on solids and constipated

[Anonymous]

Did you give water, prune juice, or peas/pears to help relieve constipation in your baby?

[Anonymous]

We mixed pureed prunes in with the cereal/milk.

Are you sure it's constipation? Just fyi (and excuse the over info if you already know this), it's normal for there to be days between bowel movements sometimes, for the consistency to be anything up to and including toothpaste or play doh consistency, and for some increased appearance of straining as they become more conscious of pooping and their stools change consistency. Constipation is when the stools are actually hard (pebble like) when they emerge.

[Anonymous]

Yes, they are large harder stools. He had the toothpaste like ones earlier. He's been eating rice cereal, bananas and sweet potatoes and bm. He hasn't had any water so should I try that first (before prunes)?

[Anonymous]

My BF baby had the same reaction when starting solids. Prunes worked as did pears and peas. Water didn't seem to help as much, but then again she would never drink too much. Her system eventually adjusted and we didn't have to worry about it any more, but the peas/pears combo was my go to whenever we had a problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, they are large harder stools. He had the toothpaste like ones earlier. He's been eating rice cereal, bananas and sweet potatoes and bm. He hasn't had any water so should I try that first (before prunes)?

Fine to offer some sips of water, and also fine to add in prunes or pears too. Honestly though, larger harder stools (kind of like lumps of play doh) can be part of the normal process as children's digestive systems develop. True constipation manifests with very hard stools. So don't get too concerned and interventionist at this point, imo. You're doing fine.

[Anonymous]

Bananas can have a constipating effect on same babies, though this was not the case wit my kids, others have told me this occurred with their babies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, they are large harder stools. He had the toothpaste like ones earlier. He's been eating rice cereal, bananas and sweet potatoes and bm. He hasn't had any water so should I try that first (before prunes)?

Both the rice cereal and the bananas can be constipating. Talk to your ped, maybe switch to oatmeal cereal and lay off the bananas. As for adding prunes, we preferred pureed prunes mixed with oatmeal over the prune juice, just because we'd prefer our son to drink water over juices over the long haul and don't want him developing a preference for juice to hydrate himself. He cries with stomach discomfort after bananas and it took us a few times before we saw the connection but it's definitely the case for him.

[Anonymous]

My mother is a nurse and taught us the rule of thumb when you have diarrhia is the BRAT diet (bananas, rice, applesauce, toast) - so those things would be constipating.

We used prune juice mixed with oatmeal and a thermometer in his butt when constipated (or crying because he was having trouble passing - my ped said to do this as it can be a few mos before they learn how to have a bowel movement - not sure how old your baby is. She said to not worry, they won't learn to depend on the thermometer. We had to do this on and off for about a month.)

[Anonymous]

Our DD has had a problem with constipation for a couple months now (she is currently 6 months). My pediatrician said to avoid bananas. She also had us immediately stop the rice cereal and switch her to oatmeal. I also mix 1 oz of pear juice into 2 of her 4 bottles (usually the first and third). She drinks an 8 ounce bottle, so I do 7 oz of water and 1 oz pear juice. We had been doing pear juice at one feeding and prune at another per the pediatricians recommendation, and while it helped her stools, it did not seem to settle well. We tried some juice mixed with water but I found that she would only drink a few ounces at the next feeding no matter how far apart I spaced them and I was worried she wasnt getting the nutrients she needed. The oatmeal and the pear juice really seem to be helping. The pediatrician said we can go up to 2oz of juice in the bottle if the 1 oz was not working.

[JenBug29]

We are going through this right now with my dd. She will actually wimper and whine when she is trying to poop. It breaks my heart to see. We've cut out bananas completely and switched to single grain oatmeal because rice cereal can be constipating as well. My pedi also said to give her pear juice which seems to be helping. We also give her a few bites of prunes every night. All of this seems to be helping.

[Anonymous]

My ped recommended oatmeal instead of rice cereal and it's worked for DD.

[Anonymous]

I add a teaspoon of high quality fish oil -- Carlson's -- to the baby food once a day, and a teaspoon of probiotics -- powdered Primadophilus for Children -- to the liquids once a day. These are very healthy supplements that have the added benefit of preventing constipation.

[Anonymous]

We tried Earth's Best Prunes & Oatmeal (stage 2), which DS likes, and it helped with his "regularity" -- we just give him a jar of that for one of his meals every other day or so and it keeps constipation at bay. We also switched from rice cereal to oatmeal a while back and feed very few bananas and apples.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My mother is a nurse and taught us the rule of thumb when you have diarrhia is the BRAT diet (bananas, rice, applesauce, toast) - so those things would be constipating.

We used prune juice mixed with oatmeal and a thermometer in his butt when constipated (or crying because he was having trouble passing - my ped said to do this as it can be a few mos before they learn how to have a bowel movement - not sure how old your baby is. She said to not worry, they won't learn to depend on the thermometer. We had to do this on and off for about a month.)

rice and apples are not consitpating. Rice is very easy to digest, and apples have pectin throwing up. Toast is just easy on tummy too. Banana's are easy to digest and can cause some firmer stools in babies.

[Anonymous]

pp here, sorry, pectin helps stop vomiting.