1 year old constipation/ hard poo

[KittyB52]

DD has been struggling to poo for a couple of weeks now - she still goes each day, but it’s clearly a bit of a struggle (she sometimes cries ) and her poos are quite firm. I’ve been hoping that improving her diet and trying to get her to drink more might have helped, but it hasn’t.

I will have to take her to see the GP, but is there anything I can try over the weekend to help her? On an average day she will have:

7am - 7oz bottle cows milk
Breakfast - weetabix or porridge with milk and prune
purée
Lunch - scrambled egg on toast/pasta with tomato/veggie sauce and fresh fruit for dessert
Snack - Fresh fruit or dried apricots
Tea - pasta/casserole/ risotto and fruit for dessert
7pm 3oz milk + 4oz formula (this will be dropped by next week as per HV advice ).

I don’t really know if she is eating too much or not enough - she’s 98th percentile and she loves her food. She often throws a ‘tantrum’ when the meal has finished.

I year old crying with poo ready to come out but ‘stuck’. Advice appreciated

I would say push the fluids as much as you can. Guidelines are 300mls of full fat cows milk (if not breastfeeding) per day. IME cows milk proteins can constipate some infants, so not over loading helps massively.

How much water she having?

Ellas Kitchen Prunes pouches.

Go to the pharmacy. They will be able to help. Get on it though as severe constipation can lead to fissures and long term issues.

They should be able to give you a stool softener at least.

Thanks for advice. Her DD put her on a baby loo seat and the crisis was over. She's having a check up tomorrow.

Dear Dad!

I asked in the Superdrug pharmacy and they said that only a GP could give something for children under 2 year old. A stool softener would help though.

She has been drinking more water, but I haven’t really kept note of the exact amount. Have been pushing it on her more, but she still struggles when she goes.

Avoid egg, wheatabix/shreddies and banana.

Increase fruit intake. Ella kitchen prunes and tinned peaches are good.

A fairly warm bath would make my constipated DC go whilst sipping a drink - I'd get her out to go though. Poor thing as constipation is horrid for little ones.

Oh, I didn’t know Weetabix was a problem - DD doesn’t have it every day though. She doesn’t have any bananas or apples at the moment. She has half a prune pouch each day, along with other fresh fruit like pineapple, watermelon and pears. Will see if we have any tinned peaches.

Thanks!

My 18 month DD was exactly the same, getting very distressed at poo time and nothing diet wise seemed to make a grand difference. Lactoluse is a short term solution, you can buy it at the pharmacy (it's very gentle on the tummy) so fine for babies. My daughter is now on movicol (prescribed) and that seems to have solved the problem. She's also on wholemeal bread as white left her constipated. Hope this helps

That’s interesting, Dollytots - a Boots pharmacist told me it wasn’t children under 2.

Wheetabix causes issues for my daughter.

When she is a bit constipated I gave her a full prune pouch 3 times a day.

For hard stools the best thing is fluids. Would she drink squash? Not ideal I know but needs must! My 19 year old son was terribly constipated (he has SEN) - he was in a lot of pain.

Hmm that is odd, I've looked at the bottle and it has a dosage for 12 months-2 years? The pharmacist recommended it at the time, so maybe try a different pharmacy if you're still in need of a short term solution (it takes a couple of days to kick in anyway) I know how awful it is to watch them struggle, feel so helpless

Take her to the doctors and ask for infant movicol. My DS had this same issue, after a month of movicol he became more regular and has been fine since.

My son was younger, but we had a similar problem, and you're right pharmacists won't give you lactulose for an under 2. We went to a GP and got a prescription for it, it's exactly the same stuff, the problem is if you over use it babies so little they can become dependent on it and in the long term have more issues. That's why a pharmacist won't give it to you if you tell them how young your DD is. Eggs are a no no they will make it worse, and agree make sure you are giving plenty of water throughout the day, even watered down cows milk. Cutting out formula will probably help too. A few times we had stuck stools and we had to gently push on my poor boys perineum to coax out a nugget. To be honest we didn't find very much helped except lactulose, but it resolved itself (explosively) after about a month, so we think it was because we were moving to more solid foods and cutting down on milk

Buy some lactulose from boots - it’s a stool softener. If you’re concerned about dosage ask your gp.