# Toddler's painful, but "normal", poops



## tboroson (Nov 19, 2002)

My younger dd, 17 months, has been straining and crying while making her poops for quite a while now. If she were constipated, I'd understand... but she's not. The poops come with reasonable frequency (usually once daily, sometimes every other day. About the same as her sister before her,) and they're not hard pellets. They are perfectly normal, squishy poops, occasionally (on those days when she decides that solid food is of no use to her and she's just sticking with Mom's boob, thanks,) they're even super soft breastmilk poops. I don't understand why she's having so much trouble when she's apparantly not constipated. My Mom keeps insisting that I should take her in to the doctor because she might have a "blockage". Does anybody here have any insight?

Thank you!


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## IansMommy (Jun 14, 2005)

I could have written your post a little over a year ago, and the good news is that my dd didn't have a blockage. She had one painful poop (somewhere during toddlerhood) and became scared to go...so she would hold it in for a day, and then it was harder to push out because it was larger (not hard). And the vicious cycle began.
If you really think there is a problem, go to the ped...
But I would try some home things first. I cut cheese and bananas out of dd's diet, and snuck pureed prunes into muffins, cookies, etc. I also pushed fruit over other snacks. Over time, she had less issues with pooping. But I won't lie to you...it took a few months to get things right. Even now, at three years old, I must make sure that she eats a certain amount of fiber/fruit per day, and has enough water, so that she doesn't start the cycle again. I wish you luck!


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## tboroson (Nov 19, 2002)

Thank you for the advice! I've been trying to convince her to eat more fruit for a while. She likes fruit, but she usually only eats a little bit when I give it to her - like, she screams for slices of apples when I slice one for her sister... but she mostly licks the sweet surface and leaves the rest of it on the floor...


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## Mrs_Hos (May 3, 2004)

My dd has constipation issues...and I have some 'secrets' for foods for ya!







Oh, first off, your dc may have a rectal or anal fissure...the one constipation event may have caused a fissure and now any bacteria (poop) may be painful.

Foods...raisins, aloe vera juice, grapefruit seed extract, prune juice (hidden in juice), and lots and lots of fluids!







BM is best!


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## twinkletoes (Apr 15, 2002)

my friend's little guy had what you are describing. we went (me & my eczema ds, her & her poopin' ds) to a traditional chinese doctor who told her that her ds's spleen was out of balance or somesuch and gave an herbal pack that she taped onto his tummy for a week & afterwards pooping didn't hurt him anymore. TCM is a bit of a mystery when looking at it from a western paradigm, but it works!


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