Hi there my son has a hard time with his bowels! He currently is on miralax pretty much daily or everyother day! Im just really not one or to give my kids medications unless needed. I was just wondering if anyone knew of any thing more natural that i could try with him! Im sure part of its his diet to! My cousin recommended Baby Jarros its a probiotic im sure there is some for older kids to! Any help would be great:) Thanks in advance::)
This is from Mayo Clinic and read to end of it.
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/constipation-in-children...
A good diet and exercise, water, and see if something bothers more than others like milk, cheese, bread, etc. Cut those out if they seem to bother and add fiber if you can.
I'm loving all the great answers you have received. Little changes of additional fiber can be so helpful, and become a way of eating for a lifetime. One little change that is easy to do is keep his favorite cereal, but mix in a little bran cereal. Then the next week, add a little more, and so on. Same with less cheese. If you serve it, serve it as you might an appetizer plate, with celery sticks, olives, fiber crackers and brocolli bits. Mix a little baby spinach into his salads, and then a little more each salad. Replace or mix pretzels and chips with nuts and popcorn. And the body will crave more water (yeah!) as he eats more bran, olives, nuts and popcorn.
Probiotics are good for every age. I would recommend it. Get your little one off of miralax. It isn't good for him. I would recommend more water in his diet. Cut the sugars and processed foods. More fruit. Granola, perhaps on some natural yogurt (stay away from the stuff that calls itself yogurt but is really corn syrup and sugar). Natural yogurt is full of probiotics, so you can skip that part altogether as long as he is eating the yogurt daily. Water, water, water. Lots of it. Cut the dairy, chocolate, sugars.
More water. Eat papaya and pineapple always helps me.
Two prunes a day (we call them "big raisins"). Kids love them.
My five year old daughter drinks a lot of liquids and has only been constipated once after she had the flu for a week and had trouble keeping anything down. When she started eating again her pipes got all backed up. It was the "Huge Poo of 2011" and she still talks about it to this day.
"Mom... remember when I had that GIANT hurty poo? It was SOOOO big." (The farts that preceded it were also pretty spectacular and she regales the tale of the thunderous proclamation of the coming-of-the-poo with great enthusiasm.)
How I get her to drink more water is to spike it with a little apple juice. Just a small amount will flavor the water and she'll drink it all down. Maybe you can encourage your son to drink more if you buy him a special glass for "hydrating" that is his and his alone.
A probiotic would be a great idea. I don't know what Baby Jarros is, but you can get probiotics in any health food store, or natural grocer. You can even give kids adult probiotics. I just pull apart an adult capsule of probiotics and give half of the powder to each of my daughters. Get in as much fiber as you can - that means lots of fresh fruits and vegetables (not canned). And cut out as much junk as you can. Go easy on the dairy too.
Hello,
Apricots and the four P's – prunes, pears, plums, and peaches – usually exert a laxative effect. If those don't work, we also use Flax Seed Oil. You can find in the supplement section of any healthier market. We buy capsule form and open it into a glass of chocolate milk.
Here is more info on childhood constipation and also dosage for flax see oil:
http://www.askdrsears.com/topics/childhood-illnesses/cons...
My son had trouble with constipation when he was younger. We now eat cabbage everyday. Another great way to get fiber is sweet potatoes. Buy fresh, the canned stuff is just so full of sugar. I cut up one large sweet potato and one large apple. Put in a pan, add water about 1/3 way up the potato and apple, and cook over medium heat covered for about 15 to 20 minutes. Stir every five minutes to rotate the bottom to the top. Add cinnamon to taste around five minutes before finishing. This is great whether the potato falls about completely or not. it can be eaten hot or cold. We prefer cold most of the time. It's also good with plain yogurt, raisins, almond slivers, and cheese (goda) . You will want to cut the yogurt and cheese though when he is constipated. Oh and drink mainly water. We drink water before every meal and when we first wake up in the morning. My son gets 100ml juice in the morning, and up to 200 ml milk a day. After that it's water! Exercise will also help. Make sure he is running, jumping and playing enough. Not just sitting around. Yoga is good for constipation. My son loves doing yoga. We have the YogaKids Dvds.
We do an apple a day and 1 cup of watered down juice. Seems to help out my oldest great! we have a saying in the house, "an apple a day keeps the dr and the constipation away"!
Hi M.
I like to use this website for home remedies.
I like it because people like you and me post their responses to each remedy.
www.earthclinic.com
Good luck!
D.
One of my boys is more sensitive to becoming constipated than the other one, so people's systems can be different. What have we learned?
Too much cheese, yogurt and banana can cause constipation. When we notice he's had a lot of this in his diet, we know it's time to balance it with extra fiber. We buy cereal that's rich in fiber. We also make sure he gets lots of fruit. Prunes, apples and grapes have lots of fiber.
I went to our doctor's webiste and followed a link that listed foods rich in fiber. We also have a bottle of miralax, but we've only used it 2 times and our son is 5 1/2 so we really have been able to control it with diet.
Food rich in fiber and lots of good fluids should do the trick. If they don't, I would try and keep a log of everything he's been eating and drinking for a few days or a week and talk to your ped. Maybe he's still not getting enough fiber, but if he is it should help your ped figure out whether it's something more than that.
Good luck! It's so hard to watch little ones as they struggle with this.
Prune juice has always worked well for my son. If he's stopped up, he drinks an ounce or two. Later in the day, all is well again!!
try some coffee... thats supposed to help
I'm so sorry you are going through this! My daughter has had the same issue basically since she was two. She is now four years old and I have had it with the whole Miralax thing! I went to my doctor and asked to be referred to a GI doctor. Luckily, we have a constipation clinic here and we are scheduled for March 28th. Some things I have learned along the way are banana's are constipating, milk and dairy products are constipating, and water seems to help. We have stopped giving my daughter milk except for once a week she can have one glass. We only let her drink water and then once a day she gets White Grape Juice 1/2 water and 1/2 juice. After my appointment I will let you know what we are told to do. I hope this info will help because I completely understand how frustrating this is for everyone involved.
We use Prune Butter ... it's like Apple Butter, but made with prunes. LO eats it like it's applesauce or I stir it into his plain oatmeal. He LOVES it and within an hour he's all cleaned out.
Try Fish oil gummies...they taste like candy and they really add some lubrication to the intestines (I like the Dolphin gummies - usually at health food stores)
