Constipation

[dave4him]

How do you handle a one year old who seems to be having an awful hard time going poo! I watch her struggle with it and it breaks my heart

[sharlan]

Try a small amount of PlumSmart daily. It's a juice that you can get in the grocery store next to the prune juice.

[AmyLeigh]

Green smoothies!! I swear they work wonders! There's a ton of recipes online.

[MarinaVanessa]

Poor baby . Unless with a parent's permission there's not much you can really do other than offer her plenty of liquids and tons of fruit or food with a lot of fiber. This won't fix the issue immediately though. I wouldn't give her anything that you're not absolutely sure of that she's already been given before.

Baby massage is good but I wouldn't give her a "massage" without the parent's permission and especially if you're not sure how to do it, otherwise you could make things worse. Anyone else have any ideas?

[Jenniferdawn]

Cut out all bananas and apples from her diet and limit cheese. Prune juice is a great help or eating dried prunes if you don't give juice. And most importantly up her intake of water and raw vegetables if she will go for that.

[Countrygal]

You could also try graham crackers and milk all mushed together. They seem to work wonders - it's an old gramma cure, but it works!

My guess is it's not enough fiber. I'd also start substituting one bottle(or part of one) with some apple juice, probably about 2 oz to start. How much milk is she getting? On WECA standards, a 1-2yo only gets 1 1/2 cups per day. If she is still getting three bottles a day, it could simply be the milk causing the problem. How much does she get at home?

You could also try substituting formula for a week and see if that solves the problem. Some kids don't process milk as well as others.

Just some ideas to try. Hope you can solve the problem!

[Willow]

I'd recommend a visit to her pediatrician.

Even if you up her fiber if it's been a chronic issue for her she may have GI/digestion problems that need medical attention.

My daughter even while breastfed, literally from birth, struggled with chronic constipation. It landed us in the ER a couple of times so I tend not to take the issue lightly. No amount of prune or pear juice would even make a dent in it, nor would the fact that she ate a very balanced diet filled to the brim with a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables. She ate no processed foods at all and we tried eliminating all dairy. Nada response.

We went so far as to consult a pediatric GI specialist who determined she needed a probiotic supplement added to her daily diet from toddler age on (after ruling out every possible food cause under the sun first) and for awhile there she also needed an Rx for Miralax (back when it wasn't OTC) because she'd actually developed a conditioned called mega-colon. That goes on for too long it can render a child incontinent temporarily or even permanently. Some kids intestinal tracts just aren't as efficient as others and need that extra help until they have time to mature. Heck, some adults intestinal tracts just aren't as efficient as others and still need that extra help


Just something to keep in mind, diet isn't always completely to blame. Might not hurt to ask if mom has ever brought it up to her doc. If she hasn't I'd definitely recommend she does, letting her know how much it bothers you to see her struggle so much. I know exactly how you feel, used to near bring me to tears when I saw how much it bothered and often times literally hurt my daughter too.


(with that I fully acknowledge I know far too much about poop )