Straining NOT to poo

Several times a day Maia goes ridgid and clenches her buttocks in an effort to stop herself from pooing. She cries as if in pain. This has been going on a week now. The ped thought she may have an anal fissure, although he can't see one, and because it hurts to poo she tries to stop herself. We've been giving her a gentle stool softener, MiraLax (although her stools have never been hard and she doesn't have constipation) as well as rubbing anasthetic around her anus (which looks very sore and red). This at least has stopped her crying, but she still stiffens and tries to stop herself from going (which eventually is impossible).

We've been trying to be very reassuring, cuddling and massaging her as she goes and saying things like "it's okay to go poo-poo". If we're changing dirty nappies, we cheer if she's even made a tiny poo "yay maia has poo" etc.

This is the second time this has happened - the first was about a month ago. I'm really worried it's going to stay a problem, it seems like she's no longer in pain, but is just scared to go.

Has anyone else had this problem? What happened? How did you solve it? What can we do to help? It's heartrending watching her suffer several times a day.

 

wow..I was just going to post this same issue today with Noah. For over a month now Noah was battling a severe diaper rash which turned out to be perianal strep which the pedi said can cause pain when pooping. So Noah has doing the exact same thing you described for over a month! He may do this standing, laying down but it looks the same..clenching his butt, making a straining face...early on he was scream and cry while doing it but now he doesn't The strep and rash is gone but no the clencing. The pedi said that although it may not hurt psychologically he will think it will hurt..I had him to the pedi last week and he said to give it another week or so. If I don't see improvement within the week I'm calling him again to determine what to do.
It seems that eventually a larger mass of poop comes out but 90% of the time it's small smears of poop.
I would also like to know if anyone else went through this and how long did it take? Do you think anything else can be going on?

 

I'm sorry I don't have any answers just wanted to say hope you get this figured out. Poor baby

 

Holy...pooing has been the story of my life for about 2 months now! My 19 month old has also been straining NOT to poop! We would cuddle her, tell her poop was good etc but finally had to address it with the pediatritian...he said it is a common problem with babies. First we started on lactulose for about 1 month which didn't do anything...she would go about once every other day...she would strain NOT to go and then scream when she pooped a hard large ball! We had to go back because despite increasing the doses, she wasn't going. Now she is on polyethylene glycol and it is doing the trick! best of luck, i guess the key is addressing it before it becomes a bad habit that can lead to other medical problems!

Sarah

 

Wow, we just had the same thing happening here! It started about three weeks ago and not only did ds clench and strain, he would cry and it hurt him so much! He wasn't constipated. Stool was soft and he would go a couple times a day so it wasn't constipation. He did have a rash. Finally took him to the peds on thursday and they took a culture from his anus (just a quick swab) and turns out he had STREP!!!! Yeah, i was a bit shocked too. Didn't know babies got strep on their butts! Its called perianal strep and it is the same bacteria as strep throats. Anyway, he went on antibiotics and within a day and a half, feeling MUCH better! I took dd the following morning since she had developed a rash the day before and she had it too! But she didn't have the straining and pain like ds did.
They have to be on the antibiotics for 10 days but are not contagious after 24 hours and symptoms improve after a day or two.
Take him to the peds and ask for this culture to be done. I read on a health journal website that this is the most commonly misdiagnosed ailment babies get. Most doctors do not do the test and mistake it for constipation or a rash and prescribe the wrong treatment. Even my doctor was pretty sure this was not what he had, but just did the swab to rule it out. He thought ds was probably just holding it in b/c he had one or two hard poops and was afraid to go. When he walked back into the room five minutes after the test, he told me he was surprised by the results. He said that perianal strep is not very common in babies this young.
Bottomline, take him in, ask to have the culture done. My poor ds sufffered for two and a half weeks before i found out what he had. Poor thing!

-Candi

 

Poor baby Have you tried reading any of the books about pooping like "Everyone Poops"? I saw one at our library the other day called "It hurts when I poop!; a story for children scared to use the potty". I wonder if reading one of those would help her relax?

 

Thank you so much for your replies. I do hope your poor little ones get better sooooon.

We're going to the dr's this morning (they've both had temperatures for 2 1/2 weeks now with one thing and another) and I'll ask him about perianal strep.

Also I'm going home to England next week and I'll try to find the "It hurts when I poop"/"Everyone poops" books. Great suggestions.

lisa

 

Update and a question:

This morning the ped said that although it might have been perianal strep, it'll have gone now as we've just completed two courses of antibiotics with her (neither of which helped to clear the ear infection ).

The other thing I wondered was if anyone has had this and SOLVED it, ie that their child had difficulty pooping but then got better and stayed better? How long did this take?

 

One of my DDs has trouble w/ pooping (pain ,clenching, etc) she is on Previcaid and one of the side effects is constipation.

We are trying High fiber foods (yogurt w/ added fiber, lots of fiberous fruits & veggies, LOTS of water/juice, etc) and mineral oil (per Pedi) in her morning drink- it seems to be helping a bit! The first few days she did not still want to go, but it is getting a lot better now that it does not 'hurt' as much!

The next step for her was a script for a laxative from the PEdi.

Hope you find some help!

KC

 

I questioned the pediatrician about strep which he said is part of the skins normal flora...probably not the primary problem in some cases. My baby will hold it for 2 days until it's HUGE...like "get the camera huge" and so when she finally goes, she gets litttle rips or irritations in her "area". The med she is on now has shown enormous improvements! Good luck!
Sarah

 

Our ped also recommended the polyethylene glycol and it's been great. I usually hide it in her 'tea' (a spoonful of my roibus and vanilla tea with lots of milk) except for the time that I swapped sippy cups by mistake and her sister had very soft poop all the next day :blush:. She's still straining not to poop, but not as desperately and not so upset, so hopefully things will settle. I'm just worried whether it'll affect toilet training etc.
Thanks for all your helpful responses.

 

My 18 month old pooped on the potty 3 times!!!!! only after we started the meds....I of course thought she was BRILLANT!
I, too, had them switch cups and Avery pooped about 6 times the next day