Which for poop help - Probiotic? Fiber supplement?

Short recap:
DD is 3.5 years old / used to poop everyday, after she potty trained she is fine with peeing but will still only poop in a diaper (I don't mind) but she won't poop at school (she is too scared to ask for a diaper in school) / now she poops every 3 days because she gets used to holding it in.

But the last two times she had A LOT OF TROUBLE pooping.
I mean hours of screaming crying (I assume its too big to come out because she waited so long) so I bought a kids suppository (Pedia-Lax).
First time she let us use it and she pooped a huge poop (like the size of an iphone) the second time she wouldn't let us use it (now she knows what its like) so we had to force it and she ended up pooping a ROCK HARD poop that was about 3 inches high and 2 inches wide.

We give her prune juice and dried prunes regularly to eat but I think thats not enough now.


Talking with some coworkers there seems to be 3 options for her to take daily:
1. Probiotics
2. Fiber supplements (metamucil vs Miralax vs fiber gummy? whats the difference?)
3. Some kind of kids laxative

I assume #3 is not good to do all the time (I'm already concerned we used the suppository twice in the past week)
But what about #1 and #2?

I know #2 will help her poop, but what about #1?

Thanks!

Which for poop help - Probiotic? Fiber supplement?

I use miralax when my dd is really backed up and holding it. But I use a probiotic pretty regularly

so the probiotic is more of a daily thing to try to keep things on track. I will use miralax when its been a few days and she is obviously getting uncomfortable

Message edited 2/15/2018 12:14:59 PM.

Re: Which for poop help - Probiotic? Fiber supplement?

Not my personal experience, but one of the moms at dance gives her kid some kind of high fiber cookie daily or she won’t go.

Re: Which for poop help - Probiotic? Fiber supplement?

DD takes a fiber gummy daily.
I tried a few different probiotics but none seem to make much of a difference. (Similar to me- I have tried every probiotic under the sun and not one has helped me.)

When she's really backed up and in pain from not going for a few days, I give Miralax and that helps in a day or 2

Which for poop help - Probiotic? Fiber supplement?

We’ve had luck with daily Probiotics. We had pretty much the same issue as you, word for word.

I know people have had success with Miralax but please research the potential side effects before use.

Re: Which for poop help - Probiotic? Fiber supplement?

DD has a half a cup (or even a cup) of prune juice each morning to help keep her regular. Never tried anything else since this does the trick. We have been doing it since she was under age 2 (she is now 5)

eta - i just read that she already has prune juice daily

when DS went through this (which was a very short time) we did miralax

Message edited 2/15/2018 1:36:41 PM.

Which for poop help - Probiotic? Fiber supplement?

I'm surprised so many use miralax rather than something like metamucil or benefiber.

Miraxlax seems to be more of a "medicine" while the other two are just fiber.
Isn't just taking fiber (metamucil/benefiber) more "natural" than something like miralax?

read from a previous post that someone gives their kid "Fiber One brownies" and the kid thinks its a dessert.
That seems like a good idea.
Letting them eat a "brownie" as a dessert but it contains fiber.

Message edited 2/15/2018 2:11:47 PM.

Re: Which for poop help - Probiotic? Fiber supplement?

Message edited 2/15/2018 2:30:23 PM.

Re: Which for poop help - Probiotic? Fiber supplement?

Miralax adds water to poop to make it easier to pass

Benefiber just pushes the poo to make your rectum feel like it has to go

At the rec of my pediatrician we gave our little guy benefiber for a long time. The poor kid struggled so much. When he would go he'd poop something like a big fat kielbasa sized brick of compacted cement poop. No joke they would clog the toilet.

Different pediatrician in the same practice said why are you doing benefiber and not miralax- benefiber doesn't make it easier to poo it makes you feel like you have to. Miralax will make it easier to go

So we started putting capfuls of miralax into everything- mostly cuz our little guy literally drank next to nothing so he had two sips of apple juice with miralax. Then a sip of water wth miralax. Then a little milk with miralax. It prob amounted to one capful over the course of a few hours but it definitely helped


Aside from that we'd give him different fruits tonchnge it up every few days. Kiwis were a big hit. As were grapes

Message edited 2/15/2018 10:26:52 PM.

Which for poop help - Probiotic? Fiber supplement?

