The Bear's story: Part 1

2009

My daughter was born with anal stenosis. We found out that she had this condition when she was 2 days old and ready to come home from the hospital and hadn't had a bowel movement. The next few days were horrible to say the least as she was rushed to another hospital and placed in the NICU as the doctors tried to figure out what was wrong with her. Fortunately she only had anal stenosis and not something worse. We can deal with anal stenosis.

But, there isn't a lot of information out there that seems to answer all of my questions so I figured that I will document our journey in hopes that it will help someone else out there looking for answers for their child.

First, I breast feed till she was 7 months old. I would have done it longer, but I have always had problems with milk production and she kept losing weight so we went to formula. She has been on soy formula, nothing fancy, just generic from walmart. She has tolerated it fine. Another option would be goat milk formula, which I wish I knew had existed and would have tried it. I have also heard of mothers using raw goats milk to feed infants when the mothers have trouble breastfeeding. Those are just a few options. Obviously, breastfeeding is the best option for your baby.

Dilating- it is horrible. Let me explain, and if you have a child with this condition you understand what I am talking about. To help the baby pass their BM, you have to use different size plastic rods (for use of a better term) to stretch the opening. I am told it isn't painful to the baby, but I am sure they would disagree by the screams they let out! It is a horrible but necessary thing to do. I have been doing it now for a year and we are to the point of doing just once a month praise the Lord! The hope is that we won't be needing to dilate her anymore in the next few months.

Constipation. This is my definition- when your child doesn't go for a day. I know it isn't what medical journals say, but when my daughter doesn't go for a day- I consider it constipation and her tummy starts to enlarge. Here are a few things that have worked for us.
- Natural Calm- you can find this at health food stores. It is a magnesium citrate formula that helps you go, and helps my baby.
- Prunes everyday. I started her off with the stage one organics and we now use stage two prunes and apples.
- Pear juice. This has been some of the best stuff recently. Apple juice worked at first, then it seemed to have stopped working. Right now, I can give her pear juice and she will go within the hour.
- Limit grains. I am gradually reintroducting them. From time to time they still stop her up. When using grains, use the purest form you can find though. White rice cereal, I have found to be a no no. Maybe use millet ground up or wheat berries, oats, or brown rice- ground up that is.


I will keep this updated as I run across useful information and as we continue our trial and error with anal stenosis.

The following was helpful for understanding anal stenosis from a "technical" point of view.

www.drgreene.com/21_803.html