Seeking Baby Constipation Advice

My little girl struggled with the same problem. The first thing we did (and the most helpful) was to switch her from cow's milk to soy milk. It would only take a couple days to see if it will work. Also, the doctor gave us Miralx (which is now available over the counter). My daughter started on it at age 2. It does not cause long term problems or dependency and also does not cause diarrhea. We now manage it just with milk and adding fruit, but have Mirlax on hand if she goes too long.

Hi M.,

My daughter also struggled with constipation. One thing that helped was eliminating rice cereal. I always knew rice was on the BRAT diet but took me a while to remember that rice cereal is made from rice, duh.
You already got a lot of great advise from others.

I find that every time my daughter's poo gets a little too hard or dry, I just need to up her water intake. That seems to always help even if she just gets an extra 2oz of water. Green bananas are also known for helping get things moving if she likes bananas.

From my experience she will probably always struggle with constipation. Formula doesn't promote a healthy digestive track with same way that breast milk does. Everyone in my family that has chronic constipation was formula fed. I hope that you're able to find a solution to this, you will probably always have to be extremly careful with her diet to avoid discomfort. The ways I know to avoid constipation are..

no white rice, flour or other fiber free grains
eat lots of flax seeds or other high fiber seeds
eats tons of veggies and fruit
avoid cheese and some other dairy products
take probiotics (they make these for children now)
take lots of omega 3 oils

I hope this helps. Good luck.

stick to the P foods...prunes, pears, peas. I would say that the formula is part of the problem. My daughter has problem with milk products.....so maybe changed to a soy based formula? It might help.

J. Van Riper
director of operations
Portland CityMommy
http://portland.citymommy.com

Use a little extra water in Next step, give her juice and fiber foods but nothing w/ apples as it blocks them up some. Then imagine there is a clock right below her belly button for a massage. Use your pointer and index finger in a circular motion 25 times at 9 o'clock, 12 and 3. This will move her digestive track some. I have a book called baby massage. Good luck.

Are you balancing out her diet? Fruit & veggies & water with every meal. If you just giver her say past(mac& cheese) and no fruit or veggie, that's sure to plug up the works. I am not big on juice, but adding that may help. Even if you don't like certain fruit & veggies, encourage her to try them. Don't let her hear you say you don't like them or she won't even try. The bowel can become dependent on the suppositories and YOU DON'T WANT THAT FOR YOUR CHILD AT ALL. High fiber, more fruit & veggies, & plenty of WATER. If that doesn't work, please take her to the DR.

My son was constipated from day one - even when he was only nursing. The thing that helped him and still does is Welch's white grape/cherry juice. We tried other juices, but for some reason this is the only one that works. He is two now and as long as he gets his 2 - 4 oz of juice every day he is fine, as soon as we're out for a few days he gets stopped up again. And of course we water it down significantly - like 2 oz juice with 4-6 oz water.

Now that your child is past 1 year, try this...it always worked for us!

Grind up (or finely chop) a few tablespoons of shelled walnut and roll it up with some honey. Give this mixture to your child as small dollops to chew up. Something about the oil in the walnuts is super soothing to the digestive tract and acts as a lubricant for the gut.

Good luck!

talk to your pediatrician... if it is chronic they may either go 1) fiber route or 2) fat route. We added 1T mineral oil to each of our daughter's bottles - there was a special kind our ped ordered through the pharmacy that made it mix into liquid formula. We later heard that you can just up their fat intake with olive oil, but they have to have a few T a day to make it work. When she went to cup drinking totally, it had to be a sippy cup so she wouldn't see the oil slick on the top.

Yogurt made the difference for my son! I mix some plain Nancy's yogurt in his oatmeal almost every morning. (I sweeten it all with a little fruit--banana, papaya, or applesauce and usually add some dried date pieces or raisins, also.) He used to be extremely constipated, but after we added yogurt to his diet we've never had another problem! (Be sure it's a good-quality yogurt with live cultures and not a lot of additives or extra ingredients.)

M., Just another thing to try...massage. Find a good massage therapist and have them show you how to massage the abdominal area. It really helps "move" things along.

I had this problem every so often with my dtr. I used massage when all else failed. Rub the belly in a clockwise motion 3 times, pressing firmly, but not hard, then rub the belly up and down 3 times, finally press her bent knees to her chest 3 times, elongate and press. Pretty simple. I learned this from a nurse at a post-natal class. Worked like a charm and my dtr liked the feeling. I would typically do this in her crib, right before she went to sleep, since that was a good time for her to be in a relaxed state. Hope that helps!

Obviously if you are not comfortable trying this on your own, I would suggest buying or checking out a baby massage book.

You may want to try ground flax seed in her cereal or yogurt. I have used this with success in my two.

Hope it helps!
A.

M.,
A friend of mine sent this to me and I thought I could offer some advice. I am not sure what kind of info you have gotten so far. I have a grand-daughter and I would suggest putting a bit of aloe vera juice into water juice of your little one. I am not a Health provider and would suggest for professional advise that you contact a physician. I do believe that neutropathic physicians know much more about digestion that allopathic MDs. I have been in the health care industry for over 30 years and I am now passionate about health and healing. I am just passing this on as I have added the aloe to my juice which I have given to my grand-daughter.

Slip some karo syrup into her bottle or sippy. My son is a very hyperactive and rigid child who has dealt with more constipation than I thought possible for a baby. The karo syrup makes the formula more appealing and has natural ingredients in it that soften BMs. If this doesn't work you probably need to go to your doctor. They have a powdered fiber solution that you add to your liquids before giving them to her that will regulate her.

