Four year old poop problem(tmi)

[Dontgvemeyourbs]

My son is about to be four, he knows how to pee on the potty but has to wear a pull up all day because he is pooping literally all day. It isn't like normal poop though it's like little bits of it. A little more than a stain of poop. Everytime I change his pull up theirs poop In it. This has been going on for months. He can't poop in the potty because there isn't enough of it to push out at once I guess. I don't know what else to try. I took him to the doctor but she just said to try miralax . I did but it just gives him diarreah . Why can't he just poop normally??! Has anyone else gone through this? Have advice?

[lildensmom]

maybe he needs more fiber in his diet.

[TigerofMu]

If he's having small and frequent or loose stools it could mean he's constipated and that's what can get around though.

Quoting Dontgvemeyourbs:

It seems like it but i don't know because there's poop throughout the day ... Doesn't constipation mean no poop or hard stools? His is soft , just stains all day it's frustrating

Quoting PEEK05:

Sounds like constipation

[proudmommy03457]

My daughter did this and I took her to the doctor where they did an exray of her tummy and she had a blockage. I never would have thought that since she was still pooping some but what she was pooping was what was squeezing by the blockage. They did an enema on her then afterwards I made her drink Apple juice. After that things started running smoothly:) hope this helps.

[Mipsy]

No, in fact you can poop every single day and still be constipated. Have you tried diet changes? Like adding more fiber and limiting dairy and adding lots of water? That may be enough to help so you won't need to use miralax. How much miralax was the dr having you give? If it just gave straight diarrhea I would talk to the doctor again because there could be a small blockage so the soft stuff is just moving around the hard stool stuck in there. If diet changes don't help and this continues, I would ask to see a pediatric gastroenterologist.

Quoting Dontgvemeyourbs:

It seems like it but i don't know because there's poop throughout the day ... Doesn't constipation mean no poop or hard stools? His is soft , just stains all day it's frustrating

Quoting PEEK05:

Sounds like constipation

[new_mom808]

 I would try the miralax again, but go with 1/2 the dose you used last time.

[egyptian_mommy]

Not necessarily. If there's a blockage, soft stool will go around it. I'd definitely get a second opinion.

Quoting Dontgvemeyourbs:

It seems like it but i don't know because there's poop throughout the day ... Doesn't constipation mean no poop or hard stools? His is soft , just stains all day it's frustrating

Quoting PEEK05:

Sounds like constipation

[hwifeandmom]

Your son likely has Encopresis, where the bowels are so overfull, that you get poop leaking out uncontrolled.  This can be due to constipation or from withhholding his bowel movements.  The doc can confirm it by ordering an abdominal x-ray to see how much poop is in his intestinal tract and bowels.

The Miralax was a good suggestion from the doctor, but some people don't respond to Miralax as well as other people do. Miralax is a stool-softening laxative.  There are other good ones you can try if the Miralax isn't working well.  Some other good ones are Benefiber, Milk of Magnesia, Fiber Choice (with Inulin), Fiber gummies (with Inulin) or the new Metamucil Clear-and-Natural in the BLUE bottle (with Inulin).  My son does well with Miralax but my daughter does better with Inulin-based products.

Although it's possible that your son did not respond well to Miralax, it's also possible that the Miralax may have loosened up what was behind the blockage and be leaking out as diarrhea, but the blockage still remains and needs to be eliminated through a higher dose of laxatives. 

An abdominal x-ray will give better guidance as to how aggressive you need to be in treating the problem.  Without the x-ray you can try experimenting to see what works.  You can try increasing the Miralax to see if that eliminates a blockage.  You can try changing stool softening laxatives to see if that works better for your son.  You can try giving him an enema to see if that cleans out his bowels sufficiently.

Once your sons bowels get thoroughly cleaned out, he'll need to continue to use a dose of stool softening laxatives DAILY (or maybe a 1/2 dose daily) until his bowels heal, regain muscle tone, and work better again at emptying properly every day.  This may be several weeks or longer.

[wolfkai82]

i would deffinatly get a second opinion. You could also try natural foods that are easy to digest and foods rich in fiber , plenty of water and maybe even a childrens pro-biotic , you can also massage his belly in a clockwise direction to help move things along the g.i tract. but deffinatly go to another doctior still. but if it is constipation and hes been like that for months , it could be pretty serious,

[Bob192]

Poor guy!!

[new_mom808]

 How is it going?

I just remembered my son would refuse to go for a while, because he was afraid, because he had been constipated once and it hurt. So he would just hold it, and it would streak in his underwear.