constipation

My boys have both been having issues with constipation lately....I've been giving them prune juice whenever they seem to be struggling or their poo seems hard....but that doesn't always help. When they were little we had the opposite problem of runny bowels and frequent diaper explosions, so I'm not sure how else to handle this. Nothing has changed in their diet that I can think of. Should I give them juice daily? Or are there other things I can give them to help??

 

Will they eat plums? What about oranges? Plum Smart juice works well for constipation. If you think it's a recurring problem, Miralax is a good option to clear everything out (for like 6 months to take care of everything).

 

If you don't want to add more juice into their diet, we used benefiber, which can be mixed into anything, and it helped with the constipation issues my oldest dd had (which were pretty severe), and the issues my youngest ds had (which weren't too severe just bothersome).

 

One of my girls is chronically constipated. My pedi said to try to control it with diet before using a fiber supplement or medication. His suggestion was to give her 3 or 4 oz of undiluted fruit juice everyday, not just when we think she's having a problem. So we do that plus give her a few dried plums (a.k.a. prunes) every other day. She thinks the dried plums are candy so has no problem eating them.

 

Thanks for the ideas....I would definitely want to use diet if we can rather than a supplement or medication. They're not too good about eating plums - they would eat some this summer when we had the really good local produce, but the ones we have now are not good at all - pretty hard and not great taste. I could try the dried plums, though. I guess I just need to stock up on juice and be more regular about it as part of their snack. Is prune juice best? I don't think they really care what kind it is, but I'm wondering if apple or another juice would work better?

 

I give my girls apple juice, but prune juice or just about any other 100% juice would work as well. Personally, I can't drink prune juice. It makes me gag so I just assumed my girls would not drink it either. Actual prunes don't taste as bad as the juice.

 

Oh, also try avoid the constipating foods like bananas, applesauce and cheese. (Sounds odd that applesauce constipates but apple juice has the opposite effect, but it's true.) My chronically-constipated child loves bananas and cheese more than anything so I have to be careful to limit the bananas to no more than 1/2 a banana a day and balance the mac n' cheese and grilled cheeses with prunes or other fruit.

 

My boys don't seem to mind the prune juice, but it's the only thing they've ever had, so they don't know any different. But I may try apple for variety (or I think I remember seeing some apple-prune juice mix). But definitely 100% juice - it's hard to believe how many things are labeled "juice" but aren't much juice at all!

I didn't think about the cheese, but that makes sense. DS2 has gotten very picky lately, and the things I know for sure he will eat are grilled cheese, mac and cheese, and for breakfast, bagels and cream cheese. He also loves applesauce and bananas, although we've been only doing bananas 1-2 days a week lately, but they get a variety of other fruits, too - 2 servings a day not counting the juice.

He did finally have what I would consider a normal diaper this afternoon, so that is good, but this has been a problem off and on for the last few weeks, so I will work on keeping up with the juice more frequently and see if that helps.

 

Do they eat yogurt? My kids eat alot of yogurt and veggies and fruit. They poop like 2-3 times/day. I wanted to post how to make them poop less

 

I add probiotics to their cereal/milk and my kids love yohurt. This just promotes good gut health. If they eat enough yogurt with live cultures it should also do the trick.

 

W101ttd, thank you for posting about yogurt on another thread a few months ago, I followed your advice and I started to give them a yogurt each after lunch and after dinner and we neever had constipation issues since then. We used to have a LOT of constipation issues with our babies when they were infants, before we started solids, but now, everything is fine. So thank you again, you really helped me a lot with this sugestion. I meant to thank you before also, but I kept forgetting.

So yeah, I vote for yogurt as well, try that for a while see if it makes a difference.

 

I add a half tsp of flax seed meal to one of my DDs fruit and yogurt smoothie every morning. This helps keep her moving. Before we got her "on track" though we had to do miralax and glycerin supp's (at the recommendation of our pedi) because she was so constipated. Its worse for her in the winter because the air is drier. I also push water with her all the time. She won't drink juice (weird kid!), but we give her lots of fiber every day. I agree with everyone else about backing off constipation-inducing foods. My pedi also said to back off dairy (cheese and milk), but yogurt is ok. Good luck!

 

Yes, they eat yogurt almost every day, as well as quite a bit of fruit. DS2 is hit or miss with the veggies, but I think he gets a fair amount. The funny thing is, they used to poop A LOT. Like sometimes 3-4 times a day, and often needing clothes changed, too, which I really hated. But now all of the sudden we have the opposite problem.

We do probiotics, too, in their milk every day.

That's another good idea - thanks!

 

We use something like Miralax, i think it's called peg something, in canada. It's a clear crystal that dissolves in milk/water and is flavourless. It has no adverse affects but makes the child's poo softer and therefore there is less discomfort and retaining. We've used it as a maintenance for my dd bc she gets HARD poops and was starting to hold it in. Whenever we see she's not having regular poops we give her a tiny bit in her water and she's good to go. Prunes/juice etc weren't working for us. My kids ate A LOT of prunes lol

GOOD LUCK.

 

We've done Miralax in acute situations, and take proactive measures to avoid it the rest of the time. I give my 16 month olds Stage 2 prune + apple or plain prune puree after dinner each day as well as diluted apple juice. They looooove prunes. They also eat stage 2 pears and yogurt daily. I am not imaginative in the food department. :fool: