mine is also a big holder. She would be going 3-4 days regularly and 5th day there would be nothing. Even if it stays in her system for a day, the second day it gets little firm (not hard though) and the withholding cycle gets started which ends up not going for 2-3 days, sometimes even longer before I give her a suppository that would make her go after 3 to 4 hours. But, I always have this feeling that my DD is not emptying her bowel completely as I expect two bigger poops after 2-3 days of nothing but she would just do 2 medium ones and be done for that day. Yesterday was another day that I had to give her a suppository in the morning and send her to day care. In the evening I heard she held the

> suppository for good 2 hours and just let the suppository out without any poop! I have been using the children's glycerin suppository (not the liquid one, though). Do you suggest anything that works better than this?

>

> Well, how does this all started, long story short, when we gave her wheat products for a week (the biggest mistake I ever did) when she was 15 months old that made her constipated for 2 to 3 days or so. Before that, she used to go daily every single day with 2 to 3 BM's. Her pediatrician told us that she just has some reaction to wheat (may be her lil' tummy is not able to digest the complex protein in wheat) and that she is not allergic to wheat and put her on Miralax. At that time, we did not know anything about this medicine and she was on it for like 2 months. At that point, we (my husband and I) researched more about Miralax and its side effects and found this wonderful website. We wanted to stop it immediately and cut it cold turkey and put her on Natural Calm which worked good for 2 months (with some bad spells in between). She started having issues again and was again on Miralax every now

> and then and in between I tried flax oil for a while. Like you and all others in this forum, I never always felt comfortable to keep her on Miralax. I wish I could stop giving it to her and never fall back to it ever. But like yours, that is the only thing that has been working well for my DD. At least she goes without fear but the leakage is another issue if she is on it. I was never able to find a right dosage of it.

>

> We had tried Fruiteze and my DD won't take it. I have been thinking of getting the Aloe Juice from the health food store and stop the miralax. The problem is every time that we try new that are natural works well for a while and stops after sometime! And I hate to go back to Miralax again. Very frustrating! Though I am very thankful to have found this site that has people who have more knowledge about this that shares it and suggests wonderful natural remedies. Thank you All!

>

> Sankari

>

> To: miralax

> From: monikamsw@...

> Date: Thu, 7 Oct 2010 10:07:56 -0400

> Subject: RE: New here, looking for alternatives for 2.5 yo DD

>

> Sara,

>

> I know some people who have kids around your DD's age who use a lot more Natural Calm than that. I would think you could at least double that dose if not more. One mom gives her 3.5 year old 4-6 tsps of it. I don't know that I'd go that high. We do a well rounded ½ teaspoon along with 's aloe vera juice and have gotten her completely off of miralax that way (my DD is 3). We do ¼c of aloe vera juice 3times a day…

>

> Hope that helps a little!

>

> From: miralax [mailto:miralax ] On Behalf Of Sara

> Sent: Wednesday, October 06, 2010 11:12 PM

> To: miralax

> Subject: New here, looking for alternatives for 2.5 yo DD

>

> Hi all,

>

> I tried to post this entire message earlier but it wouldn't let me put a subject heading in and for some reason it seems not to have posted, argh. So here goes again, abbreviated version this time.

>

> My 2.5 yo DD has been constipated since she started solids....we have tried everything including a very strict elimination diet, but to no avail. The only thing that has helped her to date is Miralax but I am very uncomfortable keeping her on it for so long. Currently I've been giving her 1/2 teaspoon Natural Calm magnesium as well as 1/2 teaspoon (about 1500 mg) of vitamin C in the form of calcium ascorbate per day, in addition to an excellent whole foods, high fiber diet and as much fluid as I can get into her (about 2 or 2 1/2 cups per day). This allows me to cut the Miralax dose to about 1/2 of what the GI recommended - about 1/4 cap - but I'd love to be rid of this stuff altogether. Also is it safe to continue indefinitely with Natural Calm and vitamin C daily?

>

> DD has withholding issues and is extremely scared of going potty - to the point where she started being unable to pee either and would hold it for 24+ hours. Forget about having a BM - she would go more than a week and we'd wind up giving her a suppository after days and days of sheer misery for us all. It is very stressful and hard on the whole family so Miralax at least allows her to go - but I'm worried about the cost.

>

> Thoughts and suggestions are very very welcome!

>

> Thanks so much,

>

> Sara

>

October 16, 2010

Ok. Here is an update! I gave my 2 yo liquid glycerin suppository this morning after her breakfast. Of course, we had a tough time administering that for her. After 10 or 15 minutes, she started crying saying poo poo and did everything she could to stop it - clenching her little butt, holding on to the wall. She was totally upset and did not want anyone near her. So I left her and pretended ignoring her. She calmed down a little bit but kept saying poo poo but still crying. I just asked her if she wants to sit on potty (we just started potty training her). She did not want to and did not let me go near her. I somehow managed to open her diaper but I was so disappointed to see that nothing big came out. It was only some liquidy poop and two little hard chunks. But as soon as I opened her diaper she became even more wild and upset and started running away from me. It just went on for15-20 minutes and my husband and I somehow managed holding her leg and made her 'squat' a little bit just on the floor. Only three more small hard poops came out and it was very smelly. I know there is still so much in there but I just don't know how to get it out. I was so hoping she would do a big one but only so little came out. I am not even sure if my husband would help me giving her one next time. Oh.. this whole process was so traumatic for all of us! My husband is very concerned and said that this will only lead to more behavioral/psychological issues for her and will not help with potty training. He asked me not to try this next time and just keep her on Miralax for some months until she overcomes all this fear of going poop and until we potty train her. What makes me even more frustrated is that she is making herself constipated because of her withholding. I am totally at loss now.After trying many natural remedies trying to keep things regular, it is very upsetting and I completely hate to again fall back on Miralax. Just checking to see if there is any stool softener without PEG in it.SankariTo: miralax From: ramkumar_t_s@...Date: Fri, 15 Oct 2010 16:07:30 -0400Subject: RE: Re: New here, looking for alternatives for 2.5 yo DD

