Re: listening to your pediatrician vs. gastro

[Guest guest]

Hi Ellen,

Sorry to hear about your situation. Although I am glad to read that

at least your pediatrician offered an alternative to Miralax, I'm

sorry that the GI doc pushed it for your son.

I'm not a physician, but I can't emphasize enough how much I feel that

the constipation most of our kids experience is caused by something

that we can work to fix naturally (food sensitivites/delayed

allergies, unfriendly yeast overgrowth, unfriendly bacteria

overgrowth, etc.). Unfortunately most conventional pediatricians and

GI docs are not interested in investigating this and it is up to the

parents to sort through it all or seek alternative care.

Have you tried eliminating the foods that commonly cause " delayed

allergy " (food sensitivity) problems that can manifest as constipation

(wheat (gluten), milk/dairy (casein), soy, etc)? It can be difficult

to truly eliminate these foods, and can take a week or more to notice

a difference, but can be extremely beneficial.

Can you get your pediatrician to order a comprehensive stool analysis,

urine testing, and other metabolic testing? An alternative

practitioner (some chiropractors, naturopaths, DAN! doctors, etc)

often perform these kinds of tests.

If you search and sift through old posts you will find many posts

about what people here are finding as contributing to and/or causing

their or their child's constipation.

There are also many suggestions in the previous posts for alternatives

to Miralax.

Hang in there.

>

> Hi all,

>

> My son is 2 years old (27 months) and has had constipation issues

> since 16 months of age. At first, he was having weight gaining

> issues. Now that's been somewhat fixed, he's had constipation

> problems. When I brought this problem to his gastro, she recommended

> Miralax. Being a " natural " type of mom, I was hesitant and delayed

> putting him on it. I instead tried prune juice, prunes, pear juice,

> diced pears, etc. Nothing worked.

>

> We saw his pediatrician a couple weeks later and she recommended

> Benefiber. I wasn't sure what this was, so I delayed it too. After

> frustration with his constipation and irritability, I put him on

> Miralax. But, I gave him 1/2 the Rx from his doctor. I would say

> that it worked, but I got scared when I started seeing behavior

> changes.

>

> My son turned 2 and I just thought it was terrible 2's. Then, I

> noticed when I gave it to him every other day, the day that I would

> not give it to him, he would behave irrationally. I would give him 4-

> 6 time out's/discipline him each day. It would get worse as time

> went on. He started hitting and throwing things. Then, it scared me

> when he would have what I call " Helen Keller " episodes when he would

> just eat like an animal and scream.

>

> I took him off the Miralax a week ago and switched to Benefiber. So

> far, no episodes like before and the time outs are very few now. The

> stools are less moist than before, but more frequent. I'm beginning

> to think that I should have listened to my peds. Who knows? Maybe

> my gastro gets kick-back from Miralax.

>

> Thanks for listening.

>

> -Ellen

>