[cherubcheeks]

Hi

My 18mth old has all of a sudden become constipated in the last week or so. Struggling to poo out little hard rock pebbles.

I have not changed his diet at all in this time.

I have tried pears, prune juice (which he didn't like), extra water & juice & seeded breads to help him but nothing has seemed to work as yet.

Any ideas???

TIA

[Mercurial]

Pear juice rather than pears is more effective with constipation.

But it sounds like you need to go to the doctor. Movical will probably be recommended. But try and get on it as fast as you can - constipation can be a nasty cycle and incredibly hard to treat the longer it goes on.

[Hootabelles]

If you have done all the above try massaging his tummy around morning and night. You can get a syrup called lactulose. It is something our body naturally makes. it something that is not absorbed and goes straight down the tract and works a treat. I was worried about it as didn't want to start down the medicated route but when I looked into it further I was fine with it.
My Dd1 was constipated from 6 months on and had major stomach issues. Whenever she was impacted out came the lactulose and worked..I'm giving it to my 18 mth now too as she all of a sudden became constipated and is now in tears and crying yet nothing is coming through. It's so painful to watch as a parent... Hope it works for your little man



Eta- ensure you follow him everywhere with a bottle of water and be constantly giving it to him.

This post has been edited by bubba08: 27/02/2013, 11:14 AM

[Mummy-2-1boy]

Agree with everything the other have stated & have a few lil suggestions. My little boy struggled badly with constipation from
The time he was 3 months til he was 2&1/2. We treated on & off with movicol from when he was about 18months - he loved the stuff. Just the plain one, we would mix it with soda water & call it special fizzy & he used to ask for it everyday & throw tantrums if he wasn't allowed it, especially if there was no 'sugar' aka movicol in it...

Anyways, a little thing I learnt, he wouldn't take diluted prune juice BUT if you sit a prune in some water for a few hrs it goes out into the water but doesn't taste as pruny, it used to help. Try to offer as much fruit as possible, if he won't eat pears, offer anything else except banana.

Another easy one is psyllium husk, high fibre. I used to sprinkle it in his porridge & he was none the wiser - porridge can also help. It's not fun at all, but as the other have said, it's best to deal with it now. Try to encourage him to go as often as you can & don't let him hold on cuz it hurts, that just makes it worse. My poor lil man used to bleed at times cuz it was so hard for him, used to break my heart!

I think the key for us has been less dairy from stopping bottles & actually eating the odd vegetable as opposed to none!

[jhatfield]

I have a few tips as well as both my girls suffer from quite severe constipation - i would try coloxyl before the movicol / lactulose as its a bit gentler and is recommended for babies to 3 years. If u do need to go the movicol route i found movicol junior the easiest to get my DD to take as its flavourless and u can mix it with pretty much anything. Also, I found that eliminating dairy also helped. Just a few tips which might help. But I definitely recommend getting on top of it as soon as you can - it did cause some ongoing issues in my girls so the quicker u get it sorted the better. Good luck!

[Missmarymack]

Sounds silly but try a different cup to get your little one to drink more - my daughter will drink small amounts from a sippy cup but if I give her one with a straw she will drink litres.

Full prunes? Or make some dried fruit, seed abd oat truffles I he won't eat straight prunes.

Good luck

[cherubcheeks]

Thank you so much for all of your help!!

Really appreciate it.

[Verdandih]

My parents used to give me pureed prunes, It was smooth & sweet, I loved it (you could buy it in baby jars in Sweden).

I second the massage its nice & gives a bit of relief, still do it for myself.
Is he moving around a lot, that will help the bowels moving.

I feel for him, its not nice, do get on top of it was it will get worse.