Re: behavior problems

September 4, 2010

So sorry to hear. This happened to many people on here including ourselves... Push water and keep him going to get it out. Call your doc so it can be documented and so he can make the decision to change the protocol and the FDA to report your adverse reaction 1-800-FDA-1088. If you take WHAT caused the behavior out of the equation, the behavior should improve, although in many cases, it has not subsidded but did improve. With that being said, it's obvious WHAT caused it.

http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/miralax/files/

To: miralax Sent: Sat, September 4, 2010 7:59:19 AMSubject: behavior problems

Hi - I joined this group because I read about people's kids starting to have odd behaviors after taking miralax. My son has been very constipated and the dr told us to take miralax. He took 1/2 of a cap once a day for 2 days. Within about a day his behavior changed pretty dramatically. He had been having some problems with bad tantrums which included sometimes biting / hitting my husband and me (he's almost 3) as well as occasionally biting himself. However, these tantrums would happen maybe up to 2 times a day, and we'd have good days where he would not have any. He actually had been doing well recently for a couple of weeks. He would almost always wake up happy even on bad days. Now for the 3rd day in a row (stopped taking the miralax yesterday) he has been waking up and almost immediately going into a tantrum. Yesterday was the worst - I was alone with him and he had a raging tantrum basically on and off the entire day. Today again he woke up and

immediately was upset, angry, biting. After reading this group I am so scared - is it possible that after just 2 days of taking 1/2 of a cap his behavior has changed forever? From what I've read it can do irreversible damage. He still hasn't had a bowel movement since he had the miralax. If anyone has any information or advice including doctors to see about this I'd appreciate it. If anyone had a child with bad behavior on miralax which stopped after taking it I'd appreciate hearing that. Thank you

September 4, 2010

Sorry this is happening to your son and you. It's not easy and it always seems to be a choice of the lesser of two evils. There are plenty of natural ways to help your son's body go without the use of miralax (if you're seeing negative interactions). See the "files" section of the group for ideas. Tantrums, bad moods and other stuff happened with our son, too. His bad moods progressed into tantrums for things he normally would not have tantrumed. I blamed it on his age. When the tantrums progressed into full-fledged death threats (by this time he was 7), I was worried. I reported the incidents to the doctor, the doctor blamed me as a parent. He also told us to hide all the knives in the house (our 7 year old was threatening to stab us to death). Right then, I knew I had to stop the miralax - I am a good mom and all this happened after miralax - I was finally able to put two and two together. Although we stopped, the damage was done. Our ds was put on a very strong psychotropic medication, which made him sleep 14-18 hours a day (so of course his behavior stopped, he was sleeping all the time!). I stopped those meds after about a week. I am a teacher for kids with behavior disorders, so I went into teacher mode with him and worked on stopping the behavior before it started. We worked on strategies to stop the outbursts...it was a long road. Our ds is now 12 - while he is no longer having major tantrums (which I attribute a little to just "growing up"), he still gets angry very, very easy. He wakes up crabby almost everyday and has to work hard to talk himself out of his anger. It breaks my heart because I feel I did this to him by giving him miralax. I hope this doesn't happen to your son. Many of the side-effects of miralax which affected my son have lessened over time, but none have completely disappeared. Best wishes - look around in the group to find different ideas. Hi - I joined this group because I read about people's kids starting to have odd behaviors after taking miralax. My son has been very constipated and the dr told us to take miralax. He took 1/2 of a cap once a day for 2 days. Within about a day his behavior changed pretty dramatically. He had been having some problems with bad tantrums which included sometimes biting / hitting my husband and me (he's almost 3) as well as occasionally biting himself. However, these tantrums would happen maybe up to 2 times a day, and we'd have good days where he would not have any. He actually had been doing well recently for a couple of weeks. He would almost always wake up happy even on bad days. Now for the 3rd day in a row (stopped taking the miralax yesterday) he has been waking up and almost immediately going into a tantrum. Yesterday was the worst - I was alone with him and he had a raging tantrum basically on and off the entire day. Today again he woke up and immediately was upset, angry, biting. After reading this group I am so scared - is it possible that after just 2 days of taking 1/2 of a cap his behavior has changed forever? From what I've read it can do irreversible damage. He still hasn't had a bowel movement since he had the miralax. If anyone has any information or advice including doctors to see about this I'd appreciate it. If anyone had a child with bad behavior on miralax which stopped after taking it I'd appreciate hearing that. Thank you

