Constipated 16 Month Old

Miralax is a wonderful alternative and is now iover the counter. Sometimes milk and dairy products will stop you up. You can put the miralax powder in any drink and you can't taste it. It worked great for us.

I do not blame you because years ago my sister in law told me a story about one of her kids friends actually another kid in boy scouts who would boop and now know it. They used used supositories all the time and he had not control. Bananas seems to make it come out smoother and easier. G. W

Try miralax or benefiber. They both mix in water or juice and he should not taste them. Start with 1 teaspoon and add a little more until stools are soft but not loose and liquidy. There are also some fiber tablets that are sugar free and taste pretty good, we use those in our house. Break on in half and either chew or suck,until you get the disired results, like a bowel movement a day. The benefiber could be mixed with pudding or mashed potatoes, soup you name it, just let any powders dissolve and sit for a few minutes in liquids.
Good luck,
L.

Hi S.,

Our little grand baby had it about the same time as your son...we got a her a good probiotic from the Health food store.

And it not only improved her stool but it helped her immune system...she was getting constantly colds and cold sores before the probiotic. After we started her on them she recovered and has been doing great.

M.

We had this problem with our older child and you have already received many useful remedies in other posts. I just wanted to let you know that we had to use the glycerin suppositories on our dgtr and everytime we went through that nightmare I worried about what psychological effects we could be causing her, she was closer to two at the time.
Now she is a bright, social, well adjusted, healthy 14 year old. She remembers having a struggle with this issue, but she doesn't remember the awful suppository experiences. Do whatever you can to remedy the root cause of the constipation, but it is much healthier for your child to release his bowels, whatever it takes at this point.

You will be so relieved when you can throw those glycerin things away for good!

Our son struggled with this, and his dr. had us get Senecot. If I remember correctly, it's all natural, won't get them "addicted," and tastes like chocolate, so our son loved it. Good luck!

Hi S.!
In the past, we've used prune juice - it really works. You don't even need a lot - too much will come out just as it went in (we had fun finding that out - LOL!); just a tablespoon or 2 added to your milk/formula should do the trick. Our little guy doesn't seem to mind it at all, and it works every time. I think you need to be careful to not use too much water - babies' bodies just don't need it like adults' bodies.
Good luck!
-Christina

Magnesium Citrate. You can buy in flavored liquid form on the shelf at any drug store. Mix it with his juice and he won't even know it's there. Almond milk is better than soy or rice milk, if you're looking for an alternative to try. Get the "no sweetener" added kind so he won't be getting the added sugar. Gook luck!

When one of my twins was constipated, the dr. reccomended Metamucil wafers for her. You can get them at the grocery store or walmart. I fed them to her as a snack and she loved them. They work great too, they have lots of fiber and get them "going" within a day.

My friend's 1 year old was extremely constipated and she took her daughter to a chiropractor. Problem solved.

Best of luck!

Prunes, peaches, pears...the "P" fruits relieve constipation. I also do applesauce, and it keeps my boys movin'. I would also agree with the previous post on wheat & dairy allergies. They both can bind you up if your body doesn't do well/digest it properly. You could try eliminating those things (if you don't want to test). For us, eliminating wheat showed positive results immediately. The dairy (dark bags under eyes) went away within a few days.

My son became constipated when he was about 10 months old and his colon got stretched out. It became a cycle and the problem has now gone on for over a year. I have done flax oil, flax seeds, probiotics, Fletchers laxative liquid, suppositories, and all manner of diet change. I finally tried Natural Calm the magnesium supplement from our health food. It can be mixed with juice though my son won't drink it. So I heat 1/2 a tsp of water in the microwave and mix in 1 tsp of the powder and some sugar, let it dissolve (it will foam) then suck a syringe full and hold him down to give it to him. He hates it but it works 24 hours later like a charm. I have to give it daily. But eventually with regular pooping his colon will finally return to normal. They say it can take 6 months to a year. Look for the baby version of the Natural Calm - I have the adult version as they were out at the time. The adviser told me how to change the dose for my son's body weight of 36lbs.

Both of my boys went through a 'constipation" period when they really started eating more solid food.
I gave them a small drink of prune juice mixed with apple juice EVERY day to help keep things regular until they got used to of digesting the more solid stuff.

For once, I think the doctor is right. MIlk is known for causing these problems. Milk is not necessary to ensure a child gets calcium and vitamin D. Humans are the only mammals that consume the milk of another mammal and the human body is not well designed to process it - the fact that folks don't react is actually the abnormal sitution. Also, the nutrients are not particularly well absorbed from milk due to the protein structure of the milk.

I would also suggest you consider whether wheat gluten is a contributing factor. That was the number one symptom of my younger son - and just like you have experienced despite the best of diets, the problem would not resolve.

You can see my long diatribe as to why it is so important to consider this testing that you can do on your own through enterolab: www.enterolab.com

http://www.mamasource.com/request/recent/75022/1229098558/8
tinyurl: http://tinyurl.com/6eaw3e

Also, this is one problem where I do NOT recommend you try experimenting on your own. It can be very difficult to remove all wheat gluten from the diet since it is a hidden ingredient in things like natural flavorings and it often contaminates products that might look to be safe due to being manufactured on the same lines/in the same plant as wheat containing products.

That lab also will test for a dairy allergy.

sorry -- didn't read the other responses, just wanted to chime in and offer in case it's not here somewhere that the extra fiber & oils is limited by the factor of liquid he consumes. does he drink water? if not, perhaps you can try offering half-diluted juice (ocean spray white cranberry strawberry has a little less sugar than most, and you can also try acai berry juice, the o.n.e. brand (in a shiny, purple smallish container) is pretty sweet, but even diluted it's a pretty substantive juice with good flavor. acai berries have omegas and antioxidants -- and my son's bowels are pretty loosey-goosey after he drinks even a quarter cup of it.

HTH!

p.s. we also avoid soy & due to allergies/intolerances have had history of doing well with neocate and later as he got older, enriched rice drink (i further supplemented his diet with sprinkles of dandelion root every now and then, olive oil or avocado oil in every bottle, as well as prune juice when needed. oh yeah, and what seemed to work best was about a quarter teaspoon of Essential Balance Jr. (blue bottle, refrigerated section next to the probiotics in some larger, health food type stores - call to check around, saves some time.) one other thing regarding beverage - neocate makes a 'formula' for toddlers and older kids, neocate jr. i think, that might be worth checking into as well. (we always found ebay to be a great way to get our neocate!) ;D

Hi S.!

My son had the same problem when he started on solid foods. Everything he ate made him constipated and we tried prune juice, apple juice, peaches,...you name it, nothing worked. One day while one of my children was in the hospital I ran out of juice and the only thing that was available was grape juice, so I poured some in his bottle and he drank it. Soon afterwards he had a bowel movement and this time it was much looser! You don't know how happy I was! I thought that I had tried everything but never thought to offer him grape juice! It worked so well, (concord only) so much that I had to water it down before I gave it to him or he would get runny stools. Maybe you could try it, hopefully it will work.

Have a great day!
M.

I would suggest you try the Silk soy milk. I understand you have 'read' a lot about the effects of soy. I too read everything and try to do research, many times to my detriment. There is bad hype out there about everything.

My daughter can't drink milk and has been on soy milk since she was 1. I asked my dr about the issues with soy and children and he said it's fine. I told him what I had read and he said if there was anything in it, it was too small of an amount to actually cause issues. So, I suggest you do what makes your baby feel better now and ignore the hype.

GL!