Sorry, In my previous e-mail, I meant to say 'Health risk of too much magnesium in supplemental form'.Thanks,SankariTo: miralax From: ramkumar_t_s@...Date: Fri, 15 Oct 2010 16:04:32 -0400Subject: RE: Re: New here, looking for alternatives for 2.5 yo DD

Sara: I see what you are saying about increasing the dosage of NC just for clean out purposes. That might work! Thanks. And, when you say liquid suppositories you mean Liquid Glycerin suppositories right?Reg NC for your daughter 1 tsp a day, I am not sure how much your 2.5 yo DD weighs. This week someone here (I guess , Thanks !) shared a link to NIH's article on magnesium that I referred and found it to be helpful and convinced with the dosage that I am currently giving to my DD. You would have already read it. It talks about the health benefits and also the health risk of magnesium supplements that you might want to refer to (if you haven't already). SankariTo: miralax From: sdeisenman@...Date: Fri, 15 Oct 2010 18:06:51 +0000Subject: Re: New here, looking for alternatives for 2.5 yo DD

Why not just increase the Natural Calm and maybe add some vitamin C for a day or two? I am giving DD almost a teaspoon of NC a day, divided into two or three doses, and it is really really helping. I can also recommend liquid suppositories for toddlers should intervention be necessary - those work great and less invasive than an enema.

HTH

Sara

>

> Lillu: Thanks! That was very helpful! Will also check out the link. As much as I would love to avoid giving her enemas, well I think I might have to give her one probably tomorrow. But, I am little nervous. This week so far has not been good at all. She only passed 2 BM's-medium ones. All the other times, she has been leaking couples of times a day and her tummy is distended. So, she is definitely backed up. And those medium ones are not hard at all. They are in fact soft because I gave her Miralax 1 tsp 2 times this week. Plus, she is taking Natural Calm 1/2 tsp in her juice everyday.

>

> Good clean out method can anyone suggest? (Please do not suggest MoM, it worked only for the first time the second and third time it just gave some slushy stools, no hard stools came out)

>

> To: miralax

> From: lillu0314@...

> Date: Fri, 8 Oct 2010 14:26:28 -0700

> Subject: Re: New here, looking for alternatives for 2.5 yo DD

>

> Well, I'm sorry to say that our DD goes into panic mode every time we have to do this. She has to be held down, so it's a 2-person job. I do not think it is all that painful. The nozzels come pre-lubricated and we apply another generous dollop of vaseline and gently push it into her little anus before inserting the nozel. One drawback to these is that the squeez tab is rather stiff and the nozzel is not tapered at all, but I think both are by design - the first to avoid premature expression of the enema fluid and the latter to avoid injury to the child's rectum. Still, I do feel that both could use some design improvement. Once we finish administering, she's fine.

>

> As for the efficacy of the enema fluid itself - it's fantastic. Like I said earlier, within minutes, she's having a movement. We have tried the Pedia-lax (sorry, I think I may have called them Pedialyte earlier!) enema with the longer nozzle designed for older children, but that one didn't work for her at all. We've also tried the glycerine suppositories, the "waxy" conical kind that you push in and leave, but again, those didn't work for her at all.

>

> Here's the product to which I'm referring: http://www.pedia-lax.com/Liquid-Glycerin-Suppositories.php

>

> Hope you don't have to administer, but if you do, try the above. Good luck.

>

> Here's also a quick, quite informative read: http://www.optimalhealthnetwork.com/Infant-Constipation-s/279.htm

>

> Someone earlier had asked about mineral oil. The author of the above article says that's a no-no, pretty much for the same reason as verbalized here. Has some other informative/helpful bits.

>

> To: miralax

> Sent: Fri, October 8, 2010 4:57:32 PM

> Subject: RE: New here, looking for alternatives for 2.5 yo DD

>

> Hi Lillu! Good memory!

>

> Yes, Ramkumar is my husband and lately he's been busy with his work and not able to spare much time on this! So I have taken it over.

>

> Thanks for suggesting pedialyte enema. I have not tried enemas before and how traumatic is this one to administer?

>

> Hope you don't have to go through this next time!

>

> Sankari

>

> To: miralax

> From: lillu0314@...

> Date: Fri, 8 Oct 2010 13:32:19 -0700

> Subject: Re: New here, looking for alternatives for 2.5 yo DD

>

> Hi Sankari (I remember you as Ramkumar, tough),

>

> We use the Children's pedialyte glycerine enema, liquid and it works within 10-20 minutes for us, without fail. Like you, we do not let our now 3 year-old DD go w/o a BM for more than 3 days. We used to administer it the morning or evening of the 3rd day (thank God we haven't had to in a very long time now, but we may need to either tonight or tomorrow morning ).

