Are jars of puréed fruit a good way to get fibre into toddler?

[Fandangos]

I'll try to keep this brief! My ds is 18 months, he gets constipated/has hard stools. I try to offer him all the fibre-rich foods I can, but as we know, kids often don't know what's good for them.

He eats a few fruits (blueberries, grapes, apple, pear) but can often refuse them. I bought an Italian brand of food called Plasmon (dh is Italian and kids eat it there), they do a jar with apple, pear and apricot and ds loved it. But is it bad for him, does anyone know? I avoided jars with dd, but didn't have the constipation issue.

He likes homemade veg soup, but that's pretty much all the veg he eats. If I try to even remotely encourage him to try something, he flips, he's his own man!

On another note, it may be cow's milk which constipates him, so any success stories of changing to non-dairy calcium drinks?

Thanks!

Does he eat pasta with sauce? I make a hidden veg sauce that works a treat. Recipe's here if you're interested www.toddler-recipes.co.uk/carrot-sauce.html I tend to use spinach and sweetcorn now, must update!

Pineapple might help? Fibrous and also juicy? Not sure about the jars, I never used them. No harm in trying though and you'll soon see if it works?!

Oh my friend's just switched to goat's milk for her little toddler girl. Seems to be fairly seemless apart from a couple of cheeses. Apparently the yogurt has a higher concentration of something in it too.

Seamless even :-)

Generally, jars are fine as long as they are "pure" and don't include lots of preservatives / E numbers. Check the ingredient list. I think processed fruit things like that are sweeter because they are more concentrated which kids love.

Have you tried him on fresh pears? Ds loves them as they are sweet and they are good for digestive system. Lots of water will help with constipation and if necessary, dilute fruit juice with water. Ds currently refuses to drink water so mostly has v diluted fruit juice or cordial.

Make a biscuit cake with dark chocolate, digestives crushed up and add in some chopped dates, figs and prunes. Or try some fig roles or prune juice.

I'd encourage lots of drinks to try to soften the poos. Water, dilute fruit juice. If actually constipated prunes or prune juice are great, I used to make DS porridge with prune juice as part of the liquid, it worked well.

Banana, apples, rice can all cause harder poos. And some toddlers can't manage too much whole grain and do much better with at least some white flour bread etc in their diets.

My dd was constipated a lot until she was about 4, in her case severe reflux as a baby seemed to pit her off drinking altogether, she only wanted solid food. As she got older she just drank a little more until it wasn't a problem any more.

I don't think fruit purée has much fibre in it, I think most of the fibre is in the skins and parts that get removed before making the purée. But some fruits like prunes and oranges do have a laxative effect.

Good luck, just try lots of different things, encourage drinking and not too much whole grain.

Yes, very helpful, as are smoothies, lots of water, Innocent fruit tubes (sieved fruit, so like a thick smoothie).

I made muffins with loads of grated carrot in.

Thankfully, as soon as ds started pooing on the potty, all constipation disappeared. But was a rough 20 months until that.

Thanks for all the helpful advice lovely mummies x

foodhospital.channel4.com/fibre-challenge/fibre-foods/