Constpated baby and weetabix?

[chloemegjess]

Hello. My DD, 10 months has been constipated for about a week. She has had quite a lot of fluids milk, water and juice. Thinking about it, for the last week or so, she has been having a much bigger portion of weetabix/oatabix in the morning.

Can this be what is causing the constipation? It is the only thing that has changed? I know it usually helps adults but didn't know if babies were different as they are not meant to have too much fibre? Sorry I am not very good with food topics!

If she's having quite a big portion of weetabix, or anything else dry with a lot of fibre, then she may need extra fluids to help it go through. Things like fresh fruit and veg which have a lot of fibre are different because they also have a lot of liquid in them to start with. If you can encourage her to drink more, specially water or diluted juice, then it should help.

great, thank you.

She is about to have breaskfast and going to give her 1 weetabix (she usually has 2) and some fruit and her usual cup of water.

Thanks for that

Hi my ds is 17 mths and has been constipated on and off for many months. The paediatrician actively recommended weetabix as a breakfast as its fibre content is vital to keep things moving. I echo muminscotland though in making sure it is supplemented with plenty of fluids.

Just one thing I will mention, if the constipation doesn't pass (pardon the pun) then make sure you mention it to a doctor. We left it too long (no excuse but we had just emigrated and didn't have a doctor for a long time) and the wee man now has a distended colon. Fixable with a food supplement but it shouldn't have happened in the first place .

Yeah one should be enough (blimey I have two!)

Can I ask what a distended colon is? Sorry. We are taking DD to the doctors anyway for something else, which could possibly be related to this which is why i am interested to know.

I've been a bit worried about this with my ds as weetabix seems like cement so I've just started giving him some baked fruit with it. Bake a big load of chopped up fruit (usually pear and apple, with something else plum, mango or blueberries) for about 45 mins in the oven with some melted butter and cinnamon. Keeps in fridge well, then just reheat in microwave for 30 secs to melt butter again.

Alternatively you could try soaking some prunes overnight in boiling water. They plump up and go lovely and juicy - you get juicy fruit and prune juice so lots of liquid for mixing with weetabix, and prunes really help get things going. Babies tend to like them as they are so sweet.

We found that adding chopped figs to the weetabix (dried, soaked overnight) cured the constipation er, beautifully .

It's what can happen when they have had constipation for too long. All the straining and (ahem) bulk stretches out the colon which loses its elasticity and doesn't work properly in being able to push the afore-mentioned bulk out. The straining becomes very painful and can cause tears around the anus. So they don't want to poo and so the bulk builds up which results in a vicious circle.

DS is on movicol which will keep his poos soft enough to push out without too much effort. He will be weaned off the movicol as his colon gets back into shape but we are talking 12 months probably

Sorry if TMI!

Thank you for that.

I know 2 weetabix sounds like a lot but she loves it. she has low weight gain so I don't like to limit the amount of food I give her. I have just given her one today and then she ate a pot of the organix fruit (don't have anything fresh till I go shopping today). So hopefully that will be a bit better. Her poo this morning was a lot softer, but it still really hurt her.

My main concern is that she has developed a lump by her Anus, which is causing her pain when she pooes. I started a another thread about this and got very mixed opinions. But I am taking her to the doctors today hopefully as it has been there for over a week and is certainly not getting better, possibly worse. She got this before the constipation so I don't think it is caused by the constipation but it certainly isn't helping!

Kiwifruit is great for constipation in little ones, either fruit or juice.

Will pick up some kiwi fruit in sainsburys today then. Thanks for that.

We have doctors tomorrow now at 10,30

Might give her ready brek tomorrow then as she does like that too. Do you know if you can just mix with milk and not heat? She prefers things with nice cold milk straight from the fridge.

Thank you. She has Doctors at 10.30am tomorrow so hoping they can at least tell me what the lump on her bum is!

Weetabix definitely upset my LO stomach. Not sure whether it was constipation or just belly ache but since stoping giving it for beakfast he has been much happier!

She used to be fine with weetabix, but she has doubled her portion size which I think made a big difference. She LOVES it though!!

weetabix makes ds1 really constipated too, we have to steer clear

i've just worked out that weetabix has been causing constipation in my 8 month old. Since stopping it he is much more settled and happier too!