Re: listening to your pediatrician vs. gastro

[Guest guest]

Hi Ellen.

soo sorry to hear about the bad experiance you had with your son on

Miralax. Unfortunately, i've seen many many stories such as your own

since coming here. I'm soo happy that my son wasnt' on it long enough

to suffer these problems, but i do worry about the possible damage

that was done while he was on it for that short time. Miralax is NOT

natural. not in any way. and IMHO any doc that says that neesds to be

slapped! there is nothing in Miralax that is remotely natural.

Benefiber on the other hand is natural! It is just added fiber and

that is all. I did try benefiber with my son, and unfortunetly it

wasnt' enough for him. We are in the process right now of finding a

new ped due to his old ped pushed miralax and said that was all that

would be recommended even by a GI doc. She was wrong! the Gi doc was

happy to handle his constipation issues naturally.

Things that we've found to work for us, that may help you as well

Flax seed/ flax oil. flax seed ground is better due to the fact that

it has fiber in it as well

oatmeal, sorbitol (this is a fruit sugar and is available over hte

counter, you just have to ask your pharamists for it. it is 100%

natural), fruit smoothies (look at Dr. Sears site for his stool

softening smoothies) Magensium Citrate, and on occasion if absolutely

needed Kidlax which is an all natural laxative. It has prunes, peach

leaf, rudabagah, flax seeds and a few other natural ingrediants that

really help them go.

Hope your little one gets to feeling better really soon

>

> 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

>

[Guest guest]

Thank you, . I haven't yet tried to eliminate food allergies

for the simple reason that my son needs to still gain weight. He's

on the lower 25th percentile on the growth chart, which is ok just

smaller than usual. He's not in any danger anymore, but the goal is

to have him gain weight to catch up with his milestones.

I don't know if other parents have the same issues with their child

of weight gain difficulty and constipation. It's difficult to

eliminate soy, dairy, protiens, nuts, and wheat products when he

needs to bulk up. Plus, he's a typical 2 year old with a picky

palate. He's had several tests taken: blood, urine, stool, barium.

All of them were negative. I make sure that he has Benefiber twice a

day. The stools vary in size, but most of them are not that peanut

butter consistency that the gastro suggested Miralax was going to

provide. Does anyone know if a drier consistancy really matters?

Should I worry about it?

It is interesting reading the previous posts. My son exhibited the

same behavior that one other mom described as SDB (self-destructive

behavior) on Miralax. He was hitting himself, hitting his head on

things. Nightmares got worse. Very scary sometimes.

I haven't told my son's gastro yet that we took him off Miralax. I'm

thinking she's going to probably cancel our next appointment or

something. I don't know how I'm going to explain it without sounding

like the overly protective mom.

Thanks for this list! I'm new to the list and find all of the

information so helpful. Who knew there was a community out there

like this?

-Ellen

[Guest guest]

Hi Sharry,

Just a note about calculating magnesium dose to remind everyone that

it is necessary to look at the amount of " elemental magnesium " when

cross-comparing between different products. See message #3805 in the

archives for more on " elemental " magnesium and a link to an article

about this.

For my son, he was taking about 400mg of elemental magnesium which

was about 12 mLs of liquid Cherry MOM. I believe cc is equivalent to

mL so if your child is taking 10mLs of liquid MOM I believe is

usually at a concentration of 500 mg elemental mag per tablespoon

(check the label of your bottle to confirm). This would mean your

child is getting 2/3 of 500 mg or ~333mg of elemental magnesium.

So, now that I've worked through all that I see that it looks like

that would agree with your calculation of about 13-14 cc of the new

liquid!! (assuming the 350mg/ml refers to the elemental mag)...

Also, here's a link I found useful for converting between cc's, mLs,

teaspoons, tablespoons, etc.

http://prescription.lifetips.com/tip/61519/basic-calculations/liquids/cc-s-ml-s-\

teaspoonfuls-and-tablespoonfuls.html

best,

>

> Hey all,

>

> I wanted to ask - I know it's been discussed before, but it would

help me if people could report again their child's magnesium dose? We

are switching from MOM to liquid cal/mag. We've used cal/mag in the

past for his muscles, so that works well for us.

>

> My guy is about 70 pounds. Per his G.I., he was on 10cc (2 tea) of

Milk of Magnesia a day. The liquid cal/mag is about 350mg/15cc, so I

think that would be about 13-14cc a day for him to compare to the milk

of magnesia?

>

>

> sharry, aidan's mom

>

[Guest guest]

Yep - MOM is magnesium hydroxide. I think Sharry is switching which

magnesium supplement she's giving (from MOM to the other liquid

cal/mag supplement). The actual form of magnesium in various

supplements can be different (e.g., magnesium citrate, magnesium

oxide, magnesium hydroxide, magnesium glycinate, etc.). Some

manufacturers list magnesium content of a supplement by total

magnesium compound (e.g., total amount of magnesium hydroxide) and

some list magnesium content as elemental magnesium (i.e., exactly how

much there is of just the magnesium molecule). So when switching from

one magnesium supplement to another it's important to determine how

much elemental magnesium is in a dose to accurately determine how much

of the new supplement to give instead.

Anyway, I was hoping that if others gave info on the dosages they are

using of whatever magnesium supplement that they would provide info on

the amount of elemental mag so that Sharry could put it in context to

the new supplement she's giving.

hth...??

best,

> >>

> >> Hey all,

> >>

> >> I wanted to ask - I know it's been discussed before, but it would

> > help me if people could report again their child's magnesium dose? We

> > are switching from MOM to liquid cal/mag. We've used cal/mag in the

> > past for his muscles, so that works well for us.

> >>

> >> My guy is about 70 pounds. Per his G.I., he was on 10cc (2 tea) of

> > Milk of Magnesia a day. The liquid cal/mag is about 350mg/15cc, so I

> > think that would be about 13-14cc a day for him to compare to the milk

> > of magnesia?

> >>

> >>

> >> sharry, aidan's mom

> >>

> >

> >

> >

> >

> >

> >

[Guest guest]

Sorry -- here's " yes but " to that

The elemental magnesium level is of some importance, but it's more

important to ascertain which type of magnesium works best for the

person's body. In my son's case -- a kid with oxalate issues --

magnesium oxide didn't do anything for him, but he responded very

well to magnesium citrate.

For example, for people who don't want the laxative effect of

magnesium, they can usually take magnesium taurinate or malate. It

can be quite individual.

> > >>

> > >> Hey all,

> > >>

> > >> I wanted to ask - I know it's been discussed before, but it

would

> > > help me if people could report again their child's magnesium

dose? We

> > > are switching from MOM to liquid cal/mag. We've used cal/mag

in the

> > > past for his muscles, so that works well for us.

> > >>

> > >> My guy is about 70 pounds. Per his G.I., he was on 10cc (2

tea) of

> > > Milk of Magnesia a day. The liquid cal/mag is about

350mg/15cc, so I

> > > think that would be about 13-14cc a day for him to compare to

the milk

> > > of magnesia?

> > >>

> > >>

> > >> sharry, aidan's mom

> > >>

> > >

> > >

> > >

> > >

> > >

> > >