My 3.5 DS takes a probiotic everyday. He was on a miralax regimen for awhile as per GI doc's recommendation but luckily we were able to wean him off of it. I do give him Kefir most days. I find that helps as well. He drinks a lot of water. Loves fruit and he eats a lot of fruit daily. Trust me I know the poop issues are frustrating. I also do whole wheat everything. I almost never let him eat anything not whole wheat. The Barilla Protein plus pasta is pretty good and has a lot of fiber per serving. The taste is okay I find and luckily he is okay with it.

Which for poop help - Probiotic? Fiber supplement?

Thanks for all the info everyone


anonymoususer,
Thanks for the breakdown of the difference between benefiber and miralax.

Re: Which for poop help - Probiotic? Fiber supplement?

You're welcome!!!! Hope everything comes out ok! Lol

Re: Which for poop help - Probiotic? Fiber supplement?

Re: Which for poop help - Probiotic? Fiber supplement?

How's everything going ?

Which for poop help - Probiotic? Fiber supplement?

We do a daily probiotic gummy twice a day and Miralax when needed. I would like to add a fiber gummy but i'm not sure she drinks enough for that to work.

Re: Which for poop help - Probiotic? Fiber supplement?

Re: Which for poop help - Probiotic? Fiber supplement?

Ughh u're dealing with a holder, not fun and if u're not careful she might be able to hold her poop for even longer periods of time which will def aggreviate the situation even more...more days the poop is in, the harder and drier it'll get due to the body absorbing water from it, and the wider it'll get due to new poop being pushed down. I dealt with a holder for more than a year due to a horrible stomach bug to the point that his pediatric gastroenterologist had to put him in exlax because there were times that he would hold his poop for a week!

Probiotics are a great idea whether she's constipated or not. Getting a high quality and high potency is a must, those usually require refrigeration. Klaire Labs is a great brand. U can also opt for kefir (homemade is even better and easier than u'd think!).

I'd def stay away from Miralax, nothing good there!

It'd be a great idea to up her fiber, especially through foods, like flax seed (ground works just as good), lentils, beans, pears, dried fruits, ripe banana works wonders! etc BUT u have to keep in mind that just as u up her fiber intake, u must also increase her liquids otherwise all these fiber (whether natural or synthetic) will only aggreviate the problem.

Having said that u have to realize that u're dealing with a holder and not just a person that's constipated. One thing that our doctor pointed out to me is that because I was dealing with a holder, no matter what I gave him to help him poop, he will not do it, not because his intenstines weren't doing what they were suppose to but because he's not allowing it to happen, which makes things even worse because when a person holds his poop, and he starts doing it continuously, it starts weakening the intentines and their ability to push poop down, and it also stretches them (the wider and drier the poop, the more the intenstines stretch). So I'd recommend not only starting her on probiotics, increasing her fiber (always making sure she's at least above the recommended amount for her age) AND her liquids as well but also help her to NOT be a holder and this unfortunately will require a lot of patience and time to help them understand that it's ok to poop when they feel the urge (not ignore it). It's super important that no matter how frustrated u feel (because they're not pooping), do not let them see u like that or sense it cause believe me it'll work against u. Setting a schedule where he'd sit in the toilet even if it was for a few minutes helped us, I also encouraged him to push whenever he'd feel the need to let his "butt doors open" (I literally just quoted my son lmao!) so the poop could come out. We also had a reward system (small toys) for whenever he'd poop and then as he'd poop more consistently, he'd get a reward after pooping twice, then 3 times and so on.

Dealing with a holder is really hard but I promise it'll get easier as long u provide a healthy gut ecosystem, increase fiber/liquids and most importantly (especially for the parent) arm urself with lots of pacience! Best of luck! XX

Which for poop help - Probiotic? Fiber supplement?

Thanks for the reply.

What is it about miralax that you don't like?
It seems like a lot of people on here use it.

Thanks

Re: Which for poop help - Probiotic? Fiber supplement?

Message edited 2/23/2018 10:11:56 AM.

Which for poop help - Probiotic? Fiber supplement?

Thanks for the info.

Re: Which for poop help - Probiotic? Fiber supplement?

we use baby move, its safe for 6 months and up. it is prune extract, 2x per day and the poops are regular now