How much fruit is 'too much'?

[Tweakster]

Cool I am going to pick some up then.

He gets a lot of dairy I think.  Well actually, scratch that.  I really don't know how much dairy he is getting.  In order to stop stressing over all the feeding & eating issues we have had with him we just stopped analyzing what he was eating and let him eat.  So we offer him milk with every meal and he gets an 8 oz bottle at bedtime.  I would like to cut this back too actually.  He doesn't need it I don't think.

We give him quite a bit of cheese because he's a cheese monster.  Sometimes he may get a piece of cheese at every meal.  And yogurt every morning.  Sometimes there is cheese in what we eat i.e. lasagna, mac & cheese

So to sum up:
- yogurt every morning, actually yogurt or fromage frais
- cheese throughout the day (mainly on weekends, don't think he gets much at daycare)
- milk in sippy at every meal, though to be fair he doesn't drink much, he doesn't drink much of anything really
- 8 oz bottle at bedtime

[Mashi]

Seems like a lot to me.  In terms of what is "required" it is 500mg of calcium for Finn's age (actually UK guidelines are lower, only 350mg per day).   So 8 ounces of milk is 350mg, 4oz of yogurt is 150mg, and 1 oz of cheddar is 200mg (and cheese especially is very binding). Add in things like oranges, crocolli, sweet potatoes, oatmeal, etc that also have calcium and he is getting a LOT, much more than he needs.  Could be a big factor in the constipation.

Don't get me wrong, I know how hard it is and dairy is one of those things that kids will eat - my DS survives many weeks on brotchens, pretzels, crackers, yogurt, cheese, milk and quark   So not trying to tell you to cut Finn's dairy down or that you're giving him too much or anything, just throwing that out as another idea for you.