>

> Hope this helps!

>

> To: miralax

> Sent: Fri, October 8, 2010 3:27:00 PM

> Subject: RE: New here, looking for alternatives for 2.5 yo DD

>

> Sara:

>

> I know how you feel and I have been going through something similar with my 2 year old daughter for almost 11 months now. She is not potty trained yet and we just started to. Like your DD, mine is also a big holder. She would be going 3-4 days regularly and 5th day there would be nothing. Even if it stays in her system for a day, the second day it gets little firm (not hard though) and the withholding cycle gets started which ends up not going for 2-3 days, sometimes even longer before I give her a suppository that would make her go after 3 to 4 hours. But, I always have this feeling that my DD is not emptying her bowel completely as I expect two bigger poops after 2-3 days of nothing but she would just do 2 medium ones and be done for that day. Yesterday was another day that I had to give her a suppository in the morning and send her to day care. In the evening I heard she held the

> suppository for good 2 hours and just let the suppository out without any poop! I have been using the children's glycerin suppository (not the liquid one, though). Do you suggest anything that works better than this?

>

> Well, how does this all started, long story short, when we gave her wheat products for a week (the biggest mistake I ever did) when she was 15 months old that made her constipated for 2 to 3 days or so. Before that, she used to go daily every single day with 2 to 3 BM's. Her pediatrician told us that she just has some reaction to wheat (may be her lil' tummy is not able to digest the complex protein in wheat) and that she is not allergic to wheat and put her on Miralax. At that time, we did not know anything about this medicine and she was on it for like 2 months. At that point, we (my husband and I) researched more about Miralax and its side effects and found this wonderful website. We wanted to stop it immediately and cut it cold turkey and put her on Natural Calm which worked good for 2 months (with some bad spells in between). She started having issues again and was again on Miralax every now

> and then and in between I tried flax oil for a while. Like you and all others in this forum, I never always felt comfortable to keep her on Miralax. I wish I could stop giving it to her and never fall back to it ever. But like yours, that is the only thing that has been working well for my DD. At least she goes without fear but the leakage is another issue if she is on it. I was never able to find a right dosage of it.

>

> We had tried Fruiteze and my DD won't take it. I have been thinking of getting the Aloe Juice from the health food store and stop the miralax. The problem is every time that we try new that are natural works well for a while and stops after sometime! And I hate to go back to Miralax again. Very frustrating! Though I am very thankful to have found this site that has people who have more knowledge about this that shares it and suggests wonderful natural remedies. Thank you All!

>

> Sankari

>

> To: miralax

> From: monikamsw@...

> Date: Thu, 7 Oct 2010 10:07:56 -0400

> Subject: RE: New here, looking for alternatives for 2.5 yo DD

>

> Sara,

>

> I know some people who have kids around your DD's age who use a lot more Natural Calm than that. I would think you could at least double that dose if not more. One mom gives her 3.5 year old 4-6 tsps of it. I don't know that I'd go that high. We do a well rounded ½ teaspoon along with 's aloe vera juice and have gotten her completely off of miralax that way (my DD is 3). We do ¼c of aloe vera juice 3times a day…

>

> Hope that helps a little!

>

> From: miralax [mailto:miralax ] On Behalf Of Sara

> Sent: Wednesday, October 06, 2010 11:12 PM

> To: miralax

> Subject: New here, looking for alternatives for 2.5 yo DD

>

> Hi all,

>

> I tried to post this entire message earlier but it wouldn't let me put a subject heading in and for some reason it seems not to have posted, argh. So here goes again, abbreviated version this time.

>

> My 2.5 yo DD has been constipated since she started solids....we have tried everything including a very strict elimination diet, but to no avail. The only thing that has helped her to date is Miralax but I am very uncomfortable keeping her on it for so long. Currently I've been giving her 1/2 teaspoon Natural Calm magnesium as well as 1/2 teaspoon (about 1500 mg) of vitamin C in the form of calcium ascorbate per day, in addition to an excellent whole foods, high fiber diet and as much fluid as I can get into her (about 2 or 2 1/2 cups per day). This allows me to cut the Miralax dose to about 1/2 of what the GI recommended - about 1/4 cap - but I'd love to be rid of this stuff altogether. Also is it safe to continue indefinitely with Natural Calm and vitamin C daily?

>

> DD has withholding issues and is extremely scared of going potty - to the point where she started being unable to pee either and would hold it for 24+ hours. Forget about having a BM - she would go more than a week and we'd wind up giving her a suppository after days and days of sheer misery for us all. It is very stressful and hard on the whole family so Miralax at least allows her to go - but I'm worried about the cost.

>

> Thoughts and suggestions are very very welcome!

>

> Thanks so much,

>

> Sara

>

October 18, 2010

Sankari, I am sorry that you and your DD had to endure what you did, but I can tell you it was the same experience with my DD, except that she did not run away. When the urge to poop came upon her, she would come to me, upset and obviously trying to resist. What I did then was to hold her on her side, in the fetal position (knees to her chest) murmuring soothing things to her and kissing her and encouraging her to push it out. Telling her that the poop wants to come out and that once it does, everything will stop hurting. I think because of the position I was holding her in, she was not able to withhold and a big log would come out.I had to do this each and every time. Sometimes, we would hold her bum over the potty, her knees to her chest.

