Is she constipated, if so what do I do if she won't drink water?

[kerfuffle]

Last week my dd was 6months old so I decided to try her on some different foods. She wasn't putting on enough weight when I last saw the HV so she advised me to give her yogurts, cheese sauce with dinners and weetabix for breakfast. She loved the weetabix and banana and fromage frais I gave her, not so keen on the fish&mashed potato in cheese sauce. Anyway, since then she hasn't had a good poo. Normally she poos for England, big heavy nappies full of the stuff. Now she does a few small, formed peices and seems to be straining (it's no longer sloppy, sorry for the gory details).Is this normal or is she contipated? If she is constipated, I don't know what to do. The last couple of days I have reverted back to her previous diet ie fruits and veg, no weetabix for b'fast, although I did give her fromage frais as she loves it and it has fruit in it. I have tried several times to give her water between feeds, with and without juice in it, and with both a cup and a bottle. Everytime she pushes it away and cries. I tried to just 'get some down her' yesterday as I was worried that she was dehydrated but she vomited it back a few minutes later. She is otherwise well and happy although the last couple of days she has been quite grouchy after her lunch (fromage frais). Any advice anyone. I could take her to see the HV later but she never gives any good advice so it seems a bit of a waste of time.

Anyone? Please save me from a visit to the HV

give her some fresh oj in a cup or give her a orange, always works for my ds...HTH

should have read your big first, put oj and a bit of water in her cup 2 - 3 times today and it will work wonders....

Can I give her neat orange juice at 6 months? I thought it had to be just a few drops in water.

I think when they start on solids their poo does take some time to settle down - I can remember similar problems with my children.

If you give her o/j you need to dilute it about 5 parts water to one part o/j. If you give it to her neat you will give her diarrhoea! (well, likely to, anyway) Even my 2.3 yo gets runny poo if he has too much o/j.

Thankyou, I will try it.

It is a few days down the line and I have managed to get dd to take a few mouthfuls of dilute juice once per day (that is all she will have despite trying to encourage her more often).She has done more poos but they are still quite formed and she has to strain a bit to go. Is this normal when babies have been weaned? Sorry about the gory details but is like adult poo but in small pieces. It's just that nobody tells you these things and I can't find it in any of the books. Common sense tells me that if she is having solids it should be more formed but she is only having fruit, veg, weetabix and fromage frais so it should still be a bit sloppy shouldn't it? Sorry again

Hi I hope things are getting easier for you. I do remember DS nappies changing once he moved onto solids and becoming more formed and less soggy. I found that Apple Juice helped with constipation - still does to be honest. Actually reading your post again Weetabix did make DS constipated - could try mixing apple puree into the weetabix? and then change the fruit so that she gets different flavours with it - plus it's more filling without it being purely weetabix - if you know what I mean?

Good luck and let us know how it goes.

Take care

H x

Perhaps ease off the weetabix and bananas to say, every other day at most, and take every opportunity to serve her purees runny, adding milk or the cooking water, to increase her fluid intake. Would she eat dried fruit mixed with plain fromage frais ?

My DD is 6.5 months old, and she started solids about a month ago. Her poo took 3 weeks or so to settle down, but she now lays a good "potato wedge" each nappy change or so. Sometimes more...

She got a sore bum initially (just due to new roughage), which then turned into constipation, as she was reluctant to poo. So her constipation was more due to retention (God, at 6 months) than to insufficient water. For us, more breastfeeds and a good bum cream did the trick. To clear the -hum- blockage, about 10 mls of prune juice stirred into apple puree was ace. She loved it, and I have stored the rest in ice cube bags in the freezer for future use!

Annner

Anner - potato wedge, pmsl.
Harrizeb, thanks for the advice. I do mash banana and whole milk into the weetabix on the advice of the HV becausedd was not putting on enough weight. Also giving her fruit and fromage frais at lunchtime.

I don't want to go against what the HV says cause they are the experts but i found that weetabix and banana caused DS to get constiptated, so had to ration him as he was having weetabix every breakfast. He's nearly 2 now and has weetabix and a banana for his breakfast - and a 2nd Marna if he can wangle it , I'm just getting him back to having other fruit mixed in with this breakfast as well, specially as the summers coming and we have a bit more varity available.

I kind of assumed you'd be mixing the weetabix with milk I think it's only my brother and me that buttered them

Take care
H x