Constipation :( - Santee,CA

I would NEVER give a baby an enema without the advice of a doctor first. Tell your friend to mix 1/3 prune juice, 1/3 apple juice and 1/3 water in a sippy cup and give it to her niece once a day. It works wonders on my baby who has pooping problems.

Diet?? Fiber..... I would try natural BM motivators. There is an herbal tea called Smooth Move that is available. Very small doses for someone so young........... prune juice always seems to work with my kids. What a difficult situation. Oatmeal is high in fiber. Sorry, u may have tried all of this?!!

Hi J., what foods have been tried? Prunes etc? Is the baby on formula or dairy? If so, it is constipating her, it needs to be eliminated.
Another important avenue is the child needs some probiotics. At the healthfood store, there are probiotics that are very similar to yogurt, Bio K, feed that to her a couple of times a day until the situation resolves. Then back it down to once a day. She may balance out again and not need the ongoing addition. It could be the flora of her digestive system in disruption.

Definitely increase her veggies and fruits and whole grain fibers. I would also give her acidophilus on a regular basis. I give it to my kids at least 3 times a week. We use Udo's Choice Infants Probiotics. It's a powder that I mix in with their milk or juice. Probiotics help to maintain the healthy organisms in the body which keep the digestive system running smoothly.

She might also want to consider cutting down on dairy, other than yogurt and a little milk as dairy is a big constipator. So are bananas. If my kids eat more than one banana every other day they get constipated with hard stools.

Also artificial sweeteners can constipate, so stay away from those too.

I also give my kids 8 ounces of diluted pomegranate juice every so often. Within the hour they have to go. Works better than prune juice.

And of course, lots of water to keep things flowing (I usually dilute their juice with 50% water).

I had this problem with my kids too.
A few days of 1-3 tbsp of mineral oil, gets things moving. Don't use it regularly because it depletes the body of essential fats.

My pediatrician actually recommended a tablespoon a day of pure corn syrup. It didn't help enough, so I resorted to mineral oil, which my mom used on my younger sister.

See what works for you.
Good luck

The homeopathic remedy Nat Mur in 30c is helpful for this. She can pick it up at Whole Foods or any other health food store. Henry's has it for $5.99.

My pediatrician recommended dark Karo syrup 1-2 tsp. mixed in with beverage. You do this about every 3rd day, if the child has no BM before that. It really worked well for us.

She might be alergic to dairy. You may have thought of that already, but my 4 year old daughter has to have lactaid milk. If she is feeling constipated, we give her apple juice or have her eat some fruit. Medications can sometimes make things worse. Good Luck!

My suggestions (from experience) are offering the child lots of juices (especially apple)...prunes (like a treat!)...and if necessary, glycerine suppositories. Best of Luck!

My daughter has a similar problem. We have decided to take a natural approach rather than medication. You may want to alter her diet by decreaing the amount of dairy. A lot of people think it is just cheese, but it is all dairy products. We make sure she gets a lot of water. Her doctor said that it is very important.
Based on conversations we have had with our doctor, she is probably at a place where it hurts to go now, so you want to soften the stool to help her go. We try not to make it into a big deal because this can also increase the problem. I hope that this helps. One thing to remember is, eatting and going to the bathroom are the last two things children have control over. It sounds like she has a lot going on in her life right now. I wish you luck, it is a long process so don't give up.

My friend's son needs loads of help to poop---come to find out after massive testing his sphincter doesn't work at all---so they just kind of do what she's doing....but a thorough diagnosis obviously would be very helpful.

Hi J., have her change her diet first of all, try to cut out starches, give her juces, cut back on milk, milk will consipatate, give her grapes, raisens, even prun juice if she will drink it, try this and see it that helps. J.

There is an over the counter water soluable fiber powder that I give my daughter ever day (on the advice of my pediatrician)- it's called Miralax and you can get it at CVS, Target, etc. I put in 1/2 cap full into juice (which i totally dilute with water) every day...you arent supposed to put it in milk. She had horrible horrible problems and I would cry when she would cry as I could see that she could not push these horribly hard and huge BM's out it was so awful I cant even tell you. She eats very healthy and we added many high fiber foods to her diet but to no avail. Miralax is a g-d send and if we miss it even one day she has trouble. She's 2.5 yrs old. Again you might want to consult with a ped but my dad is also a ped and says it's totally fine and safe. good luck!

Flax seed oil is a natural stool laxative. You can add a teaspoon to her cereal.

I don't know what her diet is like, but here is some advice about diet for kids prone to constipation: More fiber like whole grains, more vegetables with fiber, more water, less cheese! Bananas are constipating. Prunes and prune juice are great, if you can get the child to take them. If extra help is needed, try MiraLax. It is now OTC. You just dissolve some on water or other liquid. T.