This is the natural position in which we are supposed to have BMs. This straightens out the colon and helps our system evacuate. Once in this position, it is difficult to withhold. We also liberally applied Vaseline to her rectum and outer ring to help reduce any tearing.Of course, I am not at all a proponent of the Miralax and I would never encourage anyone to go back to administering Miralax. I would just truly encourage you to examine her diet again and see what might be causing the constipation. Also, it is worth noting here that the first week after we took her off the Miralax, our DD seemed to be doing perfectly fine, producing soft stools. We were not sure if it were because of Miralax still in her system or what. Then, the inexplicable withholding started and of course this led to constipation, despite her diet regiment (see below). Then one day, we saw REALLY bad diaper rash on her

bum. It literally looked like burn-like lesions on her buttocks. This was due to her poop staying on her skin a little too long. I had never seen anything like it before (and thankfully, since). Then I read here that some other parents had experienced similar things. I figured if the Miralax risidual could do this to her skin on the outside, what is it doing to her on the inside. When we realized that she would shake and cry while she was pooping, even when the poop was soft, we came to the conclusion that she was withholding possibly because of a burning sensation upon evacuation. Other parents have reported similar events here. When we were still at the stage of the issue where you are now, we observed a strict diet where we had eliminated the foods we had identified as causing our DD's constipation (milk, white flour, even whole wheat we limited greatly; eggs and cheese). We

kept her on the following diet:Breakfast: Oatmeal cereal with probiotics and organic pear puree (Gerber)Lunch: home-made soup of organic chicken (I can get you the recipe if you like)Dinner: Oatmeal cereal with probiotics and organic prune puree (Gerber)Snacks: Formula with probiotics; shredded apples; papaya; watermelon; mango (she favored the apple and watermelon)We fed her like this for months, with a few violations along the way that left her constipated (which helped us with the food elimination process). We ran her diet by the pediatrician who okayed it.By the way, it would also upset my husband when we administered the enema. There were times when he refused to help, but we had a nanny at the time who helped me. It was a long road, sometimes frustrating, but we all made it through okay and you will, too. Just keep persevering and good luck to

you.PS: Sorry so long winded! :)To: miralax Sent: Sat, October 16, 2010 7:11:09 PMSubject: RE: Re: New here, looking for alternatives for 2.5 yo DD

Ok. Here is an update! I gave my 2 yo liquid glycerin suppository this morning after her breakfast. Of course, we had a tough time administering that for her. After 10 or 15 minutes, she started crying saying poo poo and did everything she could to stop it - clenching her little butt, holding on to the wall. She was totally upset and did not want anyone near her. So I left her and pretended ignoring her. She calmed down a little bit but kept saying poo poo but still crying. I just asked her if she wants to sit on potty (we just started potty training her). She did not want to and did not let me go near her. I somehow managed to open her diaper but I was so disappointed to see that nothing big came out. It was only some liquidy poop and two little hard chunks. But as soon as I opened her diaper she became even more wild and upset and started running away from me. It just went on for15-20 minutes and my husband and I somehow managed holding her leg and

made her 'squat' a little bit just on the floor. Only three more small hard poops came out and it was very smelly. I know there is still so much in there but I just don't know how to get it out. I was so hoping she would do a big one but only so little came out. I am not even sure if my husband would help me giving her one next time. Oh.. this whole process was so traumatic for all of us! My husband is very concerned and said that this will only lead to more behavioral/psychological issues for her and will not help with potty training. He asked me not to try this next time and just keep her on Miralax for some months until she overcomes all this fear of going poop and until we potty train her. What makes me even more frustrated is that she is making herself constipated because of her withholding. I am totally at loss now.After trying many natural remedies trying to keep things regular, it is very upsetting and I completely hate to again fall

back on Miralax. Just checking to see if there is any stool softener without PEG in it.SankariTo: miralax From: ramkumar_t_s@...Date: Fri, 15 Oct 2010 16:07:30 -0400Subject: RE: Re: New here, looking for alternatives for 2.5 yo DD

Sorry, In my previous e-mail, I meant to say 'Health risk of too much magnesium in supplemental form'.Thanks,SankariTo: miralax From: ramkumar_t_s@...Date: Fri, 15 Oct 2010 16:04:32 -0400Subject: RE: Re: New here, looking for alternatives for 2.5 yo DD

Sara: I see what you are saying about increasing the dosage of NC just for clean out purposes. That might work! Thanks. And, when you say liquid suppositories you mean Liquid Glycerin suppositories right?Reg NC for your daughter 1 tsp a day, I am not sure how much your 2.5 yo DD weighs. This week someone here (I guess , Thanks !) shared a link to NIH's article on magnesium that I referred and found it to be helpful and convinced with the dosage that I am currently giving to my DD. You would have already read it. It talks about the health benefits and also the health risk of magnesium supplements that you might want to refer to (if you haven't already). SankariTo: miralax From: sdeisenman@...Date: Fri, 15 Oct 2010 18:06:51 +0000Subject: Re: New here, looking for alternatives for 2.5 yo DD

Why not just increase the Natural Calm and maybe add some vitamin C for a day or two? I am giving DD almost a teaspoon of NC a day, divided into two or three doses, and it is really really helping. I can also recommend liquid suppositories for toddlers should intervention be necessary - those work great and less invasive than an enema.

