New to Group - Looking for Help

February 4, 2011

We have a 3 year old boy at about 30 lbs who is autistic. Went in to see a

doctor for a check up and she says he is constipated (they did an x-ray). He is

pooping fairly regularly (every other day or so) - but evidently not enough - as

she says he has a lot of old poop backed up in his system. It comes out looking

fairly normal, so we didn't realize he was constipated. He has had a history of

not liking to poop, so I guess his problem is that he hasn't fully pooped when

he couldn't hold it any longer and finally pooped (he poops at night too). The

doc of course prescribed Miralax - we balked - and she said she could do

Lucatose as an alternative.

I know many on this Board are having worse problems, but we need help!!! Here

are some questions, in no particular order:

1. is Lucatose a safe alternative? My wife does not want to use Lucatose long

term and would consider using it for 3 days max for a " blowout. " Does this make

any sense, or would we just fall into a pattern of having to engineer a blow-out

every month or so?

2. What about Natural Calm? A lot of people seem to use this? What do people

think is a good dose for a child his age (talking adult Natural Calm). Should

we try and engineer a blowout by gradually trying to push the Natural Calm up to

one tsp per day. Also, can you cook this stuff into pancakes, or does that kill

the good stuff? Is this stuff potentially dangerous (beyond diaherria)?

3. How to encourage more water? We feel like his diet is pretty good. We do

specific carb diet, so no breads except home made using almond flour. Drinks

home made juices. Wife makes yogurt at home for probiotics. Eats fruits and

some veges. Backing off the bananas (recently learned they are constipating).

For some reason, he has slowed his water intake. Any ideas, besides encouraging

him. Keeo in mind we follow a stict diet, so no sugars or artificial aweetners!

4. How concerned should I be about the backup? Our son talks to us to tell us

things though I honestly don't know if he would tell us if his stomach hurts.

He is eating. He is pooping about every other day. Part of me feels that we

should try to add Nature Calm, encourage water/juices/smoothies with yogurt,

encouragem, and try to take a step back to relieve pressure on us and maybe him.

Any and all thoughts much appreciated.

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