Hi, my 5 year old daughter is overweight and has been constipated for most of her life. What should I be feeding her and what should I avoid ?

[mummyloveslucy]

Hi, My daughter is 5.5 and is very tall for her age and is also slightly overweight. She has also suffered from constipation most of her life.

Recently we've made a real effort to get her eating far more healthy foods. She didn't eat very unhealthy foods before but did eat a lot of white bread and butter, she loves peenut butter and rice cakes and she was drinking Rocs organic which is full of sugar. She was also eating sweets, pop corn, cakes etc mostly at MIL's house.

Now she's eating loads of fruit, raw carrots, sweet potato, butternut squash, onions chicken, potato, pasta and some rice dishes. She now drinks either sugar free squash, watered down apple juce or milk.

I think she's done so well and I'm delighted that she's taken it so well. I just feel that I need some advice on what to feed her to help with her constipation. Only recently I found out that bannana's aren't good. Are there any other foods we should be steering clear of or limmiting? She loves rice cakes and I'm not sure wether they are good or not? Also, she loves peenut butter but it's so fattening. Is there an alternative? She's happy to eat brown bread instead of white now which is good.

I'd just like some information about what exactly she should be eating and not eating to help with her constipation and to contol her weight. She has a very big appertite and isn't very active, so it's tricky. I don't want her to be hungry but I'm aware she isn't really doing enough to burn the callories.

Do you know of any websites that can let me know how many callories she should be eating, just so I have a rough guide and also things like portion size etc?

Thanks.

Normaly, banana, rice, chocolate, fatty food and too much proteins (meat) can cause constipation.
If she is eating brown bread it should help. Not sure peanut butter is good for constipation. A bit of butter and jam (thinly spread), soft cheese, tahini?
plums/prunes, melon, citrus, most fruits will definitely help.
all the gourgette familly, green leafy veg, most veg too.

What about have soup at night time it will probably fill her up and help with the constipation.

Does she drink enough? DD1 is 5 and need to be reminded to drink otherwise she forget

Water is good to help with constipation - is she drinking enough?
And dried fruits (which are also sweet so should be limited) can help. Also the fruit sugar can get stuck to teeth so dentists aren't fans of raisins and apricots afaik
HTH

Portion control is always adviseable. My son is nearly 5, also tall (looks 6-7yrs), v active, but slim. I have always been strict on snacks etc. He has weetabix and raisans for breakfast with small (sometimes watered down) applejuice. Then he demands snacks - I offer apple and only 1 biscuit. All drinks in the day are weak hi-jiuce squash (dont do any pops). Lunch when home is either homemade bread or wholemeal sandwiches (1 piece of bread) mix od baby toms, cucumber, grapes and a few crisps finished with organic yogurt (I always think better than these low fat ones). Snacks later are those tiny box of smarties/treat sized buttons). Tea is what we eat but on a small plate - I try do do slow long cooking which is good for constipation.

Pre-school children
Pre-school children can be very active, and are learning, growing and developing fast. The EAR for boys aged four to six years is 1715 kcal per day, and for girls 1545 per day.

Water and exercise. Lots of both.

I think there are prob some yoga moves that involve twisting at the waist to massage the internal organs too.

I do use DD1 hands to measure a portion, i.e. one portion is what she can have in her hands. (same for you your hands are an adult portion)

Some ideas for sizing below:
www.kidsandnutrition.co.uk/correct-food-portion-sizes-for-kids.html

Walking and moving will help the constipation too.

There is a reciepe of tea for constipation of children, I can't remember it now, but can find it if you want?

Thank you. She dosn't like water although she'll drink it from the school water fountain. She'll drink plenty of sugar free squash. Is that as good as water?

We are looking at ways of getting her more active. We take her on long walks through the countryside but she moans all the way. She can't ride a bike or even a trycicle as she has some co-ordination problems. She loves trampolienes so we might get one for the garden. She does a fair bit of sport at school so that should help.

Make sure the brown bread is wholemeal, rather than just 'brown' - which often isn't any better than white!

I wouldn't worry about swapping the Rock cordial f sugar-free, as long as she isn't consuming loads and loads - the 'sugar-free' stuff is full of artificial sweeteners.

Peas, broccoli, porridge for breakfast with a bit of honey on top and some slices of apple?

If constipation persists i would take her to the GP.

She likes cheerios for breakfast or shreadded wheet with honey sometimes wheetabix. She'll also eat fruit with yogart for breakfast.

That link was really helpfull about portion size. I've saves it to favourates. It's interesting about fitting it into her hands. I'll give it a go and see how we get on. I've sent her to school and her morning snack is a tub of strawberries, blueberries and grapes. Thinking about the hands thing though, she probubly has 2 portions just for her snack.