HTH

Sara

>

> Lillu: Thanks! That was very helpful! Will also check out the link. As much as I would love to avoid giving her enemas, well I think I might have to give her one probably tomorrow. But, I am little nervous. This week so far has not been good at all. She only passed 2 BM's-medium ones. All the other times, she has been leaking couples of times a day and her tummy is distended. So, she is definitely backed up. And those medium ones are not hard at all. They are in fact soft because I gave her Miralax 1 tsp 2 times this week. Plus, she is taking Natural Calm 1/2 tsp in her juice everyday.

>

> Good clean out method can anyone suggest? (Please do not suggest MoM, it worked only for the first time the second and third time it just gave some slushy stools, no hard stools came out)

>

> To: miralax

> From: lillu0314@...

> Date: Fri, 8 Oct 2010 14:26:28 -0700

> Subject: Re: New here, looking for alternatives for 2.5 yo DD

>

> Well, I'm sorry to say that our DD goes into panic mode every time we have to do this. She has to be held down, so it's a 2-person job. I do not think it is all that painful. The nozzels come pre-lubricated and we apply another generous dollop of vaseline and gently push it into her little anus before inserting the nozel. One drawback to these is that the squeez tab is rather stiff and the nozzel is not tapered at all, but I think both are by design - the first to avoid premature expression of the enema fluid and the latter to avoid injury to the child's rectum. Still, I do feel that both could use some design improvement. Once we finish administering, she's fine.

>

> As for the efficacy of the enema fluid itself - it's fantastic. Like I said earlier, within minutes, she's having a movement. We have tried the Pedia-lax (sorry, I think I may have called them Pedialyte earlier!) enema with the longer nozzle designed for older children, but that one didn't work for her at all. We've also tried the glycerine suppositories, the "waxy" conical kind that you push in and leave, but again, those didn't work for her at all.

>

> Here's the product to which I'm referring: http://www.pedia-lax.com/Liquid-Glycerin-Suppositories.php

>

> Hope you don't have to administer, but if you do, try the above. Good luck.

>

> Here's also a quick, quite informative read: http://www.optimalhealthnetwork.com/Infant-Constipation-s/279.htm

>

> Someone earlier had asked about mineral oil. The author of the above article says that's a no-no, pretty much for the same reason as verbalized here. Has some other informative/helpful bits.

>

> To: miralax

> Sent: Fri, October 8, 2010 4:57:32 PM

> Subject: RE: New here, looking for alternatives for 2.5 yo DD

>

> Hi Lillu! Good memory!

>

> Yes, Ramkumar is my husband and lately he's been busy with his work and not able to spare much time on this! So I have taken it over.

>

> Thanks for suggesting pedialyte enema. I have not tried enemas before and how traumatic is this one to administer?

>

> Hope you don't have to go through this next time!

>

> Sankari

>

> To: miralax

> From: lillu0314@...

> Date: Fri, 8 Oct 2010 13:32:19 -0700

> Subject: Re: New here, looking for alternatives for 2.5 yo DD

>

> Hi Sankari (I remember you as Ramkumar, tough),

>

> We use the Children's pedialyte glycerine enema, liquid and it works within 10-20 minutes for us, without fail. Like you, we do not let our now 3 year-old DD go w/o a BM for more than 3 days. We used to administer it the morning or evening of the 3rd day (thank God we haven't had to in a very long time now, but we may need to either tonight or tomorrow morning ).

>

> Hope this helps!

>

> To: miralax

> Sent: Fri, October 8, 2010 3:27:00 PM

> Subject: RE: New here, looking for alternatives for 2.5 yo DD

>

> Sara:

>

> I know how you feel and I have been going through something similar with my 2 year old daughter for almost 11 months now. She is not potty trained yet and we just started to. Like your DD, mine is also a big holder. She would be going 3-4 days regularly and 5th day there would be nothing. Even if it stays in her system for a day, the second day it gets little firm (not hard though) and the withholding cycle gets started which ends up not going for 2-3 days, sometimes even longer before I give her a suppository that would make her go after 3 to 4 hours. But, I always have this feeling that my DD is not emptying her bowel completely as I expect two bigger poops after 2-3 days of nothing but she would just do 2 medium ones and be done for that day. Yesterday was another day that I had to give her a suppository in the morning and send her to day care. In the evening I heard she held the

> suppository for good 2 hours and just let the suppository out without any poop! I have been using the children's glycerin suppository (not the liquid one, though). Do you suggest anything that works better than this?

>

> Well, how does this all started, long story short, when we gave her wheat products for a week (the biggest mistake I ever did) when she was 15 months old that made her constipated for 2 to 3 days or so. Before that, she used to go daily every single day with 2 to 3 BM's. Her pediatrician told us that she just has some reaction to wheat (may be her lil' tummy is not able to digest the complex protein in wheat) and that she is not allergic to wheat and put her on Miralax. At that time, we did not know anything about this medicine and she was on it for like 2 months. At that point, we (my husband and I) researched more about Miralax and its side effects and found this wonderful website. We wanted to stop it immediately and cut it cold turkey and put her on Natural Calm which worked good for 2 months (with some bad spells in between). She started having issues again and was again on Miralax every now

> and then and in between I tried flax oil for a while. Like you and all others in this forum, I never always felt comfortable to keep her on Miralax. I wish I could stop giving it to her and never fall back to it ever. But like yours, that is the only thing that has been working well for my DD. At least she goes without fear but the leakage is another issue if she is on it. I was never able to find a right dosage of it.

