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| Stay at Home Moms |
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| Is anyone out there familiar with Mirilax or have you had to give it to your child, if so what has been your experience and how long has your child been on it. My son is 2 1/2 and has been on it for 7 months and still the same. He holds his BM, which our pedi says is behavioral, it hurt once so I will continue to hold it, is what he thinks. Only it makes his BM really loose. It takes water from other places in the body to make it like that, well my question is, isn't that unhealthy??? We have gone from a full 8 oz to 2 oz and I seem to always be adjusting it to get him to go. I called and talked to our Pedi's nurse (one of many) and she said to take him off of it and see how he does. Well that was four days ago. The first day it was loose, the second day it was pretty big (his BM) and now the third and forth day he is holding it so it looks like I am going to have to break out the mirilax again. Anyone |
| Posted by amy on 10/11/2008 03:39 PM
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I'm sure you know that Mirilax is a laxitive. It is never ok to have diarrhea for a long period of time, since, as you noted, you are essentially dehydrating the body. My question to you would be: how's his diet? I don't want to insult you with information you might already know, but there are certain foods that tend to cause constipation and, thus, pain when having a bowel movement. The worse culprits are: bananas, rice, processed and refined foods, white bread, meats, dairy, ice cream and cheese. The best thing for him would be to eat foods high in fiber, like fresh fruits and veggies: apples, pears, broccoli, beans, nuts, seeds and whole grains. If your little guy is particularly picky when it comes to foods, try to make him a smoothie with fresh fruit and ground flax seed. Flax is a great source of fiber and omega-3 fats. You can't taste it at all in a smoothie. If you're not sure how to make smoothies, just check online. However, you might want to use soy milk instead of cow's milk since cow's milk is one of the culprits in constipation. Not only can you add ground flax to smoothies, you can also put it in oatmeal, cereal, yogurt, etc...Also, make sure your little one stays hydrated. Fruit juices tend to have a high sugar content and can cause dehydration.
I add ground flax to anything I make for my 15 month old. He also eats whole grain everything because that is how his father and I eat. He probably has 3-4 good, solid bowel movements a day.
Hang in there. I know your situation will get better. You'll just have to become extremely innovative so you can finally throw out the Mirilax. Good luck. |
| posted by Allison on 10/11/2008 04:34 PM
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| Thanks for your input. The thing is he is an excellent eater. He eats whatever I give him, I make sure he gets fruits and vegtables and whole grains everyday. He isn't really constipated , he is holding it, because he thinks it is going to hurt. He was constipated I guess when all this started about 7 months ago, and when he finally went it hurt. So he has held it every since. I don't give him a lot of any of the constipating foods, the only thing that he really gets that might constipate is milk. he drinks about 16 oz of 2% milk a day. He is a good drinker as well so he has never been dehydrated, I just don't like the idea of the mirilax because I know it can cause things like that. Thanks anyway |
| posted by amy on 10/11/2008 04:43 PM
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| My son is also on mirilax. He also ate a high fiber diet. I tried everything and nothing would stop his constipation. He was miserable and held it too. It was sooooo hard to watch him go through that. He is also two years old and mirilax was the only thing that worked for him. The Dr. told us to try benefiber before we tried mirilax and it did not seem to work. Maybe it would work for your son though. I usually give him the mirilax every three days but I am thinking of taking him off it. I needed to wait till his intestines shrunk back up and the dr. said that should be about 2 months. I am nervous though for him to experience the normal poo he has to work to push out. Hopefully he won't hold it. I guess they say benefiber is totally natural and my dr said its okay to give our son. He actually had to give it to his daughter too. Potty training will be a whole new battle for me after this. Is your son potty training? Oh yeah, I am not sure but I think although my son eats a high fiber diet, he eats lots of crackers so I am going to try to cut back on those and see if it helps..........I have no idea if that will work. I just can't see why he would be so constipated. Good Luck and let me know how it all goes cause I could be in the exact situation really soon! |
| posted by Karla on 10/12/2008 03:22 PM
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| I am sorry that you are going through it to. I stopped mirilax last week for my son and have been keeping record of his BM"s. I had to break down today and give him about 4 oz of it (in juice) He drinks milk which I know can be constipating, but he really isn't "constipated" until he makes himself that way. SO I think he could be on the best diet possible and he is going to hold it if he can. I think I am going to make an appointment for him this week to see what the Dr. suggest now. She has told me he can be on Mirilax forever and it won't hurt him, I just don't know if I believe that, but I think it is better than him going through pain with every BM, just when I would think his stools had been loose enough over a long period I would gently ease him off of it and as soon as it started to get where he could control it again he would. It's like a never ending thing. She also (pedi) suggested mineral oil, number 1 I don't think I could get him to take it and secondly after I started reading about it, it can cause major issues if it goes down the wrong way and gets caught in thier lungs, because they can't get it out, so for me that is totally out of the question. I have been giving my son plum smart, its plum juice, I drink it myself, and it's pretty good. Well he gets things moving only he holds it so it doesn't work for him, as soon as he feels the urge his little butt cheeks clinch up, it is just awful to watch him go through this, I feel helpless. |
