diet protocol

[Guest guest]

Hi everybody,

We just joined the group and are so happy to find a support group for this

problem that upsets us every time we have to watch our son struggle to poo.

In case this helps anyone else, we found a paper with the pediatric constipation

treatment protocols at

www.naspghan.org/user-assets/Documents/pdf/PositionPapers/constipation.guideline\

..2006.pdf

(obviously, consult your physician on any of this)

It looks like the basic protocol is that if there are no symptoms of

an unusual disease causing the constipation and nothing is found on a

physical exam, then an initial disimpaction is done followed by

dietary changes, behavior modification and ongoing laxatives until the

child stops being anal retentive at which point the child can be weaned from the

laxatives.

My impression scanning through past messages is that parents here may not be

aware of the anal retentive psychological component of constipation. My

impression also is that the physicians may overly rely on the laxatives and may

not be helping parents with dietary advice that will allow weaning.

Does anyone know where we can find a step by step protocol on how to identify

the constipating factors in a child's diet? I looked through some of the links

in this group and apparently there are some tests etc but the links looked

pretty informal (some were just email messages) and I was wondering if anyone

has put together a systematic review of how to identify and remove constipating

factors from a child's diet, or if there are articles on this.

Our son is underweight (below 0% on the weight curve), so we don't really feel

like we can just mess around with his diet endlessly until we randomly find

something he might be sensitive to. We'd prefer a more systematic approach that

has a high likelihood of succeeding. Any suggestions?