September 4, 2010

You said you stopped the miralax when your son was 7. When did you start? How

long was he on it? Thank you

>

> Hi - I joined this group because I read about people's kids starting

> to have odd behaviors after taking miralax. My son has been very

> constipated and the dr told us to take miralax. He took 1/2 of a cap

> once a day for 2 days. Within about a day his behavior changed pretty

> dramatically. He had been having some problems with bad tantrums which

> included sometimes biting / hitting my husband and me (he's almost 3)

> as well as occasionally biting himself. However, these tantrums would

> happen maybe up to 2 times a day, and we'd have good days where he

> would not have any. He actually had been doing well recently for a

> couple of weeks. He would almost always wake up happy even on bad

> days. Now for the 3rd day in a row (stopped taking the miralax

> yesterday) he has been waking up and almost immediately going into a

> tantrum. Yesterday was the worst - I was alone with him and he had a

> raging tantrum basically on and off the entire day. Today again he

> woke up and immediately was upset, angry, biting. After reading this

> group I am so scared - is it possible that after just 2 days of taking

> 1/2 of a cap his behavior has changed forever? From what I've read it

> can do irreversible damage. He still hasn't had a bowel movement since

> he had the miralax. If anyone has any information or advice including

> doctors to see about this I'd appreciate it. If anyone had a child

> with bad behavior on miralax which stopped after taking it I'd

> appreciate hearing that. Thank you

>

September 4, 2010

thank you. I think my son may has very minor sensory disorder - is sensitive to

light, and somewhat to sound although that's gotten better. (apparently my

husband was like this as a kid and is a completely normal adult). But other

than that he's a very smart, normal, funny social kid. Other than recently

having some bad behavior but not on such an extreme level, he's been very

normal. I am so scared. It's only been a couple of days of this behavior and he

only took it for a very short time so I am hoping and praying that if it's

causing any problems it will go away.

any doctors who you recommend I talk to? Or do they all basically think it's not

at all related?

Thank you so much and I'm happy to hear your son is doign better. I wish you

all of the luck in the world.

> >

> > Hi - I joined this group because I read about people's kids starting

> > to have odd behaviors after taking miralax. My son has been very

> > constipated and the dr told us to take miralax. He took 1/2 of a cap

> > once a day for 2 days. Within about a day his behavior changed pretty

> > dramatically. He had been having some problems with bad tantrums

> which

> > included sometimes biting / hitting my husband and me (he's almost 3)

