Spock is trying to scare her parents to death in revenge for the fact we let them give her shots as an infant. This is the only explanation for her behavior.
A month ago Spock had a painful poo while on the potty. This made her decided she would never voluntarily poop again, EVER. We started giving her mineral oil at night and other than her stools being a little too hard because of the bitter butt battle all seemed well. We had gone through this with Lilo and lots of tots pull the same poo-withholding maneuver. No worries, right.
Wrong.
A few days ago I had Spock on the changing table and was rubbing her tummy gently to try to get her to poo. We could tell (based on the strainy faces she was making) that she had been forcibly keeping it in for at least 24 hours. I had her diaper open so I could monitor the situation. Spock was crying and it clearly hurt but the child HAD to poop.
I was a novice poo watcher. All the kids I have ever been around went poo in their diapers or the toilet and there was stuff to clean up but nothing to see. I am sure there are probably websites devoted to defecation but I have never even looked for them because that is just not my bag of toys. This was my inaugural poo, so to speak.
Notwithstanding my inexperience at poop viewing, when Spock finally made boom boom I could see that there was something bad happening. I was pretty sure there shouldn’t be intestines coming out with her poop. Yes, my precious baby had a partial prolapse of her rectum. The rectum immediately retracted after the poop was done, and she appeared to have no damage, but I was very unhappy that my daughter was trying to turn herself inside out.
As you can guess, I took her to the pediatrician posthaste. The pediatrician calmed me down by assuring me that this was not such an unusual occurrence and there were great odds that more mineral oil and the addition of Pedialax all would be well. Her little colon and anus were just overburdened by her constipation shenanigans and if we keep her poop super soft her tiny hiney would return to it’s normal configuration.
The pediatrician also had to further talk me down from the ledge since I was shaking from fear because the interwebs said a prolapsed rectum might be a sign of cystic fibrosis. CF is a killer. I was not okay with the idea my beloved Spock had it. Thankfully the doctor told me that Spock did NOT have CF because 1) there would have been signs by now and 2) they tested her for it when she was a newborn as part of a routine screening and she was negative.
I did the Snoopy Dance and tongue kissed the pediatrician, which the doctor has become accustomed to whenever she gives me glad tidings.
Thanks to hefty amounts of mineral oil and the occasional Pedialax tablet, Spock’s poo has been pudding-like in consistency and her rectum has stayed where God intended it to be. The only trauma has been that her diapers are now extra yucky and smell like we’ve been feeding her skunk steak. Seriously, I changed a diaper yesterday that didn’t need wipes so much as it needed an exorcist.
We have to keep Spock’s poop this soft for a month.
Joy.
OMG. Many, many, many heartfelt FGBV’s to you. My son had issues and he withheld poop from birth to 3 1/2 yrs old. Mineral oil went in anything he had to drink once he started eating solids. Breastmilk kept him from clogging up till then. I wouldn’t wish this on anyone. {{{HUGS}}}
HOW TERRIFYING!!!!! Wow. Good luck to you and Spock!!!
“CF because 1) there would have been signs by now and 2) they tested her for it when she was a newborn as part of a routine screening and she was negative.”
1) Correct. You’d know by 6 months that something was SERIOUSLY wrong. You’d know by a year for sure what it was. She’d have been crying like her face was on fire. Bloated like me during PMS after binging on chips. He is absolutely correct.
2) Incorrect. They can do a genetic test for the most common markers of it, but there is no way in hell they did the definitive test. That involves making the kid sweat a LOT and testing the sweat.
My husband’s niece has CF. I know more about it than I ever expected to.
Now, all that said, OMFG. You must have been right terrified. Anxiety is not my specialty, and I’d have been crawling out of my skin in fear. You? Oh honey. *hugs* Please don’t let anyone talk you into giving your baby Miralax. It’s poison, and with the autism in your family, it’s a terrible gawdawful idea. I can give you a million and ten ideas for constipation.
My 3 year old has also been having poop problems for the last 2 months, mostly constipation. It sounds like you have the condition under control now. I’m glad your baby is feeling better!
They only don’t poop to torture their mothers.