Mummy's entry - still little Ms. Consti now and then

This is an update on Rye Li's constipation as well as to inform Wani who has left a comment on this blog about how we dealt with Rye Li's constipation since that awful day in April last year.

After that episode, we have been giving her the laxative Duphalac as well as to ensure she gets loads of liquids and fibre. Even with this, she will still be constipated now and then but it wasn't as bad as the first time.

I think it is also due to the fact that we 'force' her to poo over the toilet bowl when she had the urge to poo (during her ordeals last year) that till today, she refuses to poo in her potty at home and will only poo in her diaper. She will poo in the potty at the daycare most of the time though. She will only pee on her own in her potty at home.

The laxative has been a constant aid since in which I will add up the dosage when she really struggles to poo and when she doesn't, I will lessen the dosage or none at all for days. When she skips a day whereby, she didn't poo, I will give her the laxative. This has become the norm till Chinese New Year this year when I noticed she was having watery stools so we stopped since then. A couple of weeks back, she was struggling again to poo and she will tell us it is painful so I started this again on and off.

Then just last week itself, one of the nights, she was struggling to poo and even cried when she was having the urges. This lasted over an hour. She managed to withstand the urges for that night and went to bed. I did give her the laxative then and during the middle of the night, she got up and again had this. I had to hug her and console her while she was crying to withstand the urges. I even forced her legs opened as I noticed she was holding it in by clenching her legs together but it didn't work. After like half an hour or so, with the urges gone and of course with no poo, she went back to sleep.

In the morning, after she had her milk, she had another episode. I expected this as her poo needs to come out and she didn't poo for 2 days. So there I was, hugging her, having her head on my shoulder and her crying throughout till her poo actually came out. This lasted for nearly half an hour too and her poo was really thick and huge! Interestingly, there were no trace of blood like last time. But I made sure she had her laxative twice day for the next several days till she poos normal again.

Since then, I've been giving her the laxative once a day at nights but I do skip in between when her stools are soft. I just have to keep making sure she drinks loads of water.

So, I wish I can update that Rye Li is back to poo-ing normal but she's not at times. I can say it is way much better than last year and thus, I'm not complaining. We just need to monitor her constantly and decide whether she needs the laxative or not.

Mummy’s entry – Let’s celebrate!

Finally, the little girl has poo-ed in her potty for the first time without struggle on Sunday morning. I was trying to use the same tactic as the nursery, that is, to entice her with a bucket of water while sitting on her potty. In fact, I took one step more and added her favourite, “bubba” as she called it for bubbles. I was too late in trying it on Saturday morning as she had her little ordeal again while having breakfast – by the time I took her to her potty, there was a little poo in her diaper. I tried anyway but nothing else came out.

Later in the night before getting her ready for bed, I tried it one more time but to no avail. At least she had fun playing with the bubbles.

Then on Sunday morning, I thought that I’d give it a go again except that she was the one that prompted that she wanted to poo, knowing that her papa needed to poo (also due to the fact that I mentioned bubbles for her to play with earlier on). So, I put her on her potty and got the bucket of water and made some bubbles for her to play. And of course, the usual “nnggm-nnggm” sounds along the way. This went on for like 5-10 minutes; she played with the bubbles and towards the later part I can see that she is trying to poo but nothing came out yet. So I thought she was holding it in. Then she wanted to stand up and showed her concerned look and I told her that it is okay and played with her bubbles to take her attention away. Another 5 minutes went by and I was about to give up when I heard “poop” and then another one after that….I was so happy that I actually cheered her on….and she also peed (also her first time in the potty). I continued cheering, praising and gave her a big kiss…screamed for her papa and asked to bring the camera too (yes, I was going to post the picture here of her sitting on her potty but decided not to since she was fully naked then. And no, I didn’t take picture of the poo!).

I know this post sound ridiculous but ever since that horrible ordeal, we have been monitoring her poo situation with anxiety. That morning just made us so happy for her. Now we hope that she will poo in her potty when she’s at home. We will see how the next weekend goes.

And instead of the pic of her sitting down on her potty, I’ll let you enjoy this video clip of her dancing to her music. Let’s celebrate!

