clay like poops that are hard to pass??

[blunderbuss]

hi all,

I have a 3 yo and a 14mo. The 14m er is a great eater but has never been a wonderful drinker. She now just about has 600 ml of milk a day and though she is very difficult to get to drink much else. She normally has a smoothie (180 ml) and as much water as I can get her to drink at meals and through the day. It's tricky to get her to have too much but I use straws as she seems to like them and so she normally has a few sips at various points through the day. She generally has slightly slower movements than her brother her ever did as a baby and toddler but will normally poop once a day, sometimes every other or sometimes twice. Normally the consistency is ok but occasionally she'll go through a few days of having very hard clay like poos. These can be hard to pass and she gets upset. No blood or anything though. I'm just worried that if she starts holding on as it hurts to go she could get constipated. I give her weetabix most mornings and use wholewheat rice, half and half bread and pasta and has lots of fruit and veg. I'm just wondering if anyone has any ideas of how I can entice her to have more liquids or if there is anything I can add to her diet that might add more fibre and water.

sorry long post I know - must work on getting these shorter!

Lots of fruit, perhaps think about cutting back on the wheat? Oatabix rather than Weetabix for example?

oooh... i thought all the wheat would have been helping but maybe I am overdoing it. Will look into that. She was in tears this morning so I want to try and make things better for her if I can. tks

I'd give up on the brown rice for a while. Raspberries are a fab fruit for constipation as are peas and sweetcorn. Add some oj to the water, that has a laxative effect too.

You say the stools are clay like, do you mean that they are pale coloured? If they are very pale or grey this can be a sign that there's not enough iron in the diet or sometimes a problem with bile production. If they are pale coloured and it doesn't improve speak to your gp.

Thanks for your replies. Really helpful! when I meant clay I meant consistency really but the poops are definitely paler than her normal ones - slightly more milky colour. They are mostly fine it's just every week or so we'll get a few days of this - I'd imagine the bile problem would be a constant one? But the iron thing is a little bit of a worry so will check that out further. Thanks again.