She has been seing the G.P/ consultant for her constipation on and off for years. They gave her movicol which helped but I don't want to rely on that. Now that I've changed her diet, she's doing pretty well without the movicol but is still doing enormous poos but they look softer IYKWIM. I'd like to get to the point where she's doing a smaller one every day, not a massive one every 2-3 days.

Apples, oranges and pears all help with constipation.

Her meals should be half vegetables, one quarter lean protein and one quarter complex carbohydrate.

So a day's food could be

1 bowl of porridge made with semi skimmed milk, with raisins stirrded in. One tangerine. 1/2 pint water

1 apple and 4 dried apricots at snack, 1/2 pint water

roast chicken and cucumber on brown bread sandwich, 1 2 cm slice of carrot cake, a kiwi fruit 1/2 pint water

20g cheese and 2 ryvita for snack, 1/2 pint water

poached cod with new potatoes and carrots and peas, fruit yoghurt (don't bother with low fat ones, no yoghurt is awfully fatty and LF yoghurt mings)

If your sugar-free squash contains aspartame you should be aware that it causes cancer in rats. I would not feed it to my child. A bit of watered-down juice (or even better, smoothies, as they have more fibre in them) is not going to hurt her if she's eating enough high-fibre foods and getting enough exercise.

I do make sure the squash dosen't concain aspartaine. The Robinsons does but the morrisons own dosn't. You'd think it would be the other way around.
I wish she'd drink more water. I've tried only taking water out with us, but she'll just drink tiny sips and won't drink enough of it.

Try watering down some smoothies then. They are a good way of using up fruit that's going off too.

Can you do a nice 'water cocktail' for her?

Ice and cold water with slices of orange or lemon or lime to pretty it up?

I know I'd prefer that to boring old water unless I was really thirsty.

Just to add to the mix, I was very constipated as a child, and it was only once I took control of my own diet as an adult that it stopped.

The main problem seemed to be not enough fresh vegetables, but also Too Much Roughage.

Wholemeal bread is generally better for you, but some people with IBS (myself included) actually find that their symptoms worsen if they eat toomany whole foods.

My system is just unable to cope. It doesn't break down the food efficiently, and I get bloated and backed up. (I hope you're all enjoying my delightful anecdote).

I've found the answer to be:

-protein with every meal (to keep me full)
-lots of fresh fruit and vegetables
-white rice/pasta/bread rather than wholemeal

Maybe worth experimenting, anyway.

dd has weetabix with warm milk (splash of cinnamon in it) and a bit of brown sugar for breakfast or thinnish porridge with fresh fruit chopped into it. She has a cup of peppermint tea with breakfast.

Since she has that instead of sugary cereal, she has no more problems with constipation. Was grim for a while. For bread she has 100% rye.

Through the day, fruit and vegetables. Takes a while I think for the body to adjust so give it a bit of time.

find plums to be effective

My children are likely to drink more water if it is in a "bought" sports bottle - like evian, etc, out of the fridge. (you can refill the bottle from the tap )

Or sparkly water with a splash of elderflower cordial in it? My DD gets quite constipated, but she seldom eats anything other than meat and pasta. No problem with water, it is virtually the only fluid she will drink but loves the fizzy water elderflower combo.So do it.

Yes zenagain a lot of people think wholegrain wheat org bread is good but it gives me constp. as does any wheat, so Mummyloveslucy try giving DD rye bread, Waitrose sells good rye bread ryvitas etc. whole rice is good.

i dont think apples are good for constipation, the opposite; they are good when you have diarhoea.
apricots, figs are good for constipation, especially first thing in the morning.
pears are good, too.

Good quality fruit juice (not squash) and water are the best drinks for avoiding constipation. If she doesn't like plain water, have you tempted her with sparkling?

I find that Jordan's Country Crisp is almost miraculous in preventing constipation - DD has it for breakfast and is never constipated, but when we go on holiday and it is not available, she often gets bunged up!

DD has also always been constipated and would SCREAM whenever she did a poo (every 4/5 days). Been giving her prune juice (Sainsbury's long life) every day, half and half with water, and she is 100% fine now. I recommended this to a friend, but her son wouldn't drink prune juice- so she freezes it into ice-lollies which he loves!

nora apples are good for everything but be sure to eat on an empty stomach for good digestion.

mummyloveslucy - Has it ever been considered that your daughter may have a tiny kink in her bowel and it isnt just a constipation problem.

I say this because my niece was diagnosed with this after appearing to be constipated for days at a time and then passing an enormous amount. It's like having a blockage that things will not pass by until there's a certain amount to pass and it damned well has to. That's when pain occurs and bingo!

My niece had some kind of scan to ascertain that problem. It wasn't recommended to have surgery as pretty minor, doctor recommended things that have been suggested, ie, prune juice, fruit, water and bran flakes. Poor lass had bran flakes every breakfast for years.

As far as I know things have helped somewhat, but mum is aware of it and diet is always an issue.

Just a thought - hope it helps