Okay, I have to rant and I know you will all understand  . . . so here goes.  Yesterday my brother-in-law called my husband with concerns about his child.  My husband is finishing medical school and so the whole family calls for medical advice.  Their 3 year old is constipated and has been dealing with the issue for about 6 months.  He has now associated doing a #2 with pain and agony and holds it for days (right now he is at 3 days).  My brother-in-law was calling to see what meds to give him.  His wife even asked the gastroenterologist that she works for who told her to use Myrilax (dont' know how to spell it).  Anyway, here is the annoying part.  The kid eats like crap. . . a day of sugary cereal, milk, hot dogs, chicken nuggets, fruit snacks, trix yogurt, McDonalds, Taco Bell, etc.  No home cooked meals, no whole fruit, no veggies, nothing.  My sister-in-law thinks they are okay because she gives them these freaking juice boxes that say they get a days worth of fruit and veggies.  Hello?  Where is the fiber??  The more annoying part is that my brother-in-law eats a plant-based diet and knows how to fix it through diet.  Unfortunately, he works long hours and his wife gives the kids their food.  He has tried to talk to her and she has not changed his diet.  I seem to recall when he started a plant-based diet her saying "My kids will not be f-ing vegans!"  This is what he is dealing with.  I just don't know wher ethe common sense is.  How do you not know to add fiber to a kids diet.  And if you do, how do you think it is better to give a kid suppositories all the time instead of making him eat fruits and veggies??!!!  Ugh, so irritated and it is not even my kid!  Thanks for listening, I knew you would understand my rage!

It's so sad....I don't know what else to say to that.  Some people will just never get it, it seems...

I'm so sorry! How sad is it that when a three year old is constipated (or anyone lese for that matter, but especially bad when it's a child), the question is - what meds can I use to help? It's not normal to give a child meds! They should only be used in extreme cases. I hear you, esepcially frustrating when the dad is eating healthy.

Catconsrv.....it sounds like your nephew and my neice have a lot in common......she's almost 6, and she has what the doctors call encopresis...basically, since she was learning to get potty trained around 3 yrs, she kept holding poop in and caused the constipation because it started forming around her colon....it was where she would hold in and it would start to hurt to go because it was solidifying, and so to not make going potty hurt, she would hold it in - thus a bad cycle forming.....and of course, treatment includes a diet HIGH in FIBER, whole grains, tons of water, etc., to flush it out and start softening the stools up to make the bathroom a more pleasent experience...so, with all that knowledge that my sister and bro in law have over her condition, her diet would be stellar, right?  WRONG.

my sister thinks she gives her daughter a decent diet because she eats one piece of fruit and one vegetable (practically the same one, it varies between 3-4 she'll eat) a day, a ton of dairy (it builds bones, right??) and "lean" meat like chicken, for dinner....her breakfast is an eggo waffle doused in aunt jemima, with a sausage link and bottled egg whites, lunch will be a slice of cheese or a smear of peanut butter (again, not natural or organic, the ones filled with sugar) on top of white sandwich bread with a nutrigrain bar or welch's fruit snacks....sure, she'll eat an apple, which is good, but not nearly enough to do any sort of reversal.....and dinner is a packet of seasoning on the dead bird...at least she'll eat A vegetable, i suppose.....you get the picture.   .  why does she eat like crap??  because my dear big sis has eating issues (a gag reflex, she can't have anything touch and refuses to try anything new because she'll feel nauseous if it looks 'iffy') so since she eats white bread, white rice. etc  and won't try whole grain anything, her child suffers.  CATCONSRV--- I FEEL YOUR PAIN!!!