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Weaning

Find weaning advice from other Mumsnetters on our Weaning forum. Use our child development calendar for more information.

Original poster

Help me figure out why my baby is so constipated

27 replies

HomeMeasurements · 15/04/2018 15:32

DS4 (8 months) is an absolutely voracious eater. All my DC have been and I've generally just put good food in front of them and let them get on with it. They've all been fine. I've taken the same approach with youngest but he is really constipated. Am I letting him eat too much or Might it be something other than food? I can't figure it out. Below is the kind of thing he will eat in a day.

Breakfast - fruit followed by porridge made with oats, ground almonds, coconut, water or breast milk (and now some chopped up prunes and soaked flaxseed mixed in). I generally let him eat til he's not interested but basically eats a full children's type bowl worth it more. Drink of water.

Breastfeed

Lunch - spinach omelette, tomatoes, cucumber, avocado etc. Quite a lot. At least one eggs worth probably more.

Drink of water

Breastfeed

Supper quinoa bolognese with sweet potato and maybe a few pieces of pasta (if other DC are having) plus broccoli. As above on quantity. Drink of water. Fruit

Breastfeed

I think that seems pretty good but maybe he's too young to be eating that much? I wonder if I ought to go to the doctor because surely that is a decent diet and that shouldn't be making him constipated? Never had this issue with any of the other DC so am really stumped.

OP posts:
Confusedwife84 · 15/04/2018 15:34

I honestly think just some kids are prone to constipation. My DC is the same and we use lactulose as required, not on a daily basis, to keep things going. It's frustrating though as your sons diet is clearly very good!!

BertrandRussell · 15/04/2018 15:34

How does constipation show? Is it just that he doesn’t poo as often as you think he should, or is he in distress?

Original poster
HomeMeasurements · 15/04/2018 15:45

In distress and the poo is very thick. Sometimes hard and pebble like.

What is lactulose? Can I just buy it over counter?

OP posts:
Confusedwife84 · 15/04/2018 15:59

Yes you can buy it from the pharmacy, but we also seen the gp who said to continue with it. It's a stool softener and has really helped us.

BertrandRussell · 15/04/2018 16:33

Ds used to have this problem- and I couldn’t get him to take Lactulose. In the end, we used to put some milk of magnesia in his milk- but he was a bit older....not sure what age you’re allowed to give it. Fruit juice helped too.........

MollyDaydream · 15/04/2018 16:39

Too much fibre maybe? Eggs and bananas can be a bit constipating too.
Sounds like he is eating a lot so maybe cut back on the food a bit and up fluids - could offer milk first before solids.

jaimelannistersgoldenhand · 15/04/2018 17:18

My baby was like that and it turned out that he had food intolerances. Keep a diary and find out if there's any pattern.

SpartacusTheCat · 15/04/2018 18:05

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

abbsisspartacus · 15/04/2018 18:07

Stop the flaxseed

Original poster
HomeMeasurements · 15/04/2018 19:32

Oh really? Isn't flax meant to be a good natural laxative?

I'll start keeping a diary and think it's a good suggestion re swapping milk and food round.

OP posts:
abbsisspartacus · 16/04/2018 06:31

It has far too much fibre for a little one and causes constipation

letstryagainaaahhhh · 16/04/2018 06:36

My daughter had the same problems. Lots of prunes helped, and reduce the bananas and eggs as they are real culprits for constipation. I also stopped broccoli as my daughter would cry in her sleep after eating it. Otherwise make sure he drinks lots of water throughout the day. I gave lactulose fairly frequently to get things moving if she was very blocked up. By 9 months everything settled down and now we don't worry so much.

ButtMuncher · 16/04/2018 06:37

Yeah I'd go with there being way too much fibre in his diet - as wonderful as his menu sounds (I'm a bit jealous!) he's still young and his age a lot of babies aren't even up to 3 meals a day! So he might be having problems digesting the quantity and type of food.

ICJump · 16/04/2018 06:47

As he’s breastfeed you could give a few more breastfeeds a day. It is a very fiber heavy diet

Original poster
HomeMeasurements · 16/04/2018 06:47

This is great advice thank you. So what would a better menu look like?

And is it too much fibre for my older DC? They do poo quite a lot! (Normal consistency and once a day but HUGE ones). They have the same except probably one more portion of vegetable plus sometimes a snack which would be something like a piece of fruit and a cracker with peanut butter

OP posts:
ICJump · 16/04/2018 08:21

I’d skip the flaxseed. And are you doing BLW? If so doing meatballs rather than sauce is good. You could also do fruit in strips with yoghurt as a dip for breakfast. Or do porridge with stewed apple and the prunes.

Veggie sticks and hummus is good too althought salt is a bit tricky.

Original poster
HomeMeasurements · 16/04/2018 08:29

ICJump noted re the flaxseed. But sorry if unclear, it's not that I'm looking for ideas for BLW, I have 4 DC and obviously do know about standard healthy meals. But it seems from other posters that I might be going too 'healthy' for my DS as too much fibre.

OP posts:
WazFlimFlam · 16/04/2018 08:31

Maybe too much fibre. He may need less insoluble fibre, as this can cause problems for some people.

pimlicolife · 16/04/2018 08:34

My 8 month old has been constipated and in distress. Lactulose didn't work for her, it just gave her terrible wind. Infant Movicol has been just amazing and is very gentle.

Original poster
HomeMeasurements · 16/04/2018 08:38

Do you have to be prescribed Movicol?

Didn't really know about the different types of fibre. Is insoluble constipation and what is that in?

OP posts:
pimlicolife · 16/04/2018 15:25

I think it's prescription only. It's really worth getting,

Confusedwife84 · 16/04/2018 17:42

How do you get your little one to take movicol @pimlicolife ? Mine wouldn't take it at all

pimlicolife · 16/04/2018 22:18

@Confusedwife84 She takes it off a spoon now as she's learnt how to do that but before I used to use a syringe and she'd quite enjoy sucking it up.

chickywoo · 16/04/2018 22:25

My ds now 3 was like this at this age gp advises that when he started to walk gravity would take its course and he would find it easier to pass and more frequent which it did sort of then after stopping breastfeeding at 2ish and seemed to get worse was a really struggle for him to have a poo then built into a bit of a holding it in making it worse cycle. He now had movicol once a day keeps things nice and soft. It’s flavourless so can just mix into drinks or his weetaix/porridge he doesn’t know. But I imagine getting it down a baby who’s main drink is breastmilk is more of a struggle!

Eggzandbacon · 16/04/2018 22:29

DH suffers from constipation and a low fibre diet has helped him considerably.