3 yo constipated.

[alexandra]

Hi Ladies,
I have a worry, my three and a half year old has become a very fussy eater. The only fruits he likes are apples and bananas. The only vegies corn and carrot sometimes :eek:
He used to drink water heaps when he was smaller now he only wants juices and not much of it either. So as a result he becomes very constipated and had a spot of blood yesterday when I wiped his bottom. Sorry TMI :o
Has anyone had similar problems? How did you go about it? How did you sneak more vegies and fruit into their diet? Do you have any recipes which hide a lot of vegies and your kids love it? Any help would be great. :)

[the_queen]

Will he eat spaghetti bolognaise? Or Lasagne? Or meatballs? Anything with mince in it is perfect, you hide grated carrot, grated zucchini, grated sweet potato, grated ANYTHING.

I sometimes put parsnip in the mashed potato, she doesn't notice it. Mashed potato is the only vege she'll willingly eat.

Does he eat weetbix for breakfast? You could try the hi-bran variety, or even just buy a bag of bran and sprinkle it on the weetbix. Maybe sultana bran? Even if he picks the sultana's out, he'll still get the goodness from the flakes.

Hope this helps a little, it seems this "fussy eating" stage is perfectly normal, judging by the number of bubhub kids who go through it! So you'll get lots of advice here :thumbsup:

[FourAngelKisses]

Will he eat sultanas? They are high in fibre.
What about rissoles? Grate some veggies and put them in the mince before cooking.

If everything else fails, try mixing brown sugar in water and having him drink it.

[the_queen]

ooh great tip Jeanette!! Brown sugar and water works a treat :thumbsup:

[FourAngelKisses]

Actually, I should suggest it to my inlaws for my SIL. She's autistic and has Down Syndrome so is always constipated. Don't know why I didn't think of mentioning it to them earlier.

[alexandra]

Thanks for the tips girls. Keer them coming! It seems so far mince meat is the way to go. And I do cook with mince meat often so i'll be easy.
Wish me luck :fingerscrossed:

[jkate]

When DS1 wasnt eating vegetables, I used to dilate a bit of V8 Juice for him to have with dinner. Wish I had thought about the grated vegetables in the mince.

To help with constipation you could try, prune juice or see if he would take a prune - dont blame him if he didnt I cant stand them. Of course he needs to still have lots of water, but I know thats hard at this age when they can be sooooooooo stubborn.

Hope its getting better

[alexandra]

Yeah its hard, a year ago he would have eaten prunes or drank the juice. Now, no way. Hes so fussy it drives me nuts sometimes.:banghead:

[jkate]

When he does have juice, could you put in a bit of prune juice ?? Will he touch pears, maybe bribe him with some ice cream and stew pears???

[Yummy Mummy]

My niece had constipation for most of her first three years. My sister was told about unprocessed bran (no name brand in Wollies) - this saved Kristina's sore bottom as she was too scared to go to the toilet after quite a few bad experiences. My sister sprinkled a tablespoon of bran in Kristina's cereal each morning, then slowly decreased the amount when she started going to the toilet normally. My sister also said banana's are not good for constipation, stick to prune juice or stewed fruits and of course plenty of water. Hope this helps.:fingerscrossed:


Karen.

[bossoflatch]

when my eldest is constipated i give him a small glass of pear juice every morning and he loves it. When he settles we stop for a while - i guess it would n't even hurt to keep ip up thou, only a little undiluted amount though. maybe a third to half a glass>>>

[mich71]

i actually buy a narural laxitive which is quite safe to use at that age it made from saltans and prunes that kind of thing and roll it up in little balls put it in there cereal it helps them go natrualy no messes its called nu-lax or some thing like that get it from the health food shop

[Kari_Adel]

:thumbsdown: My DS (nearly 3yo) has struggled with constipation most of his life.

As a baby, brown sugar and water in a bottle was a gentle fix -- or for fussy bubs, just sneak it in their milk bottle etc.

Prune juice is great also, but like most toddlers DS wont touch it.. unless I disguise it 50/50 in apple and blackcurrant juice -- shhhh :o I've actually been able to drink it like that myself at times hehe.

Agree with grated vegies etc in mince etc. DS's fave is mashed potato.. so I often mash sweet potato, pumpkin, carrot, brocc etc if he's being fussy and that usually goes down without too many complaints.

At one stage DS's constipation was really bad. I lost track of his bowel motions as he was spending alot of broken time at his Dads.. and when he had not "gone" I presumed he'd down so at his fathers.. he ended up in alot of pain and after an x-ray confirmed how backed up he was.. he needed an enema.. THAT WAS HORRIBLE!

The nursing staff at FMC (Paediatric) were great, and they advised me to keep DS on ACTILAX (available from the pharmacy - no script needed) for 6 months to keep things running smoothly ;) no pun intended..

Unfortunately children who have uncomfortable poo's, often start 'holding on' and this makes it worse. So get on top of this problem asap.. ensure your bub doesn't start associating pain with going to the toilet -- I knew of someone who's daughter (aged 4yo) REFUSED to EAT because she didn't want to have to go to the TOILET!

Good luck! :kiss:

[Blueberry Crumble]

Im bumping this one up because my 3 yo is constipated :(

It started with a couple of rock hard poos (one I hadto manually pull out!!) Sorry TMI!!!

Now if he needs to poo he hides somewhere and holds his bottom until the urge goes away. He is going to make himself sick.

I have sent him to bed tonight with a sippy cup full of pear juice, and have been trying to include fibre in his diet as much as possible. Does anyone know if milk is constipating? Because we struggle to keep his milk intake down, he is addicted to it and we haveto water it down as it is!

Anyway we have an appointment with the doc tomorrow.

What laxatives are very gentle and ok for a 3 year old?