The last few months Lukas has been having problems with constipation. It all started the week he had his really bad stomach flu in February that was followed by awful diarrhea. Well while he was sick he was also on a antibiotic for a ear infection. Not only was he on a antibiotic for his ear infection at this time, but he had multiple ear infections the whole winter. After he started feeling better we were stuck with him holding his poop and we thought it was because of the bad diarrhea he had during the flu. I know this isn't the best topic to blog about, but this has been our little life the last few months and it's extremely frustrating.
At first when I thought he was just holding it we tried more fiber and fluids, encouraging him to go by putting him on the potty (that didn't work), we tried giving him some prune juice (that wasn't working either), and then finally it would get to the point where he needed to go so bad that I would put him in the bath tub just to make him go. He usually would get large amount out and it just astounded me how big a little guy's bowl movement could be. So I took him to the doctor, but couldn't get into our regular pediatrician. We saw a new one that didn't really know Lukas. She told us to give him Miralax for a couple weeks and then start weening him off of it as he becomes comfortable with pooping again. Well we did that and everything was ok for the first couple weeks. Then when we started weening him off Miralax it all started again. I called the doctor again and they treated it like a potty training problem. They told me to hold him on the toilet until he went. This didn't go well. He would scream, cry, and hyperventilate when being put on the potty. This is when I knew something else had to be wrong. He wanted to go, but was afraid to. So...back to the doctor we went. I got him into his pediatrician and she had me take him down for a x-ray. She called me back that night and said he was impacted. His whole large intestine was full all the way down to his rectum. She prescribed him colace (nasty stuff!), milk of magnesia, and miralax to help "clean him out" over the next 3 days. Well the third day in we still hadn't even seen one poopy diaper. None! He was taking this medicine and getting all sick from it only to have it not do a thing! I called the doctor and she had us give him a suppository. We finally got one diaper. Then another the next day, and one more the day after that. The 3rd day after his suppository he had 5 runny diapers. We thought maybe it had taken awhile to get working. He was off the medicine except Miralax. Well after those 5 diapers we went back to nothing. I was frustrated that the doctors weren't helping him. They were trying to help his constipation, but not figure out why he might be constipated. I fed him so much fiber and fluids...plus stool softeners nothing should have stayed in him.
Well I took matters into my own hands and started doing research online. I googled stomach flu and antibiotic together and some sites came up about probiotics. I started reading about probiotics and was amazed that people use them to help with diarrhea and constipation. It helps with both! Some of the reasons that it helps constipation is because constant use of antibiotics causes your body to have a low number of "good bacteria" that lives in your intestines that helps regulate digestive. As I read more and more...I was convinced Lukas was missing those good bugs. Between November and February of last year he had been on 3 or 4 antibiotics without me giving him anything to replenish those "good bacteria" that the antibiotics kill off. Lukas is my first child and I had no idea it causes that. I kept thinking the flu had something to do with it, but it was all from the antibiotics or the repeated use of them. I called the doctor to talk to her about it and we had a appointment with her last week for his 3 year checkup. She said we could give it a try and it may work. She can't really tell us to use that method, but she wasn't telling us not to. Probiotics aren't FDA approved so she can't tell us how much or which ones to use. I decided to call our dietitian at our local grocery store. She helped by telling me what to use and how much of it she thinks he should have or could take. So last Monday I started him on Kefir. It's a yogurt smoothie drink and they come in some different flavors. I also took him off Miralax (why keep him on it if it wasn't working) and decided to use prune juice instead. We did need to continue suppositories, but that was only last week. Yesterday he finally went all by himself! A massive amount too! The prune juice and fiber had worked, but the magic to it had to be the Kefir! He hadn't had a bowel movement on his own in 4 weeks and I was ecstatic! I am praying it keeps working! Maybe before long we can take him off prune juice. That would be great!
I think as parents when our children are facing health issues we look to doctors to know what is going on, but doctors don't know everything. Only you can decide if what they recommend is working for your child. If it isn't working sometimes you take it into your own hands and do what you can. If I hadn't taken it into my own hands to do some research I don't know what they would have Lukas on right now or how he would feel.