Mummy’s entry – Little Miss Consti

My baby girl has taken over one of my nicknames, Consti (given by a friend who has seen me suffering from my constipation problem). And now Rye Li is suffering the same fate as well.

All this while, occasionally, she will have one of these episodes whereby she will cry while poo-ing. I guess she doesn’t drink as much as she should. At times, she will even bleed from this ordeal.

I was attending training over the weekend and Rye Li’s papa was looking after her during the day while I was away. I had 10 missed calls from him during the training on the first day. I called him back and found out that in the last half an hour, she was crying in pain trying to poo but could not. She was breaking out in cold sweat and shivering as well and he asked me what to do…I told him to give her as much water as he could. He said he could see the poo coming out and wanted to take it out himself but couldn’t and somehow Rye Li managed to hold it back in after some time. He told me to get “Enema” (the liquid that you insert into the anus) which was suggested by my cousin (while he couldn’t reached me, he called my sister, my cousin and also his mom). I also told him to give her yoghurt, bananas and honey water in between.

After training, I decided to go to the pharmacy and get the Enema but was interrupted by hubby to say she’s going through another ‘round’ and asked me to come home straight away. By the time I got home, she managed to hold it in again. I saw that her whole hair was wet and thought that hubby had given her bath but he said that it was from her breaking out in cold sweat! So you can pretty much imagine her ordeal.

We went out to the pharmacy that evening to get the Enema and my mistake was not to use it on her straightaway. You see, it said not to be given to kids below 6 years of age unless prescribed by the doctor. I was apprehensive with this but that night, she had another ‘round’ again and this time, I experienced what hubby went through twice that day (and he was right, this is the worst so far we have ever experienced from her constipation issues).

She just stood still and started shaking and crying at the same time. You can see from her face (which went all red) that she was straining to withstand the urge and pain to poo. I hold her on to me and went “nnggh-nnggh” to encourage her to poo but she couldn’t. I took off her diaper and asked hubby to bring the Enema but it was too late. Her poo was already slightly out and there was no way I could put the tip of the Enema into her. My instinct just told me to dig her poo out with the Enema tip. I only managed to get a little bit out and it was really hard. I tried again to insert the Enema but couldn’t really get into her with the poo in the way. After several more minutes, I just turned her over her potty and tried to hold on to her legs. It was difficult to put her into a “poo-ing’ position because she was so tensed from the pain, she stretched her legs out straight. I should have put her in that position earlier on as her poo did come out and big it was. Another big piece came out and we noticed that it was kind of hard too.

I guess it was such a relief to us three then and we didn’t thought that there were anymore.

The next day, when I came back home from my training in the evening, hubby said that she did not eat much nor drank any milk that day. I gave her some yoghurt, some bread, cheese and banana.

That night, another ‘round’ came and she reacted the same way again, all tensed up, shaking and crying in pain. This time, when she managed to hold it back in, I took the opportunity to insert the Enema. She cried and resisted while I was doing this but I managed to get most of the Enema in and I immediately hold her over her potty. A minute later with her screaming in pain, I could see some of the liquid dropping into her potty and then her poo finally came out – 2 huge long ones, the second one being ‘softer’ and she was also bleeding from this ordeal.

All three of us were actually traumatized by this. I realized then why hubby panicked earlier on; anyone would seeing her in that condition. This actually reminded me of my own labour and I guess I can relate to how hubby felt when he was with me in my labour – HELPLESS!!!. I could only comfort her with touch and words; I gave her loads of kisses and hugs after that.

I took her to her doctor the next morning just to make sure her bum is alright from all that torture. True enough, it is cracked a little and her doctor recommended that I put Vaseline to help with the healing and of course, to put her on lactose (Duphalac) for the time being till she’s comfortable with poo-ing again.

She has lost weight for that 2 days since her appetite is not that good either. She is 8.69 kgs (she was 8.7kgs over a month ago), at least she has grown 1cm taller since then; she’s now 72.5cm in height. I’m not sure because of her lack of appetite or from her visit to her doctor at the hospital (there was quite a number of sick children at the waiting area), she now has a cold and her appetite has gotten worst as well. Sigh!