8 month old constipation

[Charlottedavis1990]

Hey :)
My lg is 8 months and has battled with constipation her whole life. She'll have about one loose poo a month and the rest are hard and she cries when she goes. I give her lots of fruit, plenty of water and apple juice. She's fairly active and loves to wonder about in he walker. The dr said its nothing to worry about and so did the hv. I'm just sick of her being in pain. We tried a suppository once and even that didn't work. Any ideas ladies?

is she bf or ff? If ff a different milk could help

She's formula fed now and has been for about 4 months. I decided to call it a day after numerous bouts of mastitis.

have you tried any of the comfort milks? Have you never had something like lactulose prescribed?

No haven't tried the comfort milks as I wasn't sure if they would give her what she needs like the 6 months plus one. No we've never been prescribed anything other than suppositories, I thought she'd have been prescribed something like that but to be honest the dr made it sound as if I was over reacting and like it wasn't a big problem :(

Does she have a sore bottom? I definitely recommend lactulose although it can take a while to find the right dose.

Yes she has a very sore bottom, she often cries when I have to clean her up but I do use sudocrem. Can you buy lactulose over the counter or do I need a prescription? Thanks

follow on milks have extra iron and can be constipating. I would go back to first milk or try a comfort milk as they are both suitable for the whole of the first year. There us no nutritional need to give follow on milk at all.

i found vaseline better than sudocrem when DD had the same problems. I was given a steroid cream finally (after months and months of badgering) which helped slightly but it was vaseline that did the most. sometimes i put sudocrem and them vaseline on top to protect (to see what works)
When DD was 1.5yo it was found that she had something wrong that caused the constipation. I went through the same problems of being made to seem overreacting etc. But keep taking her to docs. I found a big difference when i changed GP after moving and was referred to hospital and saw the a most amazing team. So try and see different GPs in the practice and CHANGE if you feel something isnt right.
Stick to your guns. I know how hard it is to deal with constipation on a daily basis. It is a long road, but you need to find what works for your child.

also giving DD weetabix - i saw a big difference. im not sure on the use of it in a young child

Thank you both, I will try switching her milk back the first aptamil and see if that helps if not I will definitely be taking her back to the doctors. The health visitor seemed to think shed grow out of when she starts to walk but she does walk in her walker and has been for a good month or two so surely she shouldn't be as constipated if that was the problem but she's just as constipated as she's always been :(

Yes she has weetabix one morning and fruit purées the other morning on rotation. It seemed like the weetabix was helping when we first started giving it to her but it soon returned back to normal

its tough :( really feel for you. Have you tried dried fruits? (can she manage these?) DD used to suck on these and then when really soft chew. prunes may help. I personally didnt see any difference with prunes and prune juices but they may help. Try sitting her on the toilet/potty (i sound crazy) so she can start doing poos on the loo rather than taking a while to poo and the poo staying on her bum causing a sore bottom. With DD i felt the sore bottom made the pain for DD worse, and made her hold her poo in for longer, which made the constipation worse.
Hope this sounds like some sort of sense, just feels like a lifetime ago!
It does get better.

Sympathy OP, this has brought back memories for me - my DD suffered with this when she was tiny too. I did use lactulose, which helped, but my HV told me off for relying on it. Nothing else seemed to help.

All I can say is that they DO grow out of it. I remember making DD eat lots of sweetcorn - she loved it and thought it was hilarious to see it in her poos at the other end .

Once she was toilet trained, I used to give her a drink of water while she was sitting on the loo and that seemed to help stimulate the gut. She still sits on the loo for quite a while (but not longer than DH!), I hear her talking away to herself and singing, but she manages fine now all by herself. Which is gratifying since she's now 12!!

I just feel awful for her, I should be abke to help her. I tried prune juice didn't help at all and she didn't really like it either, her little face was a picture :D ill try dried fruits I just don't know how well shell cope with them but anything is worth a try at this point.

Cq that sounds like Dd! On toilet for a while sometimes haha

I do sympathise, my dd was like this from about 6-12 mths. My GP recommended dilute prune juice or orange juice. I used the former and it was the only thing that worked for dd (I'd already tried green veg, fruit, water etc). Holland & Barrett did a good one that seemed to worked better than the supermarket own brands.

It doesn't work immediately, try keeping a bottle of 1oz prune or orange juice mixed with 3oz water in the fridge and giving it to your dd periodically throughout the day. Try to choose times when you know she's thirsty/hungry (she'll probably gobble some down before she realises what it is). Just keep trying throughout the day. If after a couple of days there's no difference, up the concentration to 50/50.

I also used to mix some into her breakfast porridge along with other fruit if necessary to hide the taste.

Also beware that bananas and pureed apple will have the reverse effect and block her up more. Good luck..