Thursday, July 23, 2009

Blocked up and other potty-training woes

Our girl Keifer Lynn is 27 months old, but has no real concern for the big ol' potty yet. Not to say we haven't been trying. We've been working on this since she first expressed interest in it around 18 or so months. *sigh*. Some days,she shows real interest and will express her desire to go - usually at bedtime (pre-bedtime). But the poops, ahhh, the poops. They are ruining the whole thing for her (I think). Our girl has had constipation issues her whole little life. We do it all: grains, fiber, TONS of fruits and veggies- I'm not concerned about her diet. The only question I have is: I wonder if milk can be a culprit? She eats cheese but not an extraordinary amount.
Lately, her little bowels have been so backed up that they caused the last two days to be pure hell for her little bum. It is blistered and raw from first going so many times in the last few days and then because of the sheer size of the poos that are coming out of her. I cannot believe the size that come out of her little body- they are huge. The few times I've caught her and whipped her pants off to sit on the potty and she's been successful, whoa nelly, I cannot believe they fit inside her body. However, when we see her struggling and grimacing, beet red in the face and crying, she screams and hollers and gets hysterical if we sit her on the potty, so I don't want to inflict any psychological harm that way, so I let her go in the diaper. And yes, we also do the Miralax; we have forever.
*sigh*


Any other ideas or suggestions would be great. I just feel so bad for her and frustrated with the lack of potty interest. And stickers and M&M bribes aren't working with her. She could care less.

4 comments:

Hope C said...

I'd definitely try cutting out dairy. I'm lactose intolerant and it souonds a lot like how I get when I eat dairy. If it doesn't get better in a few weeks you know that isn't it and if it does than you know that too.

Wendy and Karen said...

Poor little darling!

Kylie loves the Elmo Potty video. It was definitely worth buying when Kylie told me she wanted to potty like Prairie Dawn.

I'm afraid what worked for us was the 3-day bare bottom method. The second day was horrible (10+ accidents on the carpet and I was losing my mind) but by the third day, she had it.

But my goodness, you are a mommy and family with a newborn. Maybe now is just not the time.

Hugs to you all.

Unknown said...

I'm loving the pictures and stories of your girls! I have a 3 year old boy. He showed interest in potty training around 20 months...so we bought a potty chair and potty treats and worked hard on it. But he just wasn't getting it. He would go on the potty off and on. Every few months we'd get really into it and try again. It was always a struggle. Then when he turned 3 we tried it again. Day one was not as hard as our other attempts and by day 2 he was fully potty trained. I think he just had to be ready for it and he was finally ready. I wish I hadn't spent so many frustrating months worrying about it. Good luck!

Marketing Mama said...

Hmmm.... if you do cut out dairy, there are some yummy "gummy bear" type-calcium supplements made for toddlers. That's what I give Avery since she is allergic to milk and all dairy products. FYI. You can also use enriched soy milk to give her many of the same vitamins - and there are substitutes like soy yogurt, etc.

Have you used suppositories? They soften things up before they get that bad. My little one was struggling and there were a couple of times her bm actually got STUCK because it was too big to come out and we had to help her with it. I'll spare you the details, but it was horrifying. After going through that 2 times, we started using the tiny suppositories if it had been a couple of days and we could tell if she was getting constipated. they are so tiny and go in very easily and make a world of difference. it's just glycerin that softens from body heat and helps things move along...

Also, I'm guessing you know this, but when you said fruits and veggies - you know that certain fruits are really good and some are really bad in that department, right? When my little one eats strawberries, blueberries or grapes, it has amazing results! Good luck - I hope this gets easier on you soon!

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails