# papaya for infants?



## gretelmom (Jun 22, 2005)

i have an 8 m.o who has always been sooo constipated. he has the worst, painful dry poops and even gets little cuts in his toosh and bleeds! plus he HATES to eat solid food. he likes anything he can drink, bottle, cup, breast, sippy cup, evian bottle, whatever.

so he drinks pear and prune juice but i'm wondering whether babies can have Papaya as i know there's an enzyme in papaya that naturally softens stools.... i know under a year they can't have a few foods but i'm never sure what! i know no nuts obviously, and the doc said no berries (is it just raw berries?) and i think no melon....

anyway what does everyone think of papaya juice or just giving him a spear of papaya to gnaw on (if he would, he probably would just throw it away and ask for milk milk milk!

i know he'd drink the juice.....

any ideas?


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## peaceful_mama (May 27, 2005)

Have you considered this might be the result of a food allergy? The first thing I'd guess is dairy, and I have heard that some babes with dairy sensitivity will be very constipated. Can you try taking dairy out of his diet? It can take 2 weeks to get out of the system, what I would do is try it for 3-4 weeks, but I would talk to your doctor about what formula to use if you're not nursing. It's just a thought.


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## gretelmom (Jun 22, 2005)

we took dairy out, put him on soy formula. it got MUCH worse when he stopped nursing - i should have kept nursing him but i was desperate for a solution and they thought it might be lactose intolerance to breast milk. wish i'd understood breastmilk better then! well, now i know better.

anyway that wasn't it. the soy made the stools sooooo much worse. enfamil gentlease is the best formula for him so far.

any other ideas? papaya?


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## melissa17s (Aug 3, 2004)

just give him a little papaya to see how he does... it is like any other food. test how he reacts and if it does not cause a bad reaction then let him eat it. I would not give a lot of it to him no matter what... too much can either cause constipation or the other end of the spectrum, diarrhea, but a small amount can be very beneficial.

Also, have you introduced soft fiber foods, like cereals? I have heard that the iron "enriched" versions can cause constipation, but an unfortified version may make his stools softer... like oatmeal or creamy wheat.


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## gretelmom (Jun 22, 2005)

good advice on the papaya. he can't start cereals other than rice b/c i've got a condition called Celiac where i can't have grains... so we wait unti; he's 1 yr before starting those... wish i could though. i think rice is too constpatory...


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## mogit (May 4, 2004)

My dd was also constipated when she started on solids. I found adding ground flaxseed to her cereal helped a lot, as did offering her water in a cup with meals. I also gave her pureed pears almost every day.

I gave both DD and DS pureed papaya as babies. According to the Super Baby Food book, it can be introduced at six months. I wasn't aware that it was a stool softener.

BTW, DD is now almost one, and she is no longer constipated. I ended up cutting way back on her cereal intake for awhile, and when I increased the amount gradually again around 10 months, she was able to handle it much better. I think her system just wasn't quite ready for it before.


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## sevenkids (Dec 16, 2002)

IN Jamaica, (Where we have lots of papaya growing everywhere) it was one of the foods to be avoided until 2 years. The Grannies said it, the doctors said it, and the Ministry of Health said it. I'm not sure why it was to be avoided, except that there was some enzymes in it that didn't agree with babies.
Prune juice works well.


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