One thing I want to point out real quickly to you is the issue of your child posturing themselves over the furniture. By posturing I mean leaning over the edge of the chair or leaning over the edge of the couch, trying to leverage themselves in some respect and trying to bring some relief essentially to their abdominal area. This isn’t just a playful thing where they do it for a couple of seconds and then go away. I have some kids where they literally lean over the edge of the coffee table for example and be there for 2, 3, 4 minutes it just looks like what they are trying to do is find a comfortable position. That maybe in some cases where it is a clear sign of an underlying bowel problem.

It could be constipation where they have so much stool building up in their abdomen and they are not going everyday and it is causing cramping and discomfort and they are trying to find a relief point for that. Typically in small kids, they don’t have enough strength in their arms and their hands in order to push on their abdomen to relieve the pain. It can also be an indication of underlying inflammation. So we know that small bowel inflammation can be very, very painful and kids will actually try to leverage themselves over the furniture to try and relieve that pain. So if you see that type of behavior, recognize it as potentially an underlying medical problem and seek medical attention.

A very simple thing to do with your pediatrician or your family doctor is to get an abdominal x-ray to see how much stool they have built up in their bowel. It may be that your child has a bowel movement everyday but if you are looking at a bowel movement that is several inches long, which is actually pretty big for a small child, they may have a whole lot left in their belly that needs to come out. So unless you take a look you won’t know.

So again, this posturing behavior over furniture, over a couch, over a chair, over a coffee table, even a child who is laying on the ground on their tummy and trying to roll their tummy back and forth can be an indication of an underlying bowel problem. Make sure you check it out with your doctor. There are a number of things you can do to help relieve that. If they have constipation then doing some things to help relieve that with magnesium or some other types of laxatives. If they have diarrhea and they are doing that type of thing then you are probably looking at some underlying type of inflammatory problem, or maybe an infection. Doing a stool test or what not can be important. You are always looking for clues for these types of things and posturing is a real important one with respects to underlying bowel problems.