>

> We had tried Fruiteze and my DD won't take it. I have been thinking of getting the Aloe Juice from the health food store and stop the miralax. The problem is every time that we try new that are natural works well for a while and stops after sometime! And I hate to go back to Miralax again. Very frustrating! Though I am very thankful to have found this site that has people who have more knowledge about this that shares it and suggests wonderful natural remedies. Thank you All!

>

> Sankari

>

> To: miralax

> From: monikamsw@...

> Date: Thu, 7 Oct 2010 10:07:56 -0400

> Subject: RE: New here, looking for alternatives for 2.5 yo DD

>

> Sara,

>

> I know some people who have kids around your DD's age who use a lot more Natural Calm than that. I would think you could at least double that dose if not more. One mom gives her 3.5 year old 4-6 tsps of it. I don't know that I'd go that high. We do a well rounded Â½ teaspoon along with 's aloe vera juice and have gotten her completely off of miralax that way (my DD is 3). We do Â¼c of aloe vera juice 3times a dayâ€¦

>

> Hope that helps a little!

>

> From: miralax [mailto:miralax ] On Behalf Of Sara

> Sent: Wednesday, October 06, 2010 11:12 PM

> To: miralax

> Subject: New here, looking for alternatives for 2.5 yo DD

>

> Hi all,

>

> I tried to post this entire message earlier but it wouldn't let me put a subject heading in and for some reason it seems not to have posted, argh. So here goes again, abbreviated version this time.

>

> My 2.5 yo DD has been constipated since she started solids....we have tried everything including a very strict elimination diet, but to no avail. The only thing that has helped her to date is Miralax but I am very uncomfortable keeping her on it for so long. Currently I've been giving her 1/2 teaspoon Natural Calm magnesium as well as 1/2 teaspoon (about 1500 mg) of vitamin C in the form of calcium ascorbate per day, in addition to an excellent whole foods, high fiber diet and as much fluid as I can get into her (about 2 or 2 1/2 cups per day). This allows me to cut the Miralax dose to about 1/2 of what the GI recommended - about 1/4 cap - but I'd love to be rid of this stuff altogether. Also is it safe to continue indefinitely with Natural Calm and vitamin C daily?

>

> DD has withholding issues and is extremely scared of going potty - to the point where she started being unable to pee either and would hold it for 24+ hours. Forget about having a BM - she would go more than a week and we'd wind up giving her a suppository after days and days of sheer misery for us all. It is very stressful and hard on the whole family so Miralax at least allows her to go - but I'm worried about the cost.

>

> Thoughts and suggestions are very very welcome!

>

> Thanks so much,

>

> Sara

>

October 18, 2010

I know the suppository's and enemea are no fun but sometime they are needed. We had to give my dd 12 one time for a clean out and miralax before a procedure one time and it was horrible. I do want to say though that I agree with the last post about the burning. My dd always looked burned and we didn't know it could have anything to do with the miralax until she was off of it and this didn't happen anymore. We even took her to the ER one time because she woke up at 2am screaming in pain. We had to give her so many enemea's that time because nothing would come out. Don't get discouraged yet. I will just mention my dd didn't have withholding problems and come to find out doesn't really have gastric problems. My dd has an under active thyroid that slows everything down. So I can't remember

if you have mentioned this before but have they checked the thyroid? Faith

Ok. Here is an update! I gave my 2 yo liquid glycerin suppository this morning after her breakfast. Of course, we had a tough time administering that for her. After 10 or 15 minutes, she started crying saying poo poo and did everything she could to stop it - clenching her little butt, holding on to the wall. She was totally upset and did not want anyone near her. So I left her and pretended ignoring her. She calmed down a little bit but kept saying poo poo but still crying. I just asked her if she wants to sit on potty (we just started potty training her). She did not want to and did not let me go near her. I somehow managed to open her diaper but I was so disappointed to see that nothing big came out. It was only some liquidy poop and two little hard chunks. But as soon as I opened her diaper she became even more wild and upset and started running away from me. It just went on for15-20 minutes and my husband and I somehow managed holding her leg and

made her 'squat' a little bit just on the floor. Only three more small hard poops came out and it was very smelly. I know there is still so much in there but I just don't know how to get it out. I was so hoping she would do a big one but only so little came out. I am not even sure if my husband would help me giving her one next time. Oh.. this whole process was so traumatic for all of us! My husband is very concerned and said that this will only lead to more behavioral/psychological issues for her and will not help with potty training. He asked me not to try this next time and just keep her on Miralax for some months until she overcomes all this fear of going poop and until we potty train her. What makes me even more frustrated is that she is making herself constipated because of her withholding. I am totally at loss now.After trying many natural remedies trying to keep things regular, it is very upsetting and I completely hate to again fall

back on Miralax. Just checking to see if there is any stool softener without PEG in it.SankariTo: miralax From: ramkumar_t_s@...Date: Fri, 15 Oct 2010 16:07:30 -0400Subject: RE: Re: New here, looking for alternatives for 2.5 yo DD

