Constipation…Questions/advice

[Anonymous]

Hi everybody,

Myles is doing really well these days…reflux improving, increase in mobility, happy temperment, etc. The only problem is that he is becoming increasingly constipated.

Since about two months of age I noticed sluggish bowels and probable dge/low motility, but his stools were always soft despite his having to push hard to pass them.

Now in the last few weeks his stools are becoming harder and more of the “pebbles” characteristic of constipation.

I just don’t know what to do. I know that increasing his fluid intake would likely help but he will not take a sippy cup and he drinks only one two to three ounce bottle at 4pm and one six ounce bottle at bedtime. The rest of his feedings consist of breast milk or soy formula mixed with oatmeal and spoon fed. Probably too much bulk, but what can I do if he won’t drink anything? He also eats approx 3 jars of fruit or veg daily. I give him flax seed oil daily and prunes most days. None of this seems to be working, though it did help initially.

Here are my questions:

Does Prevacid cause constipation?

What is Miralax? Have any of you had success with it? Can it be used long term? Any nasty side effects?

Do you think I should replace one of his breast milk/oatmeal feedings with fiber juice or some other juice? I’d have to mix it with oatmeal and spoon feed it because he won’t drink it. My concern is that this would reduce his breast milk / formula intake to 14 – 15 ounces a day.

Any other suggestions?

I really appreciate any advice you may have. Thanks.

[Anonymous]

I think it’s much more likely the high amounts of cereal causing the
constipation than the Prevacid. Plus soy milk is constipating too.

We did have success with Miralax but before you go that route, you may
want to try the fiber juice – we’ve had GREAT success with it and much
more natural long term. At this point we only need about 2.5-3
ounces/day of it (we use the apple) and we get good mushy poos that are
easy for her to pass.

You’ve tried sippy cups but have you tried straw cups? M much prefers them.

[Anonymous]

I would also say that it’s probably the cereal combined with the low volume of fluid intake. Also the soy was awful for us in terms of constipation. How much soy vs. breast milk is he taking? When Hailey started getting mostly soy, she started having serious problems with constipation. It lessened up a bit when she got off the soy. The fibrejuice may be worth a try, otherwise I’ve heard of quite a few people having success on miralax. A less drastic approach, we were told, if needed was to use lactulose- it’s a non-absorbed sugar that draws water through the GI tract. It tastes sweet like orange and you give a tsp daily. You do need a script for it though. Also you can try giving him a few tsps of warm water. That sometimes used to help here. s&h’s mum2006-6-29 21:20:42

[Anonymous]

Zach was always constipated and nothing would help that he could
tolerate so of course my Grandma told me to try what they always relied
on – sugar water. I would just mix a little sugar with a little
water and give him a couple of syringes full (if he didn’t want is
sippy otherwise I would leave it in there). In a matter of a
couple of hours, he had a very easy bowel movement and he was so much
happier. We still have to do this at times but now that he likes
to drink from his sippy, we typically mix prune juice with just bit of
apple juice or water and he’ll drink a whole cup of that.

[Anonymous]

Forgot about that Tricia – brown sugar used to help here too – we’d
sometimes use that. We used to put 1 tsp of brown sugar in warm water…

[Anonymous]

Well, i would actually go down the miralax route… for Matthew, because of his low intake we limit other liquids that are not formula. And by the way, Matthew used to have a hard time passing soft stools and now all that has changed with Miralax!! Do a search, but i looked into it because one of the warnings in the pharmacist pack was dependency BUT it seems that the body cannot become dependent on it because it is not a laxative – it is a big molecule that dissolves in water and then once it reaches the intestines it pulls water into intestines making the stool softer (ie nothing chemical ini terms of making the body do anything like with laxatives). We need a really small dose to see anything, about 1teaspoon or maybe a little bit more and it has made a huge difference. NOW, the only thing is that if he needs more than 2 teaspoons or so, and his liquid intake is already low then it could be a problem… because it draws water into initestine, that water is not absorbed by body…

[Anonymous]

Thanks everybody!

