Intestinal blockage/constipation

Regarding blockage. Note that while I am working closely with a pediatrician and he knows what I am doing, he thinks I am a bit crazy and too aggressive.

At the first signs of a blockage we give two heaping teaspoons of natural calm in room temperature water. Don’t use warm water, warm water changes the chemistry of the Natural Calm and improves the absorption of the magnesium. You aren’t going for absorption, you are going for Draino. Before finishing the glass, Kian is on the toilet. He goes often for the next few hours. Not to be too crude, but: loose, solid, loose, brown liquid, brown liquid, clear liquid, clear liquid. When I see clear liquid I believe that he is clean. The latest we have done this is 3 PM. We set aside the evening to read to him and “baby” him. He goes to bed at eight, has a loose brown stool in the morning first thing (at that point dinner is coming through) and he is good to go to school the next day.

I think this is important: we give him probiotics afterwards. I believe that the purge sweeps out a lot of gut bugs.

My son’s (age 8) symptoms of blockage are diverse: fecal incontinence, loose stools, urinary urgency, bed wetting, bloated belly, belly pain after eating, belly pain, pain when urinating, pain in his penis (!!). These symptoms are not “normal,” and are not acceptable. They disappear after the purge.

We have decided that our trigger is two accidents (fecal or bed wetting ) within a week. The accidents do not have to be large or messy for us to note them. We keep a record so that we don’t blow them off or “argue” about when the last one was.

Right now he gets psyllium husks (fiber) in water 3 times a day. We use enzymatic therapy fiber fusion in berry. I have no idea if this is the "best" one, but he likes the taste and it seems to work. He brings it in his lunchbox to school. It has the added advantage of filling him up either before or after a meal. Nonetheless, we are still purging him once every 4-5 weeks.  We are still tweaking the protocol.

This is where we are. I think this is a huge problem in our kids and greatly affects their quality of life and our quality life at many different levels (discomfort, pain, embarrassment, nutritional absorption, etc.) It makes me sad.