Sorry, In my previous e-mail, I meant to say 'Health risk of too much magnesium in supplemental form'.Thanks,SankariTo: miralax From: ramkumar_t_s@...Date: Fri, 15 Oct 2010 16:04:32 -0400Subject: RE: Re: New here, looking for alternatives for 2.5 yo DD

Sara: I see what you are saying about increasing the dosage of NC just for clean out purposes. That might work! Thanks. And, when you say liquid suppositories you mean Liquid Glycerin suppositories right?Reg NC for your daughter 1 tsp a day, I am not sure how much your 2.5 yo DD weighs. This week someone here (I guess , Thanks !) shared a link to NIH's article on magnesium that I referred and found it to be helpful and convinced with the dosage that I am currently giving to my DD. You would have already read it. It talks about the health benefits and also the health risk of magnesium supplements that you might want to refer to (if you haven't already). SankariTo: miralax From: sdeisenman@...Date: Fri, 15 Oct 2010 18:06:51 +0000Subject: Re: New here, looking for alternatives for 2.5 yo DD

Why not just increase the Natural Calm and maybe add some vitamin C for a day or two? I am giving DD almost a teaspoon of NC a day, divided into two or three doses, and it is really really helping. I can also recommend liquid suppositories for toddlers should intervention be necessary - those work great and less invasive than an enema.

HTH

Sara

>

> Lillu: Thanks! That was very helpful! Will also check out the link. As much as I would love to avoid giving her enemas, well I think I might have to give her one probably tomorrow. But, I am little nervous. This week so far has not been good at all. She only passed 2 BM's-medium ones. All the other times, she has been leaking couples of times a day and her tummy is distended. So, she is definitely backed up. And those medium ones are not hard at all. They are in fact soft because I gave her Miralax 1 tsp 2 times this week. Plus, she is taking Natural Calm 1/2 tsp in her juice everyday.

>

> Good clean out method can anyone suggest? (Please do not suggest MoM, it worked only for the first time the second and third time it just gave some slushy stools, no hard stools came out)

>

> To: miralax

> From: lillu0314@...

> Date: Fri, 8 Oct 2010 14:26:28 -0700

> Subject: Re: New here, looking for alternatives for 2.5 yo DD

>

> Well, I'm sorry to say that our DD goes into panic mode every time we have to do this. She has to be held down, so it's a 2-person job. I do not think it is all that painful. The nozzels come pre-lubricated and we apply another generous dollop of vaseline and gently push it into her little anus before inserting the nozel. One drawback to these is that the squeez tab is rather stiff and the nozzel is not tapered at all, but I think both are by design - the first to avoid premature expression of the enema fluid and the latter to avoid injury to the child's rectum. Still, I do feel that both could use some design improvement. Once we finish administering, she's fine.

>

> As for the efficacy of the enema fluid itself - it's fantastic. Like I said earlier, within minutes, she's having a movement. We have tried the Pedia-lax (sorry, I think I may have called them Pedialyte earlier!) enema with the longer nozzle designed for older children, but that one didn't work for her at all. We've also tried the glycerine suppositories, the "waxy" conical kind that you push in and leave, but again, those didn't work for her at all.

>

> Here's the product to which I'm referring: http://www.pedia-lax.com/Liquid-Glycerin-Suppositories.php

>

> Hope you don't have to administer, but if you do, try the above. Good luck.

>

> Here's also a quick, quite informative read: http://www.optimalhealthnetwork.com/Infant-Constipation-s/279.htm

>

> Someone earlier had asked about mineral oil. The author of the above article says that's a no-no, pretty much for the same reason as verbalized here. Has some other informative/helpful bits.

>

> To: miralax

> Sent: Fri, October 8, 2010 4:57:32 PM

> Subject: RE: New here, looking for alternatives for 2.5 yo DD

>

> Hi Lillu! Good memory!

>

> Yes, Ramkumar is my husband and lately he's been busy with his work and not able to spare much time on this! So I have taken it over.

>

> Thanks for suggesting pedialyte enema. I have not tried enemas before and how traumatic is this one to administer?

>

> Hope you don't have to go through this next time!

>

> Sankari

>

> To: miralax

> From: lillu0314@...

> Date: Fri, 8 Oct 2010 13:32:19 -0700

> Subject: Re: New here, looking for alternatives for 2.5 yo DD

>

> Hi Sankari (I remember you as Ramkumar, tough),

>

> We use the Children's pedialyte glycerine enema, liquid and it works within 10-20 minutes for us, without fail. Like you, we do not let our now 3 year-old DD go w/o a BM for more than 3 days. We used to administer it the morning or evening of the 3rd day (thank God we haven't had to in a very long time now, but we may need to either tonight or tomorrow morning ).

>

> Hope this helps!

