The video below addresses the case of a 7-year old little girl who was having constipation and “stooling” accidents every day. She came to see me with three years of encopresis despite being on ½ capful of MiraLAX® (Polyethylene glycol 3350) daily.
She’d also had recurrent urinary tract infections and was on a prophylactic antibiotic to help prevent any further UTI’s.
An integrative medicine approach to constipation and “stooling”
When I am taking on a new patient, I meet with the parents first to determine if I think I can be helpful for their child’s situation. Since constipation and encopresis are issues that respond beautifully to the integrative approach, we decided to work together and the parents were able to make all of the changes I recommended before I even saw her for our first visit together. Almost immediately her accidents resolved.
What did we do?
We removed dairy from her diet and we added in a magnesium supplement. Soon after they removed dairy, she began to have normal, easy, daily bowel movements, no accidents, and her previously bloated belly became flat. Her mother was then able to wean the MiraLAX® down to 1 tsp per day.
Yes, isn’t that amazing…an issue she’d been struggling with constipation with for THREE years and was on two different prescription medications (essentially the constipation was likely driving the recurrent UTI’s) her bowel problems virtually dissolved in four weeks by removing dairy from her diet and adding one supplement.
In addition, she’d had a few challenges with some sensory issues and anxiety and she experienced a significant improvement in both of these areas, including being in a generally much happier mood.
As we move forward, we will add in some further supplements and will likely be able to wean the MiraLAX® completely over the next two weeks along with her prophylactic antibiotics.
Why dairy is frequently a problem for the gut
The beauty of the improvements this young girl experienced is that it all happened in four weeks. By following the integrative model, we were able to decrease the inflammation in her gut in just one month and she was able to start the school year in a state of comfort and happiness.
How awesome is that!
It can be so difficult to fathom a quick turnaround like this one because so much of our pediatric healthcare is built upon dairy being one of the main, healthy sources of food for our kids. Dairy however, is actually very inflammatory to our bodies because of the way it is processed in this country.
Over the years I have seen hundreds of children’s issues melt away simply by removing this one food group. I cannot tell you how much time I spend educating parents about the detrimental effects of dairy.
This is why I wrote my book Healthy Kids, Happy Moms: A Step-By-Step Guide to Improving Many Common Childhood Illnesses. I have a whole chapter dedicated to dairy and how kids can grow up with strong bones even if they don’t drink milk or eat cheese.
I would love to hear any stories you have about how removing dairy helped someone in your family. Simply comment below.
