Lactulose 5 mths out of date.

[tigwig]

My 2 yr old is newly potty trained and is struggling with poo. He is now witholding it and was so upset last night I found some lactulose in the cupboard and gave him a spoonful to try and avoid his poo becoming hard. after I gave him it I noticed it expired in Feb. Will it cause him any harm?

[mike11111]

My understanding is that if you ingest something out of date it can have a loosening effect on the bowels so in this case, double points!

[boxtops]

I'd bin it - especially since he's only little.

[ummmm]

No....not one spoonful.

Trouble is Tigs, if he's refusing to go then laxatives will soften his stools but they won't soften any hard blockage that is already there. That's my experience...

If it's psychological from passing a number 2 being painful, you can buy some numbing gel.

My son suffered for years with constipation.

[tigwig]

I'm not giving him anymore, poor love! Thing is he's only been potty trained 1 week and is going almost every day so when he does his poo is not hard so I dont think it hurts him, more that he's frightened of it. When he was in nappies he would usually go around twice a day though so it has reduced. I just dont want him to learn to withhold it for days and create a big problem. He ended up doing it while half asleep last night in his nappy while in his cot.