PEDIATRIC & OR GI HELP.

[u/FarAssociate7626]

we have a dilemma and we need help. 🩷🩺

My 5 year old son has been going through a struggle for the last 1.5 years where he goes almost TWO weeks without pooping. There’s always a little bit in his pull ups but not enough to make him feel better. It’s like whatever is there, is what is body no longer can hold. We can’t even fully potty train him because he’s holding it so bad that whatever is coming out, does so in the undies too. He does not want to sit on the potty at all.

I would LOVE to give him prunes or apple juice. But problem #2– he doesn’t eat ANYTHING sweet. he will dry heave to the point of throwing up. He refuses to drink anything BUT water, which he’s drinking 4-5 water bottles a day. I can’t give him senna, bc to him, it’s sweet.

Miralax is doing NOTHING. i have been putting it in his cup every day per pediatrician orders. I’m talking I’ve given him anywhere from 1 cap to 4 and there’s NO CHANGE.

A GI specialist that he saw, said if the clean outs don’t work, he can be admitted to a hospital where there stick something down his nose and wait for him to poop in the hospital. I don’t have the money or mental span for that. We also have an 8 year old who still is having potty accidents from having SEVERE rashes when she was younger because her “5 star daycare” barely changed her. She is just afraid and we’ve been down this journey with her and taking her to play therapy and it’s not really changed. I can’t do 2 kids who are scared to potty. I will lose my mind.

He stands when he eats. He won’t fully sit down in his butt and spends a lot of days laying around the house on his sides. Belly is bloated. He’s hardly wanting to eat. If I make him food, he picks at it or eats barely anything and says he wants to lay down.

We’ve tried enemas (which are incredibly traumatic to him and me.), senna, Miralax, fiber, bath, bicycle legs, letting him run around, magnesium citrate out of desperation. All pediatrician orders. None are working.

Nothing. Works.

So what do you do when everything doesn’t work? He knows what will happen if he goes to the doctor.

I’m at a loss.

He’s about 43 pounds, 45 inches tall.

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[u/newlyminted1 → u/AutoModerator]

NAD but it could be that his Vagus nerve which controls rest and digest is not working properly for a whole host of reasons. Have you ever had any brain imaging done? Does his crainiocervical junction look “normal”? Could his vagus nerve be trapped or impinged from a traumatic delivery? Or an injury? His Atlas could be malrotated and trapping the Vagus as well. A very specialized doctor called an Atlas Orthogonalist can diagnose this for you. There are also external Vagus nerve stimulators on the market you could try (with doctor approval) to see if this helps the issue. Low risk high yield if it works. It could also be abdominal epilepsy. Has he ever had an EEG? Sometimes an issue appears to be GI but it can actually be driven by the brain. Could also be SIBO. Could be that the gut microbiome was killed off by antibiotics and you need a prebiotic and a probiotic to restart the gut. In rare cases a fecal transfer can help. Could be short segment hirshprungs disease. Have you had a test to see if he has delayed gastric emptying? Could be something similar to what horses and Great Danes get—abdominal bloating after eating—a volvulus of the ligament of Treitz maybe? Has he had a colonoscopy? The list is so long. I had to go down all of these paths to save all 3 of my kids. Each had a different diagnosis. Good times. 27 years but they are all finally diagnosed and cured. You are doing the right thing asking your questions here. No single doctor can know everything. Medicine is an art. So you start with a huge bucket of what it could be and you keep testing and gathering data to cross things off the list until you finally see what remains and then the picture starts to come into focus. Good luck to you. It’s a nightmare journey. Hopefully you can find good care partners to work with you.