> > as well as occasionally biting himself. However, these tantrums would

> > happen maybe up to 2 times a day, and we'd have good days where he

> > would not have any. He actually had been doing well recently for a

> > couple of weeks. He would almost always wake up happy even on bad

> > days. Now for the 3rd day in a row (stopped taking the miralax

> > yesterday) he has been waking up and almost immediately going into a

> > tantrum. Yesterday was the worst - I was alone with him and he had a

> > raging tantrum basically on and off the entire day. Today again he

> > woke up and immediately was upset, angry, biting. After reading this

> > group I am so scared - is it possible that after just 2 days of

> taking

> > 1/2 of a cap his behavior has changed forever? From what I've read it

> > can do irreversible damage. He still hasn't had a bowel movement

> since

> > he had the miralax. If anyone has any information or advice including

> > doctors to see about this I'd appreciate it. If anyone had a child

> > with bad behavior on miralax which stopped after taking it I'd

> > appreciate hearing that. Thank you

> >

>

September 4, 2010

Moiracottle,

I am writing because your post brought back a lot of the fear and guilt I

experienced when my son was on Miralax. I still keep up with the group but I

haven't posted in a long time because thankfully, with much time, effort, trial

& error (thanks to the suggestions of this board, which I will be eternally

grateful for) we finally resolved my son's constipation issues -- without the

help of our pediatrician and gastro. It was a long road. No one who hasn't gone

through this can ever understand how traumatic it is when you're child can not

" go. " Not to sound dramatic, but it affected everyone in our family; affected

every day of our lives. There was a period we could not even leave the house

because the problem was so bad. And Miralax was the only thing the doctors

prescribed. One day I frustratedly asked the gatro doc how long we were supposed

to just leave our son on this stuff. (He had already been on it for a year at

that point). He just laughed and said: " Oh, until he goes to college. " Miralax

forever, basically. That was the day it finally sunk in that I couldn't depend

on the doctors for any real help.

From the ages of 1 to almost-4 my son was on Miralax. It did nothing but make

him dependent on it. When it stopped working the protocol was to just keep

taking larger doses. Never mind that it was a chemical never intended for

growing children or long term use. Never mind that after a while it began to

burn my son's skin when it came out of him. Never mind that his behavior while

he was on it (there were periods when, against the advice of my doctor and my

husband's wishes, I took him off it) was out of control. But I was a wimp for a

long time. I suspected my son's signs of depression and horrible, violent

tantrums might be linked to this chemical we were putting into his body every

day (also, do not underestimate how rotten and sick severely constipated kids

must feel all the time and how that affects behavior too), but I was too afraid

to go against the doctors and my husband. Finally I decided to go with my

instincts and took my son off Miralax cold turkey. My husband didn't agree with

me, but I fought him on it and started trying to get to the root of what was

wrong. After a few weeks my son's behavior, for the first time in his young

life, began to be calm. He was still pretty constipated, but he seemed happier.

I remember for the first time he started to participate in group activities with

other children. He was cooperative. These were things I never thought I'd see.

After a month my husband put my son back on Miralax. His constipation was still

pretty bad and he didn't agree with my methods because at the time they didn't

seem to be working. He had always trusted the doctors that Miralax was safe.

After a few days my son's doom and gloom attitude returned. About a week later

he was back to having long, uncontrollable crying fits. I will NEVER forget this

-- One day my husband walked into the room and looked at our son in a heap on

the floor, crying, screaming, and ranting, and he said : " I'm convinced. Take

him off the Miralax. " And we have never looked back.

Now, it's a year later. Working together, my husband and I got to the root of

what was physically wrong with my son. We eliminated all dairy and that worked

once we got him over the psychological fear of going, (a fear that stemmed from

the burning-like reactions Miralax had caused coming out.) Now my son poops

every day. He is a healthy, happy almost-five-year old boy. He is still prone to

occasional gloomy days, but he is in control of himself. That is the biggest

psychological difference we have seen. And no, I do not equate this with age. My

husband and I now both agree that while on Miralax our son's behavior and

personality were altered, and that was frankly too high a price to pay for

regular bowel movements.

I can't say if my son would be different now had he never been on Miralax. All I

can do is go forward and share with people our own negative experiences with

this medication. Hopefully it helps others make the decision not to use it.

There's a lot of great information on this site that can help you. Good luck to

you.

June 25, 2011

----- Forwarded Message ----To: miralax Sent: Sat, September 4, 2010 1:33:21 PMSubject: Re: behavior problems

thank you. I think my son may has very minor sensory disorder - is sensitive to light, and somewhat to sound although that's gotten better. (apparently my husband was like this as a kid and is a completely normal adult). But other than that he's a very smart, normal, funny social kid. Other than recently having some bad behavior but not on such an extreme level, he's been very normal. I am so scared. It's only been a couple of days of this behavior and he only took it for a very short time so I am hoping and praying that if it's causing any problems it will go away.

any doctors who you recommend I talk to? Or do they all basically think it's not at all related?

Thank you so much and I'm happy to hear your son is doign better. I wish you all of the luck in the world.