Constipation and getting more liquids into ds

[duffster]

DS is 27 weeks and has been weaning for a couple of weeks. Not going too badly but poor little fella has been constipated on and off. I have given him boiled mushed apricots which did the trick, but I would rathr tackle the cause - he battles with me over nearly every bf (too boring) and takes a few sips of water (refuses a bottle, just uses a doidy cup).
Any ideas to get him to love his liquids?

my dc got constipated when they first started weaning, til their systems got used to it all. Have you tried putting some extra liquid into his food - making him fruit purees like apple and pear which tend to come up more watery?

annoyingly I started 2 threads!
Yes he has pear puree and I always add some milk or boiled water to the puree to get more liquid in. So sorry for him when he strains and strains and gets a little pellet for his efforts

DS got constipated when we first started weaning & I figired out it was after days he'd had more than once rice cake...so we made sure that he only had one per day & carried on as normal with everything else, Bfing on demand & offering small amounts of finger food blw style...no more constipation. From what I've read since, constipation is a symptom that the gut isn;t ready to process that amount or type of solids yet so IMO its always better to find the root cause of it rather than ease the symtoms with other measures.

duffster - i had exactly the same problem on sunday and monday. DS was crying from the pain of constipation, it was heartbreaking. Like your lo he would strain and strain, crying his heart out and all he had to show for it was hard golf ball poos!
I made him drink 6 oz of water on monday, and yesterday and today he has been very comfortable with VERY mushy poo. Its almost like diarrhea.

I asked the hv abt it the other day and she suggested 3 teaspoons of fresh orange juice for one day only to loosen him up.

I went with water first, and if that didn;t work then i was going to try the juice. Thankfully water worked for me, so i didn;t need to give the juice.

hope that helps...

I found that tinned prunes did the trick, the juice is very sugary though so I just wash them off and shove 'em through a mouli.
My DD loved them and they had explosive results!

HI Duffster... I had similar problem... Went to the doc's after it had been 5 days without a poo in sight, who gave me some lactulose which got things moving. She also dais it was completely normal for this to happen at the beginning of weaning and just part of the baby's body adjusting, and not to worry...

Since then I've cut out baby rice (which is a classic for causeing constipation apparently) and switched it for a maize cereal instead. I've also swapped her formula from SMA to Aptamil (although she only has 2 bottles a day and is otherwise breastfed someone told me that SMA is also well know for causing this). Since then no more problems...

Other than her poos are now SO smelly they melt your face off...

HTH
DB
xx

My DS1 used to have diluted prune juice in his sippy cup which I think helped a bit with his constipation - he really liked it anyway, and still loves prunes now.

My dd tended to drink more warm water (with or without a little apple or orange juice in) than cold water. Think the temperature was easier for her.

Thanks all, no major movement yet so will try a bit of prune after his tea. Trying to think if I gave him anything else recently that coupld be bunging him up - could it be avocado?
HV wasn't much use today, the advice here is always so much better, but he had put on loads of weight - at least 100g is probably poo!