>

> To: miralax

> Sent: Fri, October 8, 2010 3:27:00 PM

> Subject: RE: New here, looking for alternatives for 2.5 yo DD

>

> Sara:

>

> I know how you feel and I have been going through something similar with my 2 year old daughter for almost 11 months now. She is not potty trained yet and we just started to. Like your DD, mine is also a big holder. She would be going 3-4 days regularly and 5th day there would be nothing. Even if it stays in her system for a day, the second day it gets little firm (not hard though) and the withholding cycle gets started which ends up not going for 2-3 days, sometimes even longer before I give her a suppository that would make her go after 3 to 4 hours. But, I always have this feeling that my DD is not emptying her bowel completely as I expect two bigger poops after 2-3 days of nothing but she would just do 2 medium ones and be done for that day. Yesterday was another day that I had to give her a suppository in the morning and send her to day care. In the evening I heard she held the

> suppository for good 2 hours and just let the suppository out without any poop! I have been using the children's glycerin suppository (not the liquid one, though). Do you suggest anything that works better than this?

>

> Well, how does this all started, long story short, when we gave her wheat products for a week (the biggest mistake I ever did) when she was 15 months old that made her constipated for 2 to 3 days or so. Before that, she used to go daily every single day with 2 to 3 BM's. Her pediatrician told us that she just has some reaction to wheat (may be her lil' tummy is not able to digest the complex protein in wheat) and that she is not allergic to wheat and put her on Miralax. At that time, we did not know anything about this medicine and she was on it for like 2 months. At that point, we (my husband and I) researched more about Miralax and its side effects and found this wonderful website. We wanted to stop it immediately and cut it cold turkey and put her on Natural Calm which worked good for 2 months (with some bad spells in between). She started having issues again and was again on Miralax every now

> and then and in between I tried flax oil for a while. Like you and all others in this forum, I never always felt comfortable to keep her on Miralax. I wish I could stop giving it to her and never fall back to it ever. But like yours, that is the only thing that has been working well for my DD. At least she goes without fear but the leakage is another issue if she is on it. I was never able to find a right dosage of it.

>

> We had tried Fruiteze and my DD won't take it. I have been thinking of getting the Aloe Juice from the health food store and stop the miralax. The problem is every time that we try new that are natural works well for a while and stops after sometime! And I hate to go back to Miralax again. Very frustrating! Though I am very thankful to have found this site that has people who have more knowledge about this that shares it and suggests wonderful natural remedies. Thank you All!

>

> Sankari

>

> To: miralax

> From: monikamsw@...

> Date: Thu, 7 Oct 2010 10:07:56 -0400

> Subject: RE: New here, looking for alternatives for 2.5 yo DD

>

> Sara,

>

> I know some people who have kids around your DD's age who use a lot more Natural Calm than that. I would think you could at least double that dose if not more. One mom gives her 3.5 year old 4-6 tsps of it. I don't know that I'd go that high. We do a well rounded Â½ teaspoon along with 's aloe vera juice and have gotten her completely off of miralax that way (my DD is 3). We do Â¼c of aloe vera juice 3times a dayâ€¦

>

> Hope that helps a little!

>

> From: miralax [mailto:miralax ] On Behalf Of Sara

> Sent: Wednesday, October 06, 2010 11:12 PM

> To: miralax

> Subject: New here, looking for alternatives for 2.5 yo DD

>

> Hi all,

>

> I tried to post this entire message earlier but it wouldn't let me put a subject heading in and for some reason it seems not to have posted, argh. So here goes again, abbreviated version this time.

>

> My 2.5 yo DD has been constipated since she started solids....we have tried everything including a very strict elimination diet, but to no avail. The only thing that has helped her to date is Miralax but I am very uncomfortable keeping her on it for so long. Currently I've been giving her 1/2 teaspoon Natural Calm magnesium as well as 1/2 teaspoon (about 1500 mg) of vitamin C in the form of calcium ascorbate per day, in addition to an excellent whole foods, high fiber diet and as much fluid as I can get into her (about 2 or 2 1/2 cups per day). This allows me to cut the Miralax dose to about 1/2 of what the GI recommended - about 1/4 cap - but I'd love to be rid of this stuff altogether. Also is it safe to continue indefinitely with Natural Calm and vitamin C daily?

>

> DD has withholding issues and is extremely scared of going potty - to the point where she started being unable to pee either and would hold it for 24+ hours. Forget about having a BM - she would go more than a week and we'd wind up giving her a suppository after days and days of sheer misery for us all. It is very stressful and hard on the whole family so Miralax at least allows her to go - but I'm worried about the cost.

>

> Thoughts and suggestions are very very welcome!

>

> Thanks so much,

>

> Sara

>

October 19, 2010

Lillu :- Thanks so much for your encouraging words! It makes me feel so much better. I am very thrilled to try the fetal position that you mentioned here - will definitely give it a try next time! And regarding her diet, we are totally staying out of wheat (both white and whole wheat) as wheat was the cause of all this mess that we are going through now, and no bananas and cheese. We are vegetarians and we do not eat meat (Thanks for your offer though!) and we give her oatmeal and home made fruit smoothie, lentils, white rice (little) and Quinoa and home made vegetable soups for lunch and dinner and fresh fruits for snacks. Milk - we are on reduced fat milk and she only gets her 2 servings (some days even less than that). She used to be a very picky eater and has gotten a little better now. Regarding Probiotics, what kind of probiotics do you use? I had tried Culturelle for kids when she was 18 months old but did not see any improvement and also tried Good Belly Probiotic juice for a while but again no improvement. SankariTo: miralax From: lillu0314@...Date: Mon, 18 Oct 2010 13:48:46 -0700Subject: Re: Re: New here, looking for alternatives for 2.5 yo DD