Severe Constipation is Coming to an End

Since Simone was about five months old, she has had the most horrific bowel movements I have ever seen. She was put on Lactulose at that time and it only helped slightly. The problem with Lactulose, first of all, is that it contains lactose, which she is allergic to. Second, it must be increased as time goes by in order for it to be affective.

We continued to use Lactulose until we found out that she was allergic to milk, and even after her allergist told us that she should stay away from all forms of milk products, I inquired about the Lactulose and she said it would be OK to continue to use it. Huh? This same doctor said it was also OK for her to continue on Nutramigen formula. Not only that, but with how high her peanut allergy was, she STILL refused to write a prescription for an Epipen. Anyway, after she refused to change Simmi over to a dairy free laxative and formula, I argued with Simmi’s pediatrician about it. He too gave me a hard time about switching her to these dairy-free products. After much debate, he gave in to the formula and prescribed her Neocate but refused to switch her to a dairy-free laxative. This child was suffering so bad and at a visit to her geneticist, it was the geneticist who actually switched her over to Miralax. Miralax did the trick, but it caused her to break out really bad and caused a lot of cramping, making her very uncomfortable.

About four months ago I switched her to just plain mineral oil and that seemed to help a bit more.

Her BM’s are so huge they get stuck and have to be manually extracted. She has fissures,tears, bleeding and at times her anus actually protrudes out. I honestly don’t know how such a small child could pass something so huge. I have actually had to live my life around her BM’s and that has caused me to miss out on a lot of things…even long awaited doctor appointments with specialists that took five months just to be seen. It has been a nightmare for the both of us, and a huge inconvenience for my family.

She has been consistently eating for two months now, and finally we are starting to see a difference in her BM’s. After one month of eating, I stopped giving her the mineral oil, and while it was still a little hard for her to pass the BM, she was able to do it without me having to manually extract it for her. She is eating blueberries, grapes and pears regularly, her BM’s are softening up quite a bit, making it much easier to go. She is still straining and her BM’s are still quite large, but she is going about three times a day now and I feel we are putting another horror behind us.

I have four children ranging in age from 12-20 years old, and when they were young, I never had any health issues to contend with. Only one of my children has eczema. We had regular checkups, colds and stuff like that. I never had to deal with doctors or fight for my children and be their advocate. Since Simmi was born, my eyes were opened up to heart ache of not being heard or listened to by a health care provider. I have had to endure the “look” from doctors who wanted to just dismiss my concerns. I have learned that I don’t have the time to waste going to a doctor that doesn’t take me serious, or who suggests a treatment that is counterproductive to Simmi’s health. That being said, her original pediatrician dropped us stating that Simmi’s care was advanced and that I should seek a new doctor. In other words, he didn’t want to deal with me asking questions, or even questioning his judgment when it came to her care. I also stopped going to the allergist after her refusal to prescribe an Epipen.

Have any of you dealt with the same type of treatment from doctors or allergists? I’d love to know if your child has a peanut allergy, did the doctor refuse to give you an Epipen? Does anyone else find that strange?

Tags: bowel movement, eczema, epipen, Lactulose, milk allergy, mineral oil, Miralax, Neocate, Peanut allergy, severe constipation