1 year old crying in pain

[YabbaDabbaDoooooooo]

My one year old keeps having bouts of constipation. It roughly started around when transitioning into cows milk.
He goes every few days now, strains and takes ages to pass, hard little clay like stools.

I will be calling the doctor, but wanted to see if anyone has any useful tips for me to help him.

He has two bottles of milk a day (16oz)
Porridge for breakfast

Lunch is a dinner with veg and sometimes pasta in it (purées as very fussy eater) followed by a portion of fruit or mixture of fruit (bananas, peach, melon, mango, apple, berries, apricot etc)

Snack is varied from Cheerios, carrot puffs, wotsits, yogurt, very occasions chocolate (twice since he turned 1) fruit

Dinner is a hot meal with a mixture of veg (he is still on purées as a veryyyy fussy eater) followed by a yogurt

Ive this week introduced a small portion of prunes each day.

He has two full beakers of Water or more depending how active he has been (500ml)

I've tried tummy massage, bicycling his legs, laying him down when pooing, nappy off, holding legs up for him, oil around bottom.

He wakes up screaming in pain and the only thing that helps is gripe water. But I would much rather prevent this happening than looki g for cures of the pain.

Any help would be gratefully received and as mentioned above....I will be Cali f doctor, but looking for help that isn't just medicine

"p" fruits definitely. So pineapple, pear, prunes.

Can you offer him a dairy free alternative to cow's milk? If that what seems to be unsettling him.

Warm water helps too. Drinking it that is.

Can you try Weetabix for breakfast? There is alot of good fibre in there. Mix it with pear puree. ..hope he feels better.

No advice but you say only purées as very fussy, but then list Cheerios/wotsits etc as snacks? So slightly confusing

Lactulose may help, I think you can buy it over the counter.

Would he have cooled but still warm water as a drink? Maybe with lemon in, or some prune juice?

Ease up on the cows milk stuff. Try goats milk, try less dairy full stop. Take him to see a gp.

Sounds tough.

I also have a fussy one year old who gets constipated. I've found making food softer works well, so very lightly toasted toast, slightly overcooked veg and pasta. Lactulose is fantastic but not a cure, though I have to use it on DS regularly. The best thing though would be cutting the dairy milk and introduce it again but gradually. DS is still breastfed his milk but was CMPA for a while, so I had to introduce dairy into both our diets slowly. Start with small amounts of cheese and chocolate, then maybe dairy butter on toast.

Also chocolate will not hurt your baby. I'll probably be flamed for this but my DS has had issues with his weight (weighing too little) since birth. He has a small amount of chocolate most days and his weight is building much more nicely. Still not like most babies, but it's going up more.

Proper cows' milk made my daughter constipated after switching from formula at one. She is fine with the toddler milk. If I reintroduce cows' milk, she gets constipated again. It's horrible for him and you. Hope things improve.

Thank you for advice.

I will try the warm water to see if that helps.

I've started him on prunes this week. I've introduced them slowly Incase they had the opposite effect...but might increase his amount.

Will def give pineapple a go as I know that's what my mum use to make me drink.

I weaned him slowly onto cows milk, so mixed it with his formula and downed and ounce at a time each week until we made it. What would I replace with to ensure he still gets his dairy?

@babynameneeded I tried him on weatabix several time, with no luck...he is so fussy. It has taken me months to get him to eT anything with lumps and anything that wasn't a fruit purée 🤦🏻‍♀️

@babynameneeded thanks for that!! I mean he won't eat dinners other than purée which is why I put it next to that meal in brackets

Had the same problem, warm baths that cover the belly and belly massage while in there sometimes helped mine.
Found out through blood tests for a rash he had that he was iron deficient and this causes constipation, now poi's 2-6 times a day with iron supplements 🤪
Might be worth looking at your little ones diet, I know it's tough , mines really fussy too. But over time and persistently offering different foods he's eating a slightly more varied diet now.

Forgot to say avoid bananas, they can really bung a baby up. Freshly squeezed orange juice can also work a charm.

If you think that it started when transitioning to cows milk, I would cut dairy out for a couple of weeks and see if you notice any improvement. In the meantime maybe ring your gp/pharmacy to see if they can recommend anything for the constipation?

