toddlers bowel movements

[Craigie3]

My just turned two year old, has frequent - as many as four, bowel movements per day and they are still very very soft.......Is this 'normal'He has not reached his birth weight indicator, is there perhaps a problem with absorption, or diet.?
Or is this normal.....Help!

[zebra]

When you say "birthweight indicator", do you mean your DS is on a different percentile from where he was born? I don't think you should rely on that; they can change a lot. Especially very big newborns are rarely esp. big toddlers.

I don't think there is such a thing as "normal" bowel movements. "Normal" for your son is whatever he usually does. I hate to go into details... but we use cloth nappies and I used to be very confused by people who said they could use re-usable liners for their toddler nappies not an option for my eldest! In contrast, my 2nd poops lead shot anything works like a reusable liner for her bottom. But she doesn't drink enough fluids, and my eldest is (was) a big consumer of fluids.

They say that lots of juice can make bottoms runny -- does your DS have more than 4oz of pure juice/day? Yogurt was another culprit food in the diet of my eldest, but honestly, except for some foulsome nappies, it wasn't a health problem. He toilet trained relatively early, thank goodness (2y+4m).

[elliott]

My ds has always had frequent, fairly loose poos - between 3 and 5 per day. He's 16 months now and I can't see this changing much soon. He is healthy and eats very well (I think this is partly why he poos a lot - volume in=volume out, IYSWIM!)
I wouldn't worry about it. Its not very nice, that's all!

[bloss]

Message withdrawn

[SnoobyKat]

Craigie3, I used to worry about this too until I talked to other mums. DS (almost 18 months) has 2 sometimes 3 BMs a day and they are VERY soft but he does like his veg and his fruit juice. Also as he has a persistent night time cough which we think is due to milk intolerance he's been having vitamin C supplement which, as my Mum delicately puts it, goes right through you. Not sure what you mean by "birth weight indicator" but DS is fairly lightweight but "within normal parameters". He was a very lightweight 0-6mths and a lovely chunky 6-12mths and is now back to the slimline version. Wish I was! HTH