At what point does a toddlers poo become firm(er)

[ELF1981]

I only ask because she has only ever done one firm poo (she's 20 months old). When will it become firmer??

Is she eating solids or still on the breast? Mine were doing solid ones by six months, even when only breast fed.

stopped b/feeding at 18 months, so 2 months ago. Eating solids.

Is she having too much fruit juice?

My ds used to drank apple juice like a fish - not great for his teeth and not - it transpired - for his bowels either.

I started to regulate and cut back on his apple juice intake (and introduce more water and milk) and his poo became more solid

She doesnt have pure fruit juice, she gets water with dilute, or she'll have something like a fruit shoot water thingy with flavour. hardly any milk now either.

how firm is it? they're only properlyformed innappies when constipated - remember they do often sit on them for a while plus they might have somewee there too. sorry spacebar buggered

Not firm AT ALL. Even when she has only just gone, or gone in the potty, its runny. Like baby poo.

My ds2 is 3 and still doesn't have completely firm motions. They have got firmer since I cut back on the brown(ish) bread (well, we make it ourselves - has about 70% white flour and 30% brown) - have since discovered that kids don't cope with too much fibre in their diet (and bread is a MAJOR part of his diet).

It's fairly common - apparently low fat, high fibre, lots of squash - these can all aggravate the problem.

But also, it's perfectly normal for some kids to have a fast throughput which makes it runnier. According to our GP, the water is only removed in the bowel right at the last moment while you're "holding it in" until you're ready to go to the loo. If they don't hold it in and it just gets released on arrival, then it gets expelled with most of the liquid intact.

So nothing to worry about? Slightly worried with that and her lack of weight gain. Have spoken to HV's re the weight, but not about the poo. Should I, or is it fine?

If no weight gain as well then I'd take her to the GPs just to get her checked out. I'd bypass the HV tbh, because she'll probably only say make a GP appointment anyway

she was 22lbs at 14 months, 24lbs at 20 months.

I'm not qualified in the slightest to comment on weight gain. I'd say if you were worried about it to visit your GP

imight be mistaken, butmy impression is that children don't put on much weight between 18m-2.5/3ish, ds certainly hasn't, no more than 2k in a year (he is 2.2 eats masses). back to the poos.. if you are worried then go to gp, probably nothing but nice to check. ds eats loads of fruit = many baby wipes but not actulaly running out of the padded bit of nappy unless unwell.

she came home in different trousers today because the CM said that every poo she had done was leeking out the nappy.

(I will make a doctors appointment though)

Ds is 19 months and has the same thing. I've read that doctors don't know what causes it, but that the consensus is that high sugar fruit juices like apple juice that contains sorbitol (found naturally in some fruits or as a sweetener) actually absorbs water from the body, and a result is runny poos. It has to do with the fact that their digestive tracts takes longer to develop and you sometimes find undigested food in their nappies.

Try and Google Toddler diarrhea.

HTH.

Nothing to worry about I would say.

Nothing to lose by a GP visit and you may gain reassurance that your child isn't coeliac or other.

Please let us know how you get on because my ds suffers terribly like this and it makes his little bum so sore! He is 2.5 and I am planning to start potty training in 4weeks when the summer holidays start. I am dreading it because of this.

my ds is 3.5 and his were v. loose and frequent until he was nearly 3. He has always been a big strapping lad so it was never a health worry, more of an inconvenience.

We didn't have any problems with potty training (I was really worried too, I think there's a thread I'd started on potty training a toddler with toddler diarrhoea)

HTH

Abbylou - why are you dreading it - much better in potty than in nappy - much less cleaning up required (Ds 2.2 now does all poos in potty, and quite a lot of pees, although not quite there yet - waiting for better weather to take a week off and get potty training sorted hopefully)

I think I'm just dreading it because I am not looking forward to cleaning up the poo accidents! We tried potty training before in February and ds clearly wasn't ready so I stopped and have left it until now to try again. When we tried before he wouldn't do any poos in the potty and waited until he had his nappy on at sleep time!

We've introduced potty before bath and 1st thing in the morning, and nearly always have sucess - usually get through several books, although now limit it to 2 maximum (otherwise we could be there all morning), and he will even ask now if he wants to do a poo at changing time and sit on his potty and perform - so not far off I think.

However, can imagine that you're not looking forward to cleaning up if you have that problem. I think that we'd have the same problem in terms of consistency though.