Treatment for Retentive Constipation

In a very short span of time and after a crash course from my lil one's new paediatrician, we learnt that the treatment for retentive constipation in toddlers consist of 3 phases.

Phase 1 - immediately empty his bowels
Phase 2 - keep bowel empty, repeatedly
Phase 3 - bowel training

Phase 1 which lil one is under-going now, he has prescribed a series of anemas to make him empty his bowels. This is pretty painful as the stools have been in there for quite a number of days and it has hardened to almost pebble like. The longer this problem has been around, the longer it takes to clear off old stools as they can stored up high in the colon. Therefore may take a week or two or longer, depending on each toddler's history in this issue.

In Phase 2, he has to take in some laxatives to make his stool soft so that he will not feel the pain when he has to clear his bowels. This will make him feel more confident and comfortable of the whole "poo-poo" business. After a week or two (depending again on each toddler's history on this matter), he may be able to poo-poo by himself without having to withhold it for fear of pain.

Phase 3 would be the hardest part as in how to make him understand the importance of clearing his bowel each day and make it a pleasant experience for him. I have thought of making it a fun experience during bath time to encourage him to sit on the potty. We bought a kiddo potty lid to put on top of our adult toilet bowl. I tried it ones and he did not like it previously (before we started this process) so I will have to try it over and over again now. I also bought some colourful writing pens which can be scribbled over tiles and easily cleaned after that for him to have more fun time in the bathroom. I bought it online from here. Other than this, I have to consistently come up with something new cos my lil one gets bored very very easily. Hopefully by then, he has grown up a bit and can communicate with me better (he is learning to say more words now) and thus, this whole process can be a nicer experience.

We have also stepped up in feeding him more fibre. He loves prunes and raisins but just like everything else, he gets bored very very easily. So now we feed him freshly juiced apple juice, dried fruits and apricots in addition to his almost-daily dose of fresh papayas. We took off yoghurt from his daily diet as we were told to reduce on milk-based products like milk, cheese or yoghurt. Poor lil one .. he loves his "ice-cream" .. at least he thinks it is ice-cream ... cos that's what we told him .. hahaha!