My daughter has had the same problem ever since starting solids. Looks like you're trying a lot of good foods to get her moving (but don't do applesauce. It actually makes the problem worse). I didn't see mineral oil on your list. When I just can't get her moving I start putting mineral oil in oatmeal and apple juice and get her to down as much as possible. I also give her a bath with baking soda in it. Usually the combination of those (on top of feeding peaches, pears, etc) will get things going. Good luck.

Please do check with your ped baby doctor , as nothing has worked this far she will need to be seen, I once tried many foods on my son only to notice after awhile he was only doing the rabbit size which was hard. a few months later he got sick, so we took him in only to find out he was so plugged up in the intestines way up that very little was ever going to get through, so the doctor right away had us get him to the hospital to stay while he had him on a strict bland diet and an IV. my baby was the same age, you may try molasses in warm tea first for two days to just see I do not want to scare you but life happens so please check into it soon if the molasses does not work before she may get a cold or other, today my son is twelve yrs and doing very healthy. S.,vanc.

M.:

what worked for my little ones is more juice and give her some Karo (check near your regular syrups-not sure on spelling) syrup. It unclogged my kids like no other. They didn't have problems after using it about 3 times. They became regular and it doesn't hurt them. Plus, it tastes better on pancakes or other breakfast meals that you would put syrup on rather than maple syrup.

Keep us posted.

Kim B.

Check her for Gluten Intolerance and other allergies. Dairy, and wheat are top allergens, and so is soy because most of it in this country has been genetically modified.

My nephew ended up with allergies to milk, soy and egg whites. For some reason food allergies are really on the rise. But they are the last thing an MD will tell you to check.

Allergies cause TERRIBLE constipation. My daughter who's celiac (can't have wheat) struggles with constipation.

I used to boil dry prunes in some water for my son, and I would give him the water to drink as juice and that always helped him. Applesauce actually constipates, so you should not give that anymore. Have you introduced cows milk yet? That might be better than formula... Apple juice always works for us but it sounds like you already tried that! There's also other things you can try, like rubbing her belly in small circles or a nice warm bath. Hopefully it's just a phase and she'll grow out of it!

Peaches, pears, plums get things going. But with other people, it may be time to talk to her Ped.

Good luck,
A.

When my dear daughter was between the ages of 4-16 months old she had this same problem and the doctor said it was ok to be stopped up as long as it didnt go for longer than about 5 days. When I called the advice nurse she said to give her about a Tbsp. of syrup. I only had to do it once a day for my daughter. But it did seem to help her tummy to not hurt as much. The other thing that helped was infant massage. I hope this helps you.
stef

Hey M.-
I have not read all your responses, so I hope I am not just saying the same thing!

Two of my children suffered from constipation. We tried everything. We tried Miralax with limited success (because we did not stick with it.) But now we have returned to it and IT WORKS!! The key is to use it everyday- without fail. It may take awhile to see the results, but once it works, it works great. You mix it with juice (or other drink.) The dosage on the bottle is for adults. Our Pediatrician did the math and helped us figure out how many teaspoons we need per weight.

We have asked our doctor about reducing the dosage over time. He stressed to do it gradually. Also very true! We tried reducing too quickly and it took a couple weeks to get back in the rhythm again. I was concerned about long term usage... wanting to use as many organic remedies etc. The doc stressed that Miralax is very safe.. really just fiber.

Also- we try to make sure they drink lots of water. As preschoolers now, we ask them to finish all their drink at most meals. Our other child, does not struggle with constipation, and we notice she does seem to drink more during the day.
Keep trying!

PS- sometimes I feel like I am going nuts when my children's poop schedule seems to run my life! But whenever I talk to another mom like you, we laugh together about our reality!!

A friend recently told me that mandarin oranges were the only thing to work for her kiddos. (I haven't tried this cure for my little one yet, but I plan to the next time she has trouble...)

Good luck!

This sounds like a chronic problem that you should be discussing with your pediatrician. The Miralax does work really well for some folks. Increasing water intake, fresh fruits, prunes and prune juice. Stay away from cheese, bananas and rice. What's her physical activity like? If you don't move, neither do your bowels on a regular basis. Fevers will cause constipation because they become dehydrated. Again, go talk with your pediatrician to make sure there are no underlying problems.

My daughter had the same issues, My doctor told me to give her 1/8 tsp of MOM in her bottle daily. That worked. After she hit one yr old and was off of formula and eating a normal diet, the problem was gone.

She still if she drinks a lot of milk will get constipated, but now I can feed her salad and cut back the milk as she is fine.

Hi there,
My son had the same problem and I felt the same way about the suppositories. My husband and I started using Miralax it is sold over the counter. My doctor recommended it and it worked great! We only had to use it for a short time. I hope your little feels better soon!
Take Care,
R.

Try canned peaches. They are very tasty of course but also help with lousing the bowels. Blueberries also did it for my kids but it really changes the color of the bowels. Blueberry blue. Try adding lots of liquids when you add new foods.

You could also try rubbing some olive oil on her tummy and of course drinking fluids.

DONT GIVE APPLESAUCE!!! We did that because applejuice helps so we just assumed that applesauce was the same!! NONONONO, they give applesauce to those who have diarrhea. Part of the BRAT diet, (bananas, rice, applesauce, toast) avoid those things! I had and still have this problem on occasion with my 13 month old. We took him to our family naturopath and she gave us some stuff called probiotics, which is for his intestinal tract, helps keep in the good bugs and get out the bad, its a powder that i mix with his food. its called HMF Natogen, but i know if you go to like Fred Meyers in their natural food section, and get someone who knows what theyre talking about, you can get it there! It really works, we were having blood in his bms because they were so hard...

Try yogurt. My daughter had the same problem (sometimes went days and days between BMs), but antibiotics had killed most of the flora in her stomach and intestines. Yogurt helped SO much!