What foods for constipated (fussy) 11mth old?

[Trillian42]

DD has increasingly solid poos and is straining a lot. She doesn't eat very much solids at all (subject of other posts) so not really sure what to try to get her to eat that will help things. My GP just said more veg, but it's so hard to get anything in to her that I'm not sure how to go about it. She's BF at night with formula during the day.

Her typical menu:
Breakfast - a couple of bites of a banana or a pear - equivalent of maybe 2 tea spoons. (I usually try either porridge or weetabix, but she won't take more than a spoon). Half a Petit Filous (given in desperation as I know she'll eat it

Lunch - 1-2 tablespoons of either a Hipp stage 2 jar or mashed potato, veg & chicken/ham/whatever we had for dinner the night before

Dinner - half a Ella's kitchen stage 2 pouch - her favourite is the beef stew one. For those who don't know them, they're smaller than the typical jars.
A Petit-Filous - she'll usually eat most.

For snacks she has broccolli florets, toast, rice cakes, the odd spoon of my yoghurt if I'm having some. I try to offer her water regularly which she loves because she plays with it - usually spitting it out again with a huge smile (so cute )

Any ideas?

Is she feeding herself much yet? The following are veg dishes that DD is quite happy to feed herself:
Sweet potato wedges (but sweet potatoes into four lengthways, rub olive oil in and roast at gas mark 6 for about 30mins)
New potatoes with a bit of mayonnaise
Carrots dressed with butter and a squeeze of lemon juice
Asparagus
Cauliflower in cheese sauce
Pasta spirals with tomato sauce
Peas, broad beans and finely chopped leeks cooked together with a little butter and black pepper
Baked beans (yes baked beans are a finger food, not my first choice but I don't make the choices round here)

And fruit wise have you tried giving her a small bowl with lots of different bits of fruit cut up? DD likes being able to select which she'll eat first.

The water thing is a pain. DD used to spit everything out too and only began to drink serious quantities of water a few weeks ago. If you are offering regularly she'll get the hang of it eventually.

She's not really feeding herself... she understands toast & rice cakes are for eating, but doesn't 'get' fruit or veg for some odd reason. She just picks it up and squishes it - or else just drops it. Even the broccolli she's happier for me to hold while she bites off the top bits. I'm not sure why! Maybe I just need to try some more.

Some good ideas there. I did buy some fusilli pasta with DD in mind the other day - I might try some tomorrow. Baked beans sound messy!

When we need to get DD to go, we squeeze orange juice into her water in a 50:50 mix. 2-3oz normally does it. Otherwise we give her orange segments to suck on. She has a lot of prunes and dates in her diet.

Orange/orange juice is good.

Puree some prunes and mix with weetabix, perhaps the sweetness of the prunes will encourage her to eat the weetabix? Ditto apricots.

Avoid eggs too frequently.

Lots of fluids.

I love the Ella's products, but more for quick convenience than a regular thing iykwim. Some of Veronica's dishes sound delicious.

Some good suggestions there, thanks.

We actually aren't using the pouches/jars through choice to be honest! It's just so difficult to get her to eat anything that once we found something she'd eat we kind of ran with it.

Stop the banana until she's not constipated - they're very good at blocking little people up!

I agree with previous posts about bananas causing blockages.

Stewed apple should do the trick.

DS was a weapon of mass destruction after eating it.

Your house will need hosing down.

:o at Ooopsadaisy!

Trillian42 - you would not have if you'd been at the business end, I can tell you!

It was 15 years ago and I can still smell it.

But it worked.

strawberries or pears or clementines work well here for constipation. As does really working hard to up fluid intake, leave some water aroynd all the time.

DD wouldn't take water to start with so we gave her the cup empty to play with for a while. when she got used to it, put in some water and helped her to use it until she got the hang of it.

Now, I let her have it to help herself as she drinks more this way, although she does chuck a lot of it around.