Weaning and constipation. Advice please.

[poohbearrules]

DD is 6.5 months. We've been doing well with weaning, using Ella's kitchen pouches( had no kitchen for four weeks). Anyway for the last couple of days she's been constipated, straining a lot, going bright red in the face and crying when trying to poo. Horrible to watch. Any advice on what I can give her to help?

Anyone?

Oh dear poor baby, I would speak to your hv, but I think giving lots of water is the main thing, offering between meals too if necessary.

I find prune and stewed apple are good too. Avoid too much bread, bananas and eggs.

I'm sorry to hear your little one is constipated. I've been having similar problems with my 6.5 mth old ds.

The way I have sorted it by pureeing some prunes and pear and freezing it in an ice cube tray.

My ds has his normal breakfast (usually porridge) then I defrost one cube of the prune/pear combo and he has that too, I mix it with a little boiled water to make it runnier and also defrost it!

My ds loves the taste but it also helps keep him regular!!!

We had the same problem with DS (now 9m). I found that giving him a couple of spoons of fruit puree after/with/for each meal did the trick.

Just be careful not to give her too much. We still have nightmares about the mango-splosion which exploded after I inadvertently fed him half a mango because I wasn't paying attention to how much I'd given him!

We found that mango and pineapple were the best and sometimes we'd let him suck on an orange slice. (Now he just grabs it and shovels the whole thing in though.)

Thanks for the replies. Trying to get her to drink water, but doesn't seem keen. Gets that from me I guess! Will try mango and prunes and hope for a small explosion!!

DD had terrible constipation when we started weaning and no amount of prunes, or any fruit would fix it. Eventually I ended up giving her lactulose and syrup of figs for a couple of days, plus a teaspoon of linseeds mixed in with her yoghurt each morning. That cleared it and we haven't had any problems since. I'm always careful to make sure she drinks plenty of water now and find she drinks loads more from an open cup than a spouty cup.

Unfortunately she's still having issues. Not quite as bad as some poo is coming out, but the effort involved makes your eyes water! Poor DD! Gave her mango purée and trying to get her to drink more water. Will speak to HV tomorrow and see what she suggests. Any other tips would be greatly appreciated.

Aw poor soul. Have you tried a bit of massage? Plenty examples on youtube, but basically you rub gently and lightly but firmly in a clockwise direction from her belly button outwards. It helps to umm, break things up a bit.

If it's any consolation, DS hadn't pooed either today (unusual now). Turned out he was saving it for bathtime. Lovely. Talk about careful what you wish for!

Oh and he also has a higher poo ratio when he's in his door bouncer. Must help get things moving.

Yay, we've had a poo-naami! Took a while but she finally got there. The relief on her face (and mine)!

Yay! [Grin]

My DS suffered a lot when he was a newborn we had to put him on constipation milk. So the tips I had to use before I got it sorted was more water and before he was weaning the Hv told me to try natural apple juice in his water 1:8. So now he's weaning when I give him his fruit option I try to mix in a bit of apple or prune and he seems to be ok.