wondering how long is too long

How long is too long? For around five years now our poor kiddo has had chronic constipation. No explanation as to why, it happened very suddenly with no warning, no obvious reason, nothing. All of the sudden he was constipated.. no changes in diet, no changes in fluid intake, just all of the sudden we realized hmm he hasn't pooped in a couple of days! Now fast forward to now.. he's 7 years old and still dealing with it!

Every 4-6 months we go to the GI doc for a check up to make sure he's not too backed up and whatnot.. the answers always the same.. keep giving him the miralax. Triace referred us to CHKD when we renewed our referral this time. The doc we saw was very nice and she's familiar with the docs we were seeing at the Naval Hospital so that's a plus.. she can contact them about his history.

She orderd some tests including a celiac panel (because I'm gluten intolerant) and a few other tests that the old GI never did. She also tested for certain mineral difciencies and so on.. She wants to make sure there's nothing metabolically causing it I guess? We'll see in a week what the results say. I wouldn't be surprised if the celiac panel came back positive simply because I have issues and it can be hereditery. But he's almost gluten free at home, so she said it could come back negative because of that.. you usually have to be full on gluten for a result. I have not had the celiac test done personally because I'm quite happy off of gluten and I know what it does to me so I don't need to gluten myself to get a test to show that!! LOL

But really, I'm not expecting any answers. No one has any answers. We know his intestines are fine physically. Xrays he's had show no defects in his intestines thank goodness! The husband and I both cannot accept that it's "just constipation". Just constipation for five years?!?!!!!!! Seriously.. no miralax.. he doesn't poop. He has to have the medication to poop! That cannot be normal?! We also worry about what the miralax is doing to his body. It can't be good to be on this much miralax daily for as long as he has been! I could understand "just constipation" if it was an occasional problem. Once a month.. once every few weeks.. that I could accept. This is a problem we have to deal with daily. no meds.. no poop. we've tried weaning him off without any success! I would think that at some point in the past five years his body would have said hey.. I can do this without medication! It's frustrating for the kiddo too. He has accidents often that he has no control over which in turn causes him embarassment.. I'm sure it causes him pain when he does go and pain in his stomach when it's just sitting there.. I can't imagine it not bothering him, even though he says it doesn't. It stresses us out too. We worry if he gets hit in the stomach.. we worry if he starts throwing up for no reason.. the things that could happen because of this worry us!

So how long is too long? I do not want him to have to deal with this for his entire life! We never thought we'd be dealing with it for this long as it is! Shouldn't he be outgrowing this by now? Shouldn't his body know by now? We cannot accept that this is ok.. it just can't be good for his body.. any of it.. The meds or the constipation itself! It's a lot of stress on his insides.. being backed up all the time!!! I feel like we're looking for answers when there are no answers to be found.. and really all we want is a way to make this all go away for him!