1 year old often constipated & has screaming bowel movements!

[mlindsey]

My 1 year old daughter has struggled off & on for the past several months with constipation.  She's not real constipated but sometimes has formed stools & it causes her to scream & cry for several minutes.  She is so tense.  & naturally is a pretty tense baby.  Could this be part of the problem?  We offer her lots of water & juice, but she often doesn't drink much.  She just takes little sips throughout the day.  She is also on regular milk now.  She eats prunes almost every day.  But this just makes her go more often...it doesn't really soften her stools.  She eats mostly fruits & veggies.  i rarely give her cheese or bananas.  & i often watch how much apple i give her.  she eats carrots & sweet potatos & the rest is green veggies.  So i'm just not sure what i'm doing wrong.  she eats very little cereal, bread, rice & pasta.  i've tried to give her more (thinking she needs more grains), but she won't eat much of it yet.  Anyway, i would love to hear any suggestions!!!  i just hate to see my daughter in such pain.  i even tried giving her colace (a stool softener, not laxitive)...but this doesn't help much either...or at least initially.  Thanks for any help! 
Misty 

[* Paula *]

Hi Misty,

Firstly I am sorry to hear that your lo is suffering so much.

My lo (6months) has just recently been in hospital for a number of things, but one of them was for constipation.

The doctors tried him on something called lactulose which is supposed to soften his stools, but did not do much.  They then put him on Senna, and he has been going regularly and has been fairly soft and he seems to be a much happier baby.

While he was in hospital he was refusing his food and one of the nurses said to give him a bananna, I was a bit worried as he was so constipated and the nurse said to me that a bananna is one of those fruits that works either way.  She said that if a baby is bunged up a bananna will help with bowl movements and it also works the other way that if a baby has a runny tummy, a bananna will help block them up a bit.  To my amazement it actually worked.

I still have him on Senna at the moment and am giving him loads of fruit during the day.  My lo is like yours and will only take a few sips of juice / water a day.

Please keep us posted and let us know how you get on.

Sending you loads of {{HUGS}}.

Paula - Mum to Thomas - 12 July 2005

[mickymuscles]

YOUCHY!!!  ((((((((((HUGS))))))))))) to your lo!!  My lo also has problems with constipation every now and then.  We also give Lactulose ( a sugar based overthe counter med).  We can give it to him twice a day (5mls) depending on his need.  It makes him go without fail.  The more I give, the softer it gets.  Then I just try to up the pear intake (that seems to make him go pretty well too.)  I hope you find a solution to you lo's dilemma! 

[ryan's mum]

ryan is also on lactulose and it works really well. pears and apricots are good also.

[momtomax]

You might try 1 tsp of flax seed oil (it's high in omega-3 too).  Or 1 tsp peanut butter (if there's no history of allergies).
Baby prune mixed with 1tsp peanut butter worked great for my lo.

[ryan's mum]

just thought i would mention that with "lactulose" you do have to find the correct dose for you're lo ,ryan started on a low dose and it didn't seem to do anything, when we increased he has gone regular everyday with no straining. if you give to much it can be "explosive" in the nappy/diaper.because of the extra water ryan is drinking we have been able to cut down on the lactulose.

[fleadle]

This might sound a bit silly but I know that sometimes if you are getting too much Iron in your diet this can make you constipated.

[mlindsey]

Thanks for all the help.  i did finally call our doc & he said that he doesn't think she's constipated.  She still frequently has movements...it's just painful.  Her stools are very formed & about the size of an egg (sorry to be so descriptive).  But i'm wondering if she's just working real to hard to hold it in.  She did have a problem at 2-4months old where she couldn't have a movement on her own because she was holding it in.  If this is the problem, what could we do to help that?  i am interested in trying the lactulose...but i'm not sure if we can get that here.  the American doc here did mention it but wasn't sure if it was available here.  we will try to look for that or get some sent in. 
thanks so much!

[Gareth - Harvey & Theo's Dad]

We used to make a homemade prune porridge to help keep Harvey regular around that age.  Basically, boil and simmer some prunes, purée and mix with porridge oats, it was effective for us
We used to freeze the remaining purée in ice cube trays.

Second the flaxseed too

[Sarah O]

My doc put DS on glycerin suppositories and that did the trick for us.

Good luck!

Sarah

[Jenn©]

I have to ask, what made you try mixing prunes and peanut butter?  Never would have guessed that combo would work.