poo

[maxbear]

My dd is 2years 5months old so potty training is looming although I don't think that she is ready as yet (apparently I was a bit slow to get going so I will not expect too much too soon from her!) Anyway all the books talk about constipation a lot but hardly ever mention children with the opposite problem. She rarely has a formed poo, they are not liquid but very, very soft and quite often leak out of her nappy. She generally poos about 1 - 3 times a day although she has been known to do 6 or 7 times a day on a few occasions. She likes fruit but does not eat an excessive amount, she does not eat many vegetables (not for want of trying!) she drinks mainly water with a cup of milk in the evening. Recently I have tried giving her less fibrous breakfast cereal, white bread and pasta and slightly less fruit. Things improved for about a week then we gave her some raisins at the weekend and things went back and have stayed that way ever since. Obviously I do not want to make her constipated but would love to not have leaky nappies and the concern that accidents while potty training will be really upsetting for her (and obviously messy) I mentioned it to the GP at my ds's 8 week post natal appointment and the GP did not seem concerned about it. She is well and healthy otherwise and definately has a healthy appetite. Any idea's?

Hmm - sounds like my ds2, though rather more severe. He loves fruit, but often has tummy troubles and I have to be really severe and cut out most fruit, and fruit juices until he's recovered. We have to limit grapes and strawberries to three or four at any time or it's disasterous for him. My mum swears by white bread and rich tea biscuits for these situations - she has a fairly sensitive tum too, come to think of it. Sounds like it would be worth you encouraging her along the bread line (bread and honey's great. Bread and a little jam, not too bad. Plain bread, brill) at least while you are potty training.

Of course, it could be something like gluten intolerance, but the fact that things improved for a week suggests that you were along the right lines.

Ok put it this way, anyone has a constipated child and what makes it worse. I don't want to make her constipated obviously, but if there is something that makes other children constipated maybe hers will at least be a formed poo.

It sounds like "toddler diarrhoea".

It's very, very common, can go on for months, but doesn't mean the child is ill and doesn't do any harm. There's very little you can do about it, and she will outgrow it eventually.