Constipation and pale yellow poo?

[CinnabarRed]

DS2 is 12 months old. For the past month or so he's been suffering from constipation. Our HV told us to treat him with lactalose, and we have increased the proportion of fruit in his diet. His diet is well balanced and healthy.

There seems to be some improvement in recent days, although he's still in obvious discomfort when he opens his bowels - crying, straining, and very sore anus.

For the past two weeks, we've noticed that his poos have changed colour from the usual brown that we all know and love to a very pale yellow colour. The colour doesn't change with consistency - it's the same whether his poos are hard or soft.

Is this something we should be concerned about?

Other than the constipation, he seems to be fine in himself. He's a bit of a sicky baby, but so was DS1, so to date I've just attributed any vomitting to that being the way he is. He's sick perhaps once or twice a week when he gets food stuck in his throat, or overeats, or coughs too much.

TIA

hi Cinnabar red,

It is just possible that there is a food intolerance. my boys had v pale poos, sometimes mucus-ey, smelly wind and tummy ache often - including being sick. my oldest is on the 2nd weight percentile and yet still we've had v little medical support (he used to be on the 15th) they just seem to imply I'm a fussing mother. (private rant over!). But recently I have checked out symptoms for coeliac disease and lo and behold I have a match. So we are trying a gluten free diet for a few months, monitoring weight and tummy aches (which have gone). Might be worth a trial if you think something might be amiss. It does involve quite a lot of baking tho'!

Good luck and persevere if you think something is not quite right then you are the mum and keep an eye on it - eventually it'll either disappear on its own or you'll work out the cause.

What does the GP think about the pale poo? It might be worth running it past him or her.

Another thing to consider is whether he has a problem with dairy. This can cause sickness and also constipation. Have you recently introduced (more) cow's milk or formula into his diet?

Thanks for your replies. DS2 is off to the GP tomorrow, and I'll let you know how he gets on.

I've wondered about gluten intolerance. The only thing is that his poos are never mucusy, always really hard instead. The HV thinks he's drinking much too much milk, so we're cutting back from 3 bottles to 2 per day. The problem then is that he's stopped sleeping through!

I suppose he could have both gluten intolerance AND too much dairy in his diet. Hopefully the GP will be able to shed more light.

V pale poos are a sign of lowish bile, gluten/wheat can be a cause as it suppresses a lot of enzymes generally.

Whilst constipation often is put down to dairy and can improve on dairy-lite, it's in fact caused by gluten overload - as gluten suppresses enzymes that break down dairy.

I would say limit wheat and maybe swap to goats dairy in parts? After we went gf with my ds he was able to have dairy no probs again. Neither too much wheat or too much dairy are that good, best to give them wide variety of foods.

Is gluten intolerence one of those things that children tend to grow out of? Or is it likely to be an issue for his whole life (if he is gluten intolerant)?

If it's coeliac disease then they don't grow out of it but it is really important to keep them on a gluten containing diet until they've been properly diagnosed.

We took him to the GP. She took one look at his pudgy little arms and legs, and said that whatever's causing his yellow poos it's not coeliac disease. She said he's be thin as a rake if it were that, and in any case he's been eating bread for months without any issues.

She thinks that the constipation is the key issue, and agrees with the HV that his intake of dairy has been too high (which we've already addressed). She's prescribed double the usual dose of lactalose for a week, and thinks that it should clear him out and then things will get back to normal. If it doesn't she wants to try him on movicol (sp?) next week.

Fingers crossed the laxatives work!

well, gluten issues only partly refers to gut AND they tend to build up, as alliwant says, if you keep eating more and more of it then it will be more obvious

I have to say our friend's DD, who does have coeliac, fits the picture your GP described. She was very thin, basically classified as failure to thrive, until the coeliac was picked up.

Hope the lactulose works. If it's a dairy issue, could you maybe ask for a trial of some hydrolysed formula from the GP if it doesn't work? It might help as it's more broken down.

Thanks nightcat - it's good to know that it's still worth considering if the laxatives don't work. You're also dead right about the varied diet - I think his diet is pretty varied already, but no harm in increasing his veg, potato and rice intake, and decreasing pasta and bread.

Hi, sorry to reopen an old thread - sounds very similar to our DD1... Did you ever get to the bottom of this?