My 1.5 year old has had long term bowel problems, ie constipation. Has been treated with laxative by doctor but needs to be weaned off. I haven't been able to wean him off it as he just blocks up again. He needs to eat lots of fresh fruit which isn't easy with a toddler! He also needs to drinks lots of water which he is not keen on. Would appreciate any ideas.

You could try physlum husk it works a treat for me. My husband tricked me and mixed it into pancakes the other week. Check with the doctor if it's ok to use, if it is you can mix it with juice or do the pancake trick too.
good luck

try prune juice u can buy it or stew prunes then use the cooking liquid

I dont really have any advice, but my 2.5 year old boy has had constipation problems since birth. He is currently on "Parachoc" and will be until August this year (after a year of this treatment), when I need to take him to the Dr. again. The advice given to me was that it is a long term problem which takes a long time to fix. He has been on laxatives bascially since 1yr old before that was supposotries, prunes, you name it everything. So maybe talk to your Dr again, or seek another opinion , maybe continuing treatment for longer? My son is going to be over 3 years and still needs medication. Sorry, haven't got any great advice, just wanted to let you know what my Dr and health nurse said about the long length of time it takes before their bowels "grow out of it".

Thanks for the reply. Sometimes you think that you're the only one with these problems. Since I first posted my story things have improved. My 1.5 year old was on parachoc for about 12 months (15mls per day) plus enemas and suppossotries. Went back to Dr recently and he suggested Senokot granules. I sprinkle 1/2 teaspoon on his weetbix and he doesn't really notice them. I have also increased his fruit intake. He quite likes the goulburn valley puree fruit - so he has a tub of that every night after his vegies. He also loves strawberries and sultanas. Have tried all other types of fruit, eg pears, prunes, bananas etc but he doesn't seem to like them. He is at least going more regularly now and with little or no pain. I'm only using the senokot about every 3 to 4 days now. Perhaps you may like to try senokot with your son. I didn't find the parachoc very useful except in high doses and the senokot is more natural.

I'm glad your little boy is better. My Matthew is good at the moment but that is with the Parachoc, and I know he will have problems when we wean him (I just forget one dose and he has very hard poo again). The senekot sounds good, I will try that when his year is up on Parachoc (August) if things are still bad. Thankfully my new baby girl has no such trouble and I never complain about changing her very dirty and messy nappies!

My 13 month old daughter has also had problems with constipation. Our doctor told us certain foods increase the chance of constipation. Unfortunately, they are the ones that she love - cheese and bananas. I use prunes and prune juice everytime she eats these foods. It works like a charm!