constipation?

[neeleymartin]

my nephew, who is 2.5 years old, has terrible constipation. his poops are hard and he strains to go. he eats fruits and veggies almost exclusively, and snacks on prunes throughout the day.

my sil is as wits end. on wednesday, last week, my brother had to insert a finger with vaseline into bum to ease a giant hard poop out. poor little guy/s (bro and babe).

fwiw, he is an adoption from guatamala. he has been in the us since 7mos old, so it's not a transition thing. does his culture possibly have different diatary needs? he eats the best "regularity diet" i have ever seen. she also started with primadophilus to get some good bacteria down below.

any advice would be super helpful. please offer, even if you think it is crazy or possibly too obvious.

desperately seeking poop,

[ahrimie]

Maybe easing off of too many fruits/veggies will help. I've always been irregular since I was a child and my parents did anything and everything they could think of to get me to go poop. I find that eating too much fiber makes it harder to go. Adding in some carbs should help, like rice or bread--something easy on the stomach.

I don't know... but I hope that helps a little!

[slworld]

Just wondering if he drinks enough water. Think fiber works best taken with sufficient amount of water.

[LarsMal]

We have been dealing with terrible constipation issues with DS for several months now. Are they trying to PT by chance? That can have an impact on constipation issues.

Warm fruit juices- prune, apple, pear- can help. Pears, in general are good "go-ers". They seem to be the thing that has kept DS off the Miralax and Fleet products lately.

I agree with pp who said too many fruits/veggies can actually be a negative. If too many "bulk forming" foods are eaten it can be hard to pass them. Drinking plenty of fluids can help, too.

With DS we started with glycerin suppositories, moved on to enimas, he had Miralax twice a day, and I also gave him Fleet Pedia-Lax chewables. I would have you SIL talk to the ped before they try any of those things, but the Miralax and the Fleet chewables do work.

Also- does he eat a lot of dairy? That can cause constipation, too.

GL!

[amldaley]

Not to be too obvious, but do the many fruits he is eating include bananas??? "natures cork"????

Could it also be that he may have bowel problems from poor nutrition while in the womb or in his first 7 mos???

[tylersmama]

We've had some really bad constipation problems in our house, too. DS has been known to puke from trying to go so hard. I think we've finally got it solved, though. The solution for us has been prune juice. He gets one sippy a day, diluted half and half with water. He's also started eating fruits again, finally, and I think that helps a little. And lentils! The kid loves lentils...I buy the Amy's Lentil soup and Tastybite Madras lentils from Costco. He calls them "soup" and asks for them almost every day. Great source of protein AND fiber. Between the prune juice and the lentils, we haven't had a constipation incident for a month and a half, thank goodness.

[infomama]

If prunes aren't working I would think there may be a deeper problem. We give DD1 3 prunes and DD2 two prunes when they have hard poops and in less than 24 hours, they are all good. I agree w/pp...watch those bananas.