Our doctor is on vacation so I can’t ask about the Miralax or Lactulose until next Wednesday. For now I am going to try some of your good ideas, warm water, sugar water, brown sugar and water. He’s just so darn stubborn about any liquid intake. I have to trick him or distract him and then squirt it in, and he’ll often get mad and spit it out or gag and barf. It’s so frustrating. And to be honest, I really am sick and tired of spoon feeding this kid liquid slop every day. I wish he’s just take a bottle or cup.

I ordered some apple fiber juice, too. Of course, it will only help if I can get him to drink it.

I’m also going to try to reduce his cereal intake. It will be difficult to spoon feed even thinner breast milk than I have been, but I have to do something to help him.

Lori, he is only getting 5-6 ounces of soy right now. The rest is breast milk. I am trialing Carnation Good Start and hopefully if he tolerates it I will stop the soy in the next few weeks. Thanks for the tip about lactulose. I’ll ask the doctor about it next week.

Karen, I did buy straw cups yesterday and so far he just loves chewing on them and but hasn’t figured out to how to suck on them yet. Maybe with time he’ll get it. I’m hoping one day I can pour some fiber juice in his straw cup and he will actually drink it.

Thais, Thanks for the info on Miralax. I was afraid it was a stimulant type laxative, but it sounds much safer other, than the liquid intake which is always a problem around here. I’ll talk to the doc next week about it.

Tricia, the sugar water sounds simple and if it works – GREAT, easy solution. I’m going to try that first.

Thanks everyone.

Christine

[Anonymous]

Christine

A mom had a good tip about teaching babies to drink from a straw cup… you kind of let them play around with a 60cc syringe and whatever you want inside and they get used to sucking etc… i have not really tried it but worth a try maybe?

[Anonymous]

In addition to Thais’ straw tip, what we did was take a straw and cut
it in half and then put some liquid (we did water) in it. Then we took
the straw and covered it with our finger so the liquid would stay in
and put it in DDs mouth. When she realized liquid was in there she
started sucking. We did that a few times and made sure to drink from
straws in front of her ourselves. She’s now quite good at it (when she
wants to be LOL) and will drink from her Nuby straw cup and prefers
drinking from my water glass (with straw) even more!

[Anonymous]

Emma was severly constipated on Soy and nothing helped until I switched formula’s to Alimentum and we have not had a problem since. We did try Lactulose and it cause severe cramping (which is a common side effect listed on the package) and non stop crying. Hopefully once you get his formula switched over you won’t have any more problems. Good luck!!

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the straw tips Thais and Karen. Great ideas! So far he is quite resistant to me putting the straw in his mouth but I’m letting him play with his straw cup and I will continue to try the “water in the straw” trick and I will definitely try the syringe idea, too.

I JUST CAN’T UNDERSTAND WHY HE WON’T DRINK ANYTHING.

Brandy, thanks for the advice about lactulose. Yikes! I’d hate to see that happen. Maybe some babies can tolerate it. Hopefully I won’t have to try it with Myles, but I will have to do something soon. As for the soy, right now he only gets a maximum of 6 ounces of soy per day so I didn’t think that was doing it, but maybe. I’m hoping to switch him to carnation good start. I’m trying two ounces per day for now to see if he can tolerate it. Maybe finally eliminating the soy will help.

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

You could try a little bit of prune juice. Dr. Sears site mentions giving them a warm bath and lightly massaging the stomach to get the bowels moving. http://www.askdrsears.com

[Anonymous]

Julia,

Thanks for the tip about massage. I will look into that.

I do give him prunes nearly everyday! He’s actually learning to like them.

Increasing his fluid intake and decreasing the oatmeal seems to be helping a little.

He loves, loves, loves, the sugar water!! But he just gags on juice. Little rascal!

[Author]

Posts