I knew the day was coming that I would share this story. I have been hiding it out of shame and fear. Today is my birthday and one of the biggest gifts I received this year is moving past this situation. Just a warning, if you get grossed out hearing about poop issues, you might want to delete this email now. Here it goes…
A few months ago I took my son to the doctor. During the examination the doctor told us he felt a blockage in my son’s colon.
We were sent to get an x-ray to confirm. The doctor called us to let us know he did indeed have severe constipation that could lead to “megacolon” a serious condition that could require surgery to remove the impaction.
How did this happen? I immediately blamed myself. How could I not know he was constipated? How could I be so unaware of what was going on? Wasn’t I feeding him enough fiber?
The doctor assured me he sees this a lot. He said it has nothing to do with diet. In his opinion, it was strictly behavioral. Kids can start withholding their poop because they don’t want to go the bathroom at school. Eventually you lose the feeling of needing to poop since the nerves are so spread apart they no longer let you know when you have to go.
Now that I understood what was happening we moved on to treatment. We were told to give him massive amounts of laxatives. I knew we needed to take care of the situation even though I was extremely uncomfortable with the large doses of laxatives that were required.
After a few weeks things seem to improve. He was able to go without the laxatives. The doctor warned us of the high rate of reccurrance. The colon is so stretched out it could easily get backed up again. If he got backed up again we would need to take care of it right away or again he would be at risk of needing surgery.
Despite my increasing his fiber with extra green smoothies and prunes, a couple of months later he was constipated again. This time I couldn’t bring myself to use the laxatives. It didn’t feel right to me. With my history of laxative abuse, I have experienced first hand the damage they can do to your body.
I knew there had to be a better way. I decided I needed to change his diet. Knowing that dairy and gluten are highly constipating foods, I wanted to eliminate them from his diet. My husband was not onboard with this since my son does not have an allergy to either of these foods. He thought I was just acting crazy and we should just stick to the doctor’s plan.
After many hours of tears, my husband agreed to consulting with a Naturopathic Doctor. She recommended that we eliminate gluten for a few weeks as well as add in high quality probiotics and vitamins.
We implemented all the actions steps. His condition improved immediately. I was convinced the gluten-free diet was key but my husband was not. We fought a lot about it since my husband did not want me to limit my son’s diet unless it was absolutely necessary. I reluctantly agreed to add gluten in by the end of the summer.
By the middle of August my son and my husband were beyond ready to see if bagels and pizza were OK for him to eat. Even though I had promised I would let my son try eating gluten again I couldn’t bring myself to serve it to him. I was having anxiety attacks just thinking about it. I was so sure I was right about gluten being a factor leading to the constipation.
I agreed to call the his pediatrician and ask his opinion. My whole body was shaking as I explained to the doctor that I had my son on a gluten free diet and that I believed it was a factor leading to his constipation. I explained that I never used the laxatives after the initial treatment despite the fact that he got blocked up again. Since I had never told him that I didn’t stick to his plan, I felt like a kid admitting she didn’t do the homework right. I was sure he would think I was crazy and tell me gluten wasn’t an issue.
To my surprise our pediatrician recommended that I just keep doing what I was doing. He said “why rock the boat…if its working then keep it up.” I couldn’t believe it since originally he told me there was no reason to change his diet and to just use laxatives. He said it sounded like my son was “gluten sensitive” and recommended we stay GF until next summer since it will take that long for the colon to heal.
Why am I sharing this? I want you to know that you have more power than you realize. You are responsible for your own health. Yes- doctors can help you but if you are not comfortable with the treatment then trust your gut and seek other opinions.
I am certainly not trying to diagnose all constipation as related to gluten. If going GF didn’t work, I would have kept on trying different natural treatments until I found an answer.
In the process of healing my son’s condition I learned some other things as well:
• I hired an amazing coach who helped me to teach my son how to meditate and alleviate my anxiety.
• I learned how to bake with almond flour and coconut flour. Now I make delicious gluten-free cupcakes with chocolate ganache.
• I learned how to let go of the guilt and shame. I stopped blaming myself.
• I was reminded of the body’s incredible ability to heal.
Thank you for reading my story.
To listening to your gut- Michelle