Cows milk doesn't agree with my 1 year old either, he had terrible eczema flare ups when I transitioned to cows milk. I swapped him to oat milk and coconut yogurts and noticed a huge improvement.

When my DD had constipation my GP said to give her sugar water if she was feeling uncomfortable. It is supposed to work like a charm. I think undialuted orangr juice is also supposed to work. She was only about 6 months at the time. I wasn't comfortable with giving her sugar water as I am very scared about diabetes given I had GD and I have a family history of diabetes. Instead i mixed prune juice in her milk (that was the only way to get it into her), and kept alternating between apricots and peaches on a daily basis. She stopped being constipated. I also gave her grapes.

For my daughter, it was normal cow's milk that caused the problem, but formula milk for toddlers was fine. we use Cow and Gate stage 3 for 1-2 year olds. Still cows milk but definitely doesn't make her constipated at all. It was an A&E doctor who suggested going back to formula milk when we took my daughter there when she had a really bad time with it all. You would need to use the toddler version though as stage 1 and 2 milk would have too much fat for a child eating solids. For temporary relief, the GP would prescribe something to soften the poo, so he's not struggling.

Also...try the Ella's Kitchen pureed prunes and agree with avoiding bananas as someone said earlier.

@Yolo2 that's the pines I'm using and so far he likes them! I've just given him a portion with breakfast.

I was thinking about formula as when we use to give him the pre made bottles it use to clear him right out, so was only thinking this morning about buying a few and giving them to him.
Did you ever go back to cows milk with your LO or just continued until not wanting milk bottles anymore?

@5lilducks oh I've never heard fo use sugar water for constipation before...was it just a spoon mixed into it?
I've not yet given him fruit juices to drink as he is happy with water, but I guess a diluted one wouldn't hurt.

@tainot that's interesting about the iron. I hate bothering the GP as don't want to be one of them mums that is always there 🤦🏻‍♀️ but Im going to have to with this as can't have him in pain

OP, the natural alternative to sugar water is to leave some prunes to soak in water over night and then remove them before giving the water

@YabbaDabbaDoooooooo my daughter is coming up for 2 and I've pretty much used the cow and gate toddler milk since the constipation problem started not long after her 1st birthday. I did try to go back to normal milk a few times but she quickly had the same problem and I didn't want it getting as bad as it had been so just went back to the toddler milk. One thing is - I do use normal milk in her cereal - she can cope with that amount without a problem. But her cup of milk morning and night is toddler milk. I think more full fat normal milk is just too much for her system.

My twins are allergic to dairy. It was finally diagnosed when they were about 8 months but they had to stay on specialist dairy free formula until they were 2. The dietician was very clear that alternative mills are not suitable as a main milk for one year olds as they’re not high enough in calories, fat etc.

If he tolerated formula well I would try that again and see if there’s an improvement. I’d be wary of switching to oat milk or similar without input from a dietician because of the above.

I would bin off the cows milk OP. I breastfed until 14mths and then moved to toddler formula twice a day, no issues and then eventually he dropped those bottles.

We had a similar issue. My son was breastfed so wouldn’t accept formula milk so he has had oat milk (oatly barista is good) since he was about 15 months.

Our GP prescribed movicol to help as well. If it’s been going on a while I would speak to the GP and see if they can give you something. It’s quite common in toddlers and the GP told us it’s quite important to get on top of it as the straining can cause fissures which are harder to resolve.

@YabbaDabbaDoooooooo
The GP said to mix about teaspoon of sugar into about 2-3 ounces of water and give to DC. I would rather give fruit juice and see if that works as at least it has some vitamin c in it than sugar mixed in water. This is only a short term solution for when it's all backed up and DC is feeling uncomfortable ..it doesn't really fix the problem. To be honest when I switched DD onto cows milk at 1 it seemed like her poo was getting hard so I kept her on formula and breastmilk until 2. Moved her onto cows milk at 2 and she is fine (at least atm).

When my lo got constipated. I gave them a small drink of prune juice only about 25ml as I read to much can cause diarrhoea and omg it cleared them right we had a few stinky nappy throughout the day.