Hellobee Boards

@Mrs. Carrot: I'm in the same spot. My LO2 needs assistance but I've always been uneasy about it.

I don't like giving Miralax daily but without it he poops 15-20 times a day and gets horrible rashes. This might be the motivation I need to try removing some things from his diet. His GI doc recommended against it which is why I haven't tried already. Argh - so hard to know what the right thing is.

@MenagerieMama: I agree, I'm a pharmacist and I haven't not seen any data on this. However, I'm anxious to see the results of chop's study

@gotkimchi: Yeah I'm a primary care doc and prescribe it allll the time, particularly for littles. I have never seen any evidence, academic or anecdotal to make me change my practice but will feel better with the CHOP results too. @Boogs: It's certainly a hot topic, but I have yet to see any physicians that feel there is any compelling evidence (i.e. it's all anecdotal at this point) to change practice. Apparently this is not a new concern, just surfaces in the media periodically. One of the things that makes it hard is that a lot of kids with neuropsych issues have constipation problems (withholding, etc) so for a decent amount of kids who use it chronically it's hard to sort out cause and effect. I think it's good that we're looking into it again (though I feel like there is already a lot of safety data out there, it's been available for a while) to make sure we're not causing harm, but anecdotal evidence (particularly it seems in a largely overlapping group with anti-vaxxers) is not going to change my practice.

@MenagerieMama: Thats exactly what I was thinking about other issues that go along with severe chronic constipation. Definitely been my experience at work!

My DD has been prescribed Miralax over and over again for constipation. I am not comfortable giving it to her. We did give it to her when it was first prescribed to her before we had read about the mixed reviews. It actually gave her horrible diarrhea for two weeks, awful diaper rash, and a UTI.

My son got miralax daily for over a year. I was scared to do it and finally stuck with it and it has changed our lives.

constipation caused by retention is also linked to OCD, tremors, tics, etc. so saying the treatment for retention is linked to those is kind of a huge bias, at least it is a huge bias the way i think of it.

ETA 3 1/2 years are inherently assholes, and it does switch like a light switch, so... there's also that

@looch: not because of it, just often co -occuring. Like many alcoholics drink to cover another issue that they have--it is the their coping mechanism. Retention is a coping mechanism (albeit a bad one) that some kids with other issues will use.