| posted by amy on 10/12/2008 03:49 PM
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| I seriously feel your pain. It is soo hard to watch them go through that. I really hope we can take my son off and he will just go. you would think that seven months later, they would have forgotten and tried again. I know how awful it is to watch them hold it and not want to eat or even move when they don't want to go. Seriously though, I agree that if the Dr. says its safe (and mine says the same thing) it is better to keep them comfortable until they outgrow it, which I am sure will happen in time. Is potty training an issue yet or have you tried that yet? I heard that it can be an issue for them when they are going through this. My son wanted to potty train a while back and then his constipation episodes started and then he would not want to go after that like yours and now he wants nothing to do with the potty chair. I have a feeling it will be a huge challenge to potty train him now. |
| posted by Karla on 10/12/2008 04:20 PM
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| My son goes sometimes, just pee though. He shows no interest in going poop, which I can kind of understand. So I ask him to go before baths (pee) and in the morning in I ask him some throughout the day, but I try and not pressure him. But at the same time I don't won;t him not to get any exposure at all to it. My Dr. says wait till he is 3, that it is no big deal right now. But my concern is what if he is still going through this with the mirialx.... because he did have big boy underwear on one day before we stopped the mirilax and he had a accident, with poop, oh my it was messy. And he was looking at me like what is going on. So I don't want to stress him out right now too much with potty training |
| posted by amy on 10/12/2008 05:28 PM
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| I would definately stop giving him the miralax. It will only mess with the bodies natural ability and prolong the situation. Keep up the good diet and make sure he drinks plenty of liquid. I would switch to soy or rice milk as my children have all had issues with BM's when on cow's milk. We use Rice Dream Enriched and the kids have no issue with it. If the taste difference is an issue try using the vanilla or chocolate flavor. Or just by the enriched original flavor and add your own flavors or Ovatine. He can't hold it forever and nature has a way of straightening the situation out. It's also not uncommon for some children and adults to not go for a week or more. It just depends on many factors. Be strong and throw out the miralax. ;) |
| posted by DESTINY on 10/13/2008 09:57 AM
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I feel sorry for your little one. I give Katie prunes, pears and peaches for a natural laxative effect, and I keep her fluids up. I also switched to a mixed grain cereal, which I make sloppier than the packet says, for extra fluids. This link had good information on constipation, and also on bowel movement training.
http://www.askdrsears.com/html/8/T081100.asp
I hope he gets better soon. |
| posted by Jackie on 10/15/2008 01:46 AM
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| I understand diet. My son has a better diet than most kids his age. He will eat anything I give him usually, and I cook really healthy he gets 8 g of fiber a day, fruits and vegtables. His is more of a behavioral issue. It hurt once so it will hurt again. I took him back to the Dr. this week and she said to put him back on the Mirilax and to start mineral oil. She said if he is not off the mineral oil and on a smaller dosage of the mirilax by his birthday that she would refer him to a GI Dr for some testing to make sure there are no problems in his colon or rectum. Thank you for the website, I do have help him retrain on letting the BM pass with some form to it, I think I am going to put him on a schedule and sit on the potty everyday. Even though we are not really potty training yet. He will go Pee occasionally in the potty but has never wanted to poop. So someone gave me an idea about tokens for when he does go poop when he collects 5 he gets a special treat. And I will still continue the MM's for pee. Thanks for all the advise. |
| posted by amy on 10/15/2008 08:33 AM
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Hey Amy,
We use to have that problem too. Our daughter is now 10 and the doctors use to say that she has what they would call poo, poo fright and would be scared to let it go.
At first we thought that was the case and so the doctor perscribed Mirilax. I would feel so bad because her stomach would get so bloated, then when she would finally go, it would be loose and sometimes the smell was so overwhelming than normal. She always seemed to be uncomfortable. Poor thing.
Alot of people would say it was her diet because of how picky she is. It's true. I met someone who had the same problems with there little boy and she became really health concious. She told me to switch to organic milk and to try cranberry juice mixes. I started looking for foods high in fiber that were alot healthier for her.
She finally goes regularly with no strain. The doctors told us that she would have to be on Mirilax for the rest of her life, but as you can see they were wrong. I stopped using Mirilax long time ago. I also started giving her fish oil in her juices which I've read is high on OMEGA 3 and of course your daily multivitamin.
Good luck with everything,
glasel |
| posted by Glasel on 10/15/2008 11:16 PM
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