Sunday, April 20, 2008

Mummy's entry - still little Ms. Consti now and then

This is an update on Rye Li's constipation as well as to inform Wani who has left a comment on this blog about how we dealt with Rye Li's constipation since that awful day in April last year.


After that episode, we have been giving her the laxative Duphalac as well as to ensure she gets loads of liquids and fibre. Even with this, she will still be constipated now and then but it wasn't as bad as the first time.


I think it is also due to the fact that we 'force' her to poo over the toilet bowl when she had the urge to poo (during her ordeals last year) that till today, she refuses to poo in her potty at home and will only poo in her diaper. She will poo in the potty at the daycare most of the time though. She will only pee on her own in her potty at home.


The laxative has been a constant aid since in which I will add up the dosage when she really struggles to poo and when she doesn't, I will lessen the dosage or none at all for days. When she skips a day whereby, she didn't poo, I will give her the laxative. This has become the norm till Chinese New Year this year when I noticed she was having watery stools so we stopped since then. A couple of weeks back, she was struggling again to poo and she will tell us it is painful so I started this again on and off.


Then just last week itself, one of the nights, she was struggling to poo and even cried when she was having the urges. This lasted over an hour. She managed to withstand the urges for that night and went to bed. I did give her the laxative then and during the middle of the night, she got up and again had this. I had to hug her and console her while she was crying to withstand the urges. I even forced her legs opened as I noticed she was holding it in by clenching her legs together but it didn't work. After like half an hour or so, with the urges gone and of course with no poo, she went back to sleep.


In the morning, after she had her milk, she had another episode. I expected this as her poo needs to come out and she didn't poo for 2 days. So there I was, hugging her, having her head on my shoulder and her crying throughout till her poo actually came out. This lasted for nearly half an hour too and her poo was really thick and huge! Interestingly, there were no trace of blood like last time. But I made sure she had her laxative twice day for the next several days till she poos normal again.


Since then, I've been giving her the laxative once a day at nights but I do skip in between when her stools are soft. I just have to keep making sure she drinks loads of water.


So, I wish I can update that Rye Li is back to poo-ing normal but she's not at times. I can say it is way much better than last year and thus, I'm not complaining. We just need to monitor her constantly and decide whether she needs the laxative or not.

2 comments:

lucas'mum said...

Hi, stumbled on yr blog. Been lurking around for past few mths. I'm a stay-at-home-mum of a 2 yr 4 mth old boy, so he's about the same age as Ryeli. Sorry to hear Ryeli has been constipated. I used to have frequent bouts of constipation too when I was young. My parents had to use enema too. So I understand the how traumatic it can be. With my boy, I find the things that especially help prevent constipation are: apple (with the skin on - u can blend it with yoghurt for a yummy shake) and also freshly-squeezed orange juice. Hope this helps. Good luck!

Anonymous said...

Poor girl! I know I was a trial to my Mum when I was small too. I don't know if the laxatives have anything with the stomach problems I have now...

Just a suggestion but you may want to try adding nice and natural stuff like apple/orange/prune juice to help her go regularly.

Lucas does it well that I've stopped giving him yoghurt. With yoghurt, he goes twice a day which isn't too good for a little kid, it seems.