SO have the mom go and get medi-cal or healthy families for her.

My first question is, does she drink water? If not, she needs to.

The next think I would suggest would be apple juice. Freshly juiced would be best. Also apple spinach juice is the ultimate natural laxitive (for lack of a better word). The apples are sweet enough to cover the taste of the spinach. You can get a juicer pretty cheap these days at WalMart if you don't have one already. It's not top-of-the-line, but it works.

I wish your friend luck with this situation.

Besides a healthy diet and plenty of water, try Miralax (1/2 scoop) a day in a drink. This will get her poop soft and coming out regularly so she can avoid the enema. Seeing a Dr. would be helpful since there could be underlying issues, blockage/etc.. Holding her poop will cause her colon to stretch out and she'll loose the ability (maybe she has already) to push poop out on her own. Thus, only coming out with the help of an enema. It takes 3-6 months to get the colon back to normal size, so this is something that needs to be stayed on top of. The enemas do need to stop as they are habit forming. Also - I'm replying quickly as I need to leave but I normally would never just tell someone to take Miralax or any OTC drug before advising on natural remedies. We went through this with my daughter for 2.5 years, she was on everything natural under the sun including having a very healthy diet rich in fiber and whole grains/whole foods, etc.. My daughter's body was making poop, she just couldn't push it out, so we had to do a week long clean out with mineral oil, emema's, suppositories and Miralax then stay on Miralax daily till she was going daily on her own. So long story long, you'll get great advice here, most will tell you prune juice, veggies, flax oil, etc.. but she may need more than that at this point.

Best wishes,
M.

Hi J.,

You may have tried this already but I would suggest canned fruit. Whenever any of my three seem a little backed up I give them fruit with their meals. My oldest even tells me now - I need fruit with dinner - if her poop is a little hard. I would give the child canned fruit with every meal for a while and see if it helps get things moving along. I have found canned manderin oranges are very effective in this regard. The nice thing is the kids love it, so they are not feeling punished in any way. And even if it doesn't work at least it is healthy food. Also keep in mind that fat in her diet can make it easier to go as well. Think about adding something like flax seed, grape seed or even olive oil to things like oatmeal or on pasta to lube up her insides a bit.
Also lay off any rice, cheese or bananas as these can bind her up even more.
I hope these ideas give her a little relief.
Good luck, G.

A little bit of prune juice every day went a long way for my kids when they were little.

Miralax is sol over the counter and was recommended for both of my very stopped up kids from the time they were 2. It used to be only availiable in perscription. Give the recommended dose every day for a while and it truly works better than prune juice or flax. The enemas can be too tough on a child that is 2. Good Luck

I open a PB8 ( www.nutritionnow.com ) capsule and give 1/2 -1 capsule each night to the kids with liqid calcium. They are very regular. We also do very little dairy.

Hi J. -
That is not a fun problem, but there is a way to get past it.
First, she needs to cut out all cheese products and bananas... they goop up babies systems. Also, kids hold their poop because it feels weird to eliminate. When we had this problem with our son, we not only changed his diet, but used suppositories every 4-5 days if he had not gone. He hated it, but after about three times, all we would have to do is tell him that he either had to poop or we were going to have to use a suppository. This did the trick and no more problems...no dependency either.

Good luck to you friend, L.

Prune juice in her milk. It helped my daughter alot.

Use myralax. It great - I had to use it on my son who was having problems also. It keeps them regular and get's her past the hurting. Use it once a day. I believe the bottle say a cap ful. Start out with that then cut it down to half a cap. Once she is starting to get regular they will need to play with the dosage. After awhile the little girl will get use to pooping and it will not hurt. My son was having trouble because he continued to think that it would hurt so he would hold it until we had to use something or he could not hold it any longer and it really hurt. Tell her to hang in there and that it will get better with some time. If you have any other questions let me know.

My daughter had terrible constipation that led to rectal prolapse. We had to cut out all dairy, bananas and apples. We give her 1 teaspoon of Benefiber in juice every day and we feed her lots of berries, cantaloupe, FiberOne bars, water and whole grain breads. We limit meats because protein and be constipating as well.

Hi J.,
Same advice as the others but when you do juices, fruits, my doctor suggested the A juices, fruits like apple juice, apricots...but not apples! apples will consitpate. good luck

I would personally try and stay away from any medication at this point. Stay away from bananas and rice. Have her drink straight raw apple juice and lots of water throughout the day.

