Sunday, December 13, 2009

we need more poop!


just a quick request for your suggestions. samuel hasn't pooped in about 5 days. i've been mixing his rice cereal in with squash, pears, peaches, carrots, sweet potatoes and applesauce. i had read a lot of conflicting advice in regards to what can help constipation (apples? bananas?) but would like some tried & true remedies before i go out and buy the prune juice. (i'm pretty sure that prune juice will work, but i've heard the resulting blowouts can be enormous!)

thanks in advance :)


22 comments:

Unknown said...

My SIL had a lot of success with water and a little brown sugar dissolved in it. Good Luck

Shannon said...

Yes, at his age I think a little warm water mixed with Kyro syrup is suppost to do the trick.

If it gets real bad, slip some mineral oil in his applesauce.


Ellie had chronic constipation for he rfirst 4 years. It was awful.

Lovella ♥ said...

This is the opposite advice but at least you will know what not to give him. When my kids were little and had major runs. .the doctor put them on a brat diet to clog them up. Bananas rice applesauce and tea. . .it worked. Don't give him those things.

Nicole said...

I'd steer clear of the rice cereal until he poops. I don't actually feed Micah rice cereal at all, just veggies and fruit (I give an iron supplement too). Small amounts of jarred prunes mixed with another fruit may have less explosive results than prune juice . . .

Kari said...

Heidi,
Bananas will stop him up. But, a little apple juice usually helps Coranelle. I mix it in with her cereal or put it in water in her sippy cup on a daily basis. But, when she was truly stopped up, we did give her a teaspoon of prune juice in a syringe and that did the trick. Good luck!

Thoughts on Life and Millinery. said...

My MIL told me to make a small plug of Ivory soap and to put it up inside the kid's anus. It worked...
31 years later I wonder if it would still work. At least I can honestly say there were no digestive side affects or life long consequences!

Claire said...

Our pediatrician told us to put a little oil on a q-tip and pop in the anus too...We never ended up trying it b/c he pooped, but that is what the dr. suggested. Also I have heard too that bananas bung them up...

Korinne Tjepkema said...

Oh dear, we had these issues with Mercy. Time and time again she'd go on a pooping hiatus for a week and then send us in a panic, before exploding on one of us. Here's the trick that worked for us: A warm bath with baking soda, and then I'd take her out of the tub and put a Q-tip JUST inside her anus. And wiggle it around a little bit. That gave her an idea where to push, and soon afterward (thanks to the relaxing baking soda bath - baking soda also relaxes the outside muscles, which helps) we'd have an explosion in a diaper or, if you were some unlucky soul holding her, an explosion all over her towel. Worked wonders. Eventually she learned how to push it out, but she still tends to be on the constipated side and doesn't poop regularly. Might have to try the trick again ;)

Korinne Tjepkema said...

Oh dear, we had these issues with Mercy. Time and time again she'd go on a pooping hiatus for a week and then send us in a panic, before exploding on one of us. Here's the trick that worked for us: A warm bath with baking soda, and then I'd take her out of the tub and put a Q-tip JUST inside her anus. And wiggle it around a little bit. That gave her an idea where to push, and soon afterward (thanks to the relaxing baking soda bath - baking soda also relaxes the outside muscles, which helps) we'd have an explosion in a diaper or, if you were some unlucky soul holding her, an explosion all over her towel. Worked wonders. Eventually she learned how to push it out, but she still tends to be on the constipated side and doesn't poop regularly. Might have to try the trick again ;)

Korinne Tjepkema said...

Oops, left that comment twice. I had a computer "blip" and wondered if I'd done that!

Meredith said...

Does it bother him or just you? I say if it isn't bothering him just cut out the cereal and see what happens. I know a breastfed infant who didn't poop for 11 days and it didn't bother him, it only bothered his parents once they realized it had been a week, but he wasn't on solids so it doesn't really have any bearing on your situation.

Kari said...

Rice cereal can be the biggest culprit! For our second, we actually stayed clear of the rice completely and used barley and oats instead. That mixed with some pears always cleared up any problems quite quickly!! Their little systems need lots of fibre when they start on solids, so peas and mangoes are also great!

Leanne said...

I remember these issues with Lucas... Whole grain brown rice cereal is better than white. And brown sugar mixed in helped too. Avocados often did the trick (they have lots of good fats and oils), as well as kiwi's (don't know if you're letting him have citrus yet, but anything with vitamin C helps the digestive system break down food).

Good luck!

Becky said...

I had this problem with Charlotte when I started solids. I was told that carrots, banana and rice cereal are the worst thing to give, and that even apple sauce can have negative effects; a little concoction of zucchini and carmalized onion (no salt or anything,just onion, and zucchini) worked really well after a 2 lunches like that. It was a big poop, but nothing explosive.

Neha said...

Try papayas...bananas aren't a good idea for constipation though.

Jennifer said...

Rice cereal never failed to back my babies up.

kelly ens said...

a jar of pureed prunes always did the trick for Taeya. never explosive, just the perfect blend, and it can be mixed with cereal if he doesn't like it straight up :)

L&D said...

All the suggestions I have are already said by others.
What I'm laughing at is that as mothers, THIS is the sort of thing we fret and BLOG about. So funny. Who'd a thunk 10 years ago you be writing a post about poop? Awesomeness.

Inkling said...

We had this problem in a pretty severe way for several months. I started with prunes, and we still keep up prunes mixed with applesauce almost every day. I also gave him diluted prune juice in a bottle, but didn't have the blowouts predicted at all.

Twice, we had to resort to glycerin suppositories and our doctor finally told me to give him Lactulose (it's over the counter in BC). I did 3/4 tsp. of that every night for a couple of months.

The crazy thing is that awhile later when he started refusing food and dropping weight, the problem rectified itself in a weird way. The nurse had me give him pediasure (a concentrated formula) since he was only nursing and refusing all solid foods for about three weeks. The pediasure actually made his stools totally loose.

Go figure. I hope the prunes work and you don't have to go all out like we did. (I learned more than I ever wanted to about bowel impactions.)

Our kiddos always keep us mommies guessing and working, don't they?!

Thinking of you this Christmas season.....from your American blogging friend in your old hometown.

Inkling said...

p.s. I just read the comments about the q-tip. My doc actually told me that it's easy to cause a fistula that way. (And since I'm dealing with my own fistula from childbirth nearly a year ago, there is NO WAY I'm giving one to my son.) He said to massage around the anus, but never put anything inside it. Now, I did use my pinky finger with a latex glove that had been lubed up really well to remove the impaction, but that was under the supervision of a medically trained professional who just had bigger fingers than me. And that was only to remove stool that was too hard and dry to pass.

I promise that this will get better once his digestive system matures a bit more. It just takes time.

Good luck. And I hope you don't feel that I'm bombarding you with a bunch of unwanted advice. If so, I'm totally sorry!

Thoughts on Life and Millinery. said...

Any luck yet? And for the love of all that is good...no pictures when the long awaited poop arrives OK?

Angela said...

My doctor suggested brown sugar dissolved in water. Not sure how much... I just mixed until it seemed sugary but still dissolved. Good luck!