trying to get more fiber into 2 year old DD's diet- recommendations for chews/powders?

[Anonymous]

I had great hopes for the fiber gummy chews, but at least the ones I bought (Lifeable) she doesn't like. I think it's the texture because she loves the non-gummy watermelon laxatives I give her occasionally.

Does anyone have any recommendations for non-chewy fiber supplements or powders I could mix in her drinks?

Thank you.

[Anonymous]

Is there any reason why she can't take the standard psyllium fiber? If you try this it is essential to not mix in more powder than liquid, if that ratio is off it can actually make the constipation worse.

Mine went through a phase around 8mo-12mo where she got easily constipated which was very weird because she was breastfed but she seems to have grown out of it. I had to cut virtually all flour and gave her nothing but eggs, meat, fruit and veg.

[Anonymous]

Oh yeah my family doctor recommended flax seed powder but it didn't seem to do much.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is there any reason why she can't take the standard psyllium fiber? If you try this it is essential to not mix in more powder than liquid, if that ratio is off it can actually make the constipation worse.

Mine went through a phase around 8mo-12mo where she got easily constipated which was very weird because she was breastfed but she seems to have grown out of it. I had to cut virtually all flour and gave her nothing but eggs, meat, fruit and veg.

Sorry, me again. I read somewhere bananas and applesauce can be constipating. I cut those and added p - pears, peaches, plums. That seemed to help too. Any green leafy veg is free fiber points if you can get your LO to eat them.

[Anonymous]

This is an obvious question but hav you tried all the known foods, first? (Not trying to be snarky). My 3 year old struggles with constipation but it's definitely kept in check with nearly daily oatmeal, lots of vegetables and fruits, and a couple of prunes a day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is an obvious question but hav you tried all the known foods, first? (Not trying to be snarky). My 3 year old struggles with constipation but it's definitely kept in check with nearly daily oatmeal, lots of vegetables and fruits, and a couple of prunes a day.

We are working on it. We've fallen into a cycle of daycare illness - out of school for a week to 10 days, change in diet at home, not much drinking - to finally getting her unstopped to repeating two weeks later with the next illness. I'm not kidding, it's been every two weeks since May.

We are always coming in or out of an illness and I don't actually know if she gets enough fiber in her diet when she is at home. Just increasing liquids doesn't work like it used to.

Ugh, toddler constipation is the worst. We are in the middle of a Miralax cleanse- please no caution about it, she needs it for now - and she came down with a super high fever on Sunday in the middle of it. So that's been a cluster foxtrot.

Actually strongly considering pulling her from daycare and getting a nanny so her system can reset because it's not working.

Ugh thank you for letting me vent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is there any reason why she can't take the standard psyllium fiber? If you try this it is essential to not mix in more powder than liquid, if that ratio is off it can actually make the constipation worse.

Mine went through a phase around 8mo-12mo where she got easily constipated which was very weird because she was breastfed but she seems to have grown out of it. I had to cut virtually all flour and gave her nothing but eggs, meat, fruit and veg.

Sorry, me again. I read somewhere bananas and applesauce can be constipating. I cut those and added p - pears, peaches, plums. That seemed to help too. Any green leafy veg is free fiber points if you can get your LO to eat them.

My experience is if my kid hasn't pooped in a couple days, apple sauce always makes him poop.

Maybe mix the fiber into apple sauce?

[Anonymous]

Those fiber gummies have very little fiber and basically aren’t worth the effort. My suggestions:
— start every day with berries and water
— smoothies with mango, berries, spinach if she will eat it and chia seeds
— Trader Joe’s fiber bars
— add flax seed to oatmeal
— Trader Joe’s also has or had high fiber bagels that were great—too them with Apple butter or mashed fruit for more fiber
— rachel ray had a breakfast cookie made with bran cereal we used to do
— pancakes using oat flour (make in blender and it grinds the oats into flour)
— how sweet eats had a uncooked peanut butter chocolate chip snack ball that we used to make — it’s basically nuts and flax seed with honey so very high fiber.
Just start counting it up and aim for about 25 grams of fiber a day for her. Once you start doing the math, you’ll figure out what works. I think those gummies have like 2 grams.

[Anonymous]

So I don't know anything about supplements, but my daughter was pooping too often (including at night) because of eating Dave's Killer bread (the "21 seeds" variety) and blueberries a lot.

[Anonymous]

Yeah, I think every kid is different so you might just need to experiment some to find the foods that help her poop (I know, food experimentation with toddlers is tough, especially when they are in daycare all day). Here are the things that reliably work for us:

Blueberries
Oatmeal
Apple sauce
Peaches/nectarines
Dried fruit: apricots and figs are her favorite
Cereal bars

And if she’s backed up, we cut all dairy immediately and encourage water.

[Anonymous]

OP here, thank you for all of these replies! Some really good suggestions. Thank you so much.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is an obvious question but hav you tried all the known foods, first? (Not trying to be snarky). My 3 year old struggles with constipation but it's definitely kept in check with nearly daily oatmeal, lots of vegetables and fruits, and a couple of prunes a day.

We are working on it. We've fallen into a cycle of daycare illness - out of school for a week to 10 days, change in diet at home, not much drinking - to finally getting her unstopped to repeating two weeks later with the next illness. I'm not kidding, it's been every two weeks since May.

We are always coming in or out of an illness and I don't actually know if she gets enough fiber in her diet when she is at home. Just increasing liquids doesn't work like it used to.

Ugh, toddler constipation is the worst. We are in the middle of a Miralax cleanse- please no caution about it, she needs it for now - and she came down with a super high fever on Sunday in the middle of it. So that's been a cluster foxtrot.

Actually strongly considering pulling her from daycare and getting a nanny so her system can reset because it's not working.

Ugh thank you for letting me vent.

Try a kiddie probiotic.

[Anonymous]

Chia pudding!

Dried fruit is a good one - I cut up dried apricots and call them fruit snacks …

You can (maybe) also grate the tops off raw broccoli and give it to your kid in a dish and call it sprinkles. My kid will put it on her food.

[Anonymous]

Imagine a beautiful charcuterie board, but with all the sweetest and highest fiber fruits on it, arranged in the prettiest way. Nothing else sweet on there, or it makes the fruit bland. Cherries! Two kinds of cherries. If you have change to spare, by a cherry pitter and let the kid try to pit the cherries before eating them. Fun! Laxative!

[Anonymous]

*buy a cherry pitter