Best wishes,
C.~

http://www.ToxicFreeFamily.net
http://www.HelpUStayHome.com

my son has the same problem he sees a specialist for it and the Dr. has me give him Kondremul it is an over the counter lubricant and laxitive. Dr. said not to us enema or miralax the become dependent on the enema, and miralax pulls water out of the body to lubricate the stool. The Kondremul costs about $12.00 and I give my 1 year old 2 tablespoons a day if he needs it. I would also increase her fruit and fiber intake. There is also a product called Monavie that in 2-4ounces a day it gives your daily serving of fruits and vegies it tastes like grape koolaid and it would definatley aid in this area. I am a distributor for Monavie it is not sold in stores. you can get more information on my website. www.mymonavie.com/like but contact me directly and I can give you a much better price than the one online. you can contact me at:###-###-#### and my name is H.. She would need the monavie original (not active, it is for adults) good luck and God Bless.

Flax seed, buy some at the health store, grind them up in a coffe grinder and mix in with all the food, within a couple of days it should get things going. But remember , you will need to grind them

She should give her toddler Juice Plus fruit and vegetables gummies. Because Juice Plus is 17 whole food fruits, vegetables and grains in chewable form (and not a vitamin) it has virtually the same effect on the GI tract as eating the real thing. Give it time and your friend will likely see her daughters bowel movements become regular. In the mean time, she may need to do something else to help her go/ease the pain, but using the whole food nutrition to solve the problem is the ultimate goal. You can check out more on Juice Plus at http://www.juiceplus.com/+cc42230.

JUICE PLUS - The next best thing to fruits and vegetables
C.
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Health Info Line: 800-942-1260

My sons gastroenterologist put him on miralax, which is now available over the counter. It works wonders. There is a new laxative for kids made by fleet (the same company that does the enemas)it comes in liquid, quick dissolve strips and powder. Each one has a different reaction time. I'm trying that once the miralax is gone because it is dosed for kids and miralax isn't.
Also if you want a natural answer, try activia yogurt. It keeps my son going regularly so that I don't have to use the medication. We did Karo syrup in the bottle when he was a baby, but these other options worked better. We also did aloe vera juice, there's instruction on the bottle, it's in the pharmacy section. I like the activia though because it is easier to get him to eat.

Hi. Make sure she is drinking plenty of water first of all. Prune juice and apple juice are also good. Enemas should be more of a last resort, and come after diet and then a suppository IF THAT IS WHAT THE DR. ORDERED. Good luck, hope this helps.I JUST READ SOME OTHER RESPONSES AND WANTED TO SAY PLEASE DONT TRY ANYTHING OTHER THAN NATURAL FOODS AND BEVERAGES BEFORE GETTING A DOCTORS ORDER. I GAVE MY ADVICE AS A MOM BUT I AM ALSO A LISENCED NURSE.

She should try giving her watermelon or grapes. Prunes also work but don't taste as good.

Try flax meal, it works well with my kids. They sell it at most grocery stores (in the health food isle) or try Trader Joe's. Also, fresh pears seem to get things going.

J.,
I used supositories with my boys when they were constipated. They are over the counter and a pharmacist would be able to tell you which ones are ok for her age. They worked great and are much easier than some of the other things. Of course, plenty of fruit juices and fiber. Sometimes a stool softener can help too if her stools are causing her pain.
Good luck.

Poor kid!
Pears are a super high fiber fruit and yummy. Give her the whole fresh fruit to get the whole benefit.
Also-a gentle massage on the tummy, going in clock-wise circles helps move things along.
And LOTS of water!!!!!
I sure hope that baby is ok. Sounds like her life is not the easiest at the moment.
Take care,
E.

FLAX SEED OIL. Start with 1/2 tsp. in her drink, once a day. Try this for a few days before increasing the amount. You can give as much as 1 tsp. (I am pretty sure this is what the Pediatrician would recommend).

I agree that it needs to be solved with food. Never give a baby a supplement that you can't find out what is really in it and where it is grown and made. Please research the food she eats first. Always research the supplement that you guve a child. Go to the web site and find out if they will tell you how much of what is in it and where it was grown and how they test it to back up the claims. There are a few one hit wonders out there that make lots of claims but can't back them up. Don't waste your money.

Perhaps she needs some good bugs in her tummy. Give her whole, unsweetened yogurt and add a little jam into it just before serving. Probiotics can be given in small doses, real small at first if needed. It will make her fart, so you know what to expect. But at her age I would start with the right foods.

Give her pitted fruits, peaches, plums, apricots... several times a day. There's an enzyme that helps. And, lots of water, cut back a bit on the dairy and research what other foods she's eating that are clogging foods. My dr. gave me this stuff to mix in with my son's drinks when his pooper was really having trouble. I think it's called glycolax.

Wow, your friend is a good woman to be taking care of her niece, and what a great friend she has in you. If the advice on here doesn't work tell your friend to call 211, and yes, that is it, like 411. It's an advice line from the United Way that can help her find help with health care for the baby, food, clothing, and much much more. Eventually the little one will get sick and be at the point of needing to see the doctor, there are a lot of programs out there that can help her. I wish her the best!