# constipation and witholding poop in 15 month old (and flaxseed oil question)



## marsipan (Sep 4, 2009)

my DD has always been infrequent with her BMs, but back when she was exclusively breastfed i didn't sweat it. now that she's eating solids, we're running into constipation issues... she was badly constipated a week ago and had a really hard time going... lots of straining and even a little bit of blood  after that I've been making sure she's getting peaches/plums/pears daily and that seemed to help things A LOT (daily and soft BMs), but this weekend we had lots going on and weren't pushing the water and fruits as much and she strained and it bleed a tiny bit again. and after this, she seems (rightly so) afraid to go and strained to hold it in. ahhh, i don't want baby girl to get into the cycle of withholding, so I want to do as much as I can to make sure it doesn't hurt her. Here's what I'm thinking..

- fresh plums/peaches/pears

- splash of prune juice in her sippy cup of water

- no cheese or white rice

- flax seed oil (husband picked up some softgels of webber naturals organic cold pressed flaxseed oil that I think I'll snip and pour into a fruit smoothie, but a question. the back says it contains: Organic flaxseed oil 1000mg, alpha-linolenic acid 530mg, linoleic acid 100 mg, oleic acid 120mg... is this safe for a 15 month old to take?)

thanks for reading. it's the worst thing in the world to see your baby crying and straining, and I was lucky with DS that he would just eat fruits all day and LOVED water. DD just nurses all day but does. not. drink. water. willingly at all. getting a couple of oz of water into her a day is an accomplishment. it usually involves letting her play by the window while i sing songs and read books and try to get her to take sips by making funny face :/


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## lovepickles (Nov 16, 2010)

Can she drink from a straw yet? We do smoothies with prune juice in them and they work great.


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## marsipan (Sep 4, 2009)

she can drink from a straw, but only takes a sip or two before she loses interest. she's like that with all sippy cups. i kind of have to force her to drink in order to get a significant amount in.

could drinking too much breast milk along with eating solids cause constipation?


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## lovepickles (Nov 16, 2010)

I don't think there is a thing as too much breastmilk but take the straining for stools seriously because my DD is now afraid of pooping. The trick is to get enough prune or pear juice in them so they just can't hold it in. That way it doesn't hurt. My DD would only take a few sips at a time but we experimented with different straw cups and sometimes would read books and I would just keep handing it to her. Our most successful smoothie recipe so far is:

BASE

whole milk (or greek) yogurt 1 cup

3 tbsp ground flax seed

4 tbsp raw almond butter

1 ripe banana

1 tsp udo (DHA oil at whole foods in cold section)

I mix the above together as a paste in a magic bullet and keep it in the fridge. When ready to drink i mix it in a lidded straw cup and shake.

MIXED

2 oz plain kefir (from trader joes)

3 oz L&D pure prune juice

2 oz whole milk

4-5 oz of the BASE

She usually drinks 5-6 oz at a time for a snack. She'll drink about 15 oz on a good day. It keeps her stools VERY soft but unfortunately she still holds it in as long as she can because it used to hurt. We are still working on that one. She hates to poop. 

FYI after speaking to our ped and a nutritionist they were all adamant about JUICE being the key to loose stools. So sneak it in where ever you can.


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## marsipan (Sep 4, 2009)

i've been pushing water/pear juice blend SO MUCH yesterday and this morning, and she actually finally went this afternoon. i'm not sure if she strained bc she went off to the corner but thank goodness, there was no crying at least. even with all that juice and water, it still wasn't exactly soft







but at least it wasn't hard.

thank you for that recipe! i might skip the banana because she always gets clogged up when she has them, but i love the almond butter suggestion.. hopefully she'll drink it.

i feel so guilty about juice because we never do juice, but you're right, it is literally the only thing that helps.. and even then, it's a chore to get her to drink it!


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## lovepickles (Nov 16, 2010)

Ah I also forgot to mention another trick I use to get her to drink her smoothie. We watch Blues Clues together. It is currently streaming on Netflix. So I say "HEY (DD) let's have a smoothie and watch Steve." I could get her excited about dental surgery if I put Steve in the sentence. She'll do just about anything if I let her watch Blues Clues. I know it isn't ideal but it works.


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## Melaniee (Apr 15, 2002)

Oh Gosh, BTDT, same age. It was horrible.

I did the following:

-juice mixed w/ water (we never did juice before that). Apple, Grape, Orange

-probiotics (Life Start from Natren)...these were miraculous. We used to mix it in water and put it into a sippy cup.

-bran muffins

-fresh apples

-NO APPLESAUCE, BANANAS OR RICE. Seriously...for months. And then I restricted it greatly for years.

I will say, what finally helped for us was Ds sitting on the little potty. I think the resistance of the diaper also exacerbated the problem. That part wasn't easy either. He was a super complaisant toddler so just telling him to sit there and he did, but he still cried and screamed (though I think that was also the fear and pain). After a few times he stopped withholding, and realized it wouldn't hurt and he was then potty-poop 'trained,' too.

Good luck.


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## cbrant (Dec 3, 2010)

Hi everyone!... Long time lurker, first time poster. We went through this with our 2 year old a few years back. We tried all sorts of diet modification and it did simply did not work for us. After calling our pediatrician we decided to get on a program of daily Restoralax (Miralax in the states I believe) until the poop was soft. If they're withholding, it is really really hard to fix this problem with diet modification alone because the very act of withholding dehydrates the stool and works to undo all the diet fixes. Restoralax is an osmotic laxative meaning that it causes the intestine to absorb less water leaving more water in the stool. Milk of Magnesia also works in this fashion. We decided to treat this aggressively because it can cause real physical damage to their colon if they are constantly withholding. Do try diet modification, but if it doesn't work, I'd try the stool softener. You will probably only have to use it for a few weeks.


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## marsipan (Sep 4, 2009)

i try TV too after a few sips sometimes she just pushes it away. i know i sound dramatic but sometimes i want to cry when she does that. i know the pressure is on me to make sure she's well hydrated and she just doesn't want to comply 

cbrant, i have a friend whose son was on miralax for a few months and she said it helped greatly and they gradually weaned him off it. our family doc suggested this too, but i want to try pushing more fluids and seeing if the flaxseed oil helps before trying that, but i haven't completely discounted it either. i am just desperate for us to get of the cycle of withholding and constipation.


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## lilgreenmama (Jun 5, 2009)

DS has the same thing. Our pediatrician told us to give her Miralax every day - I've tried everything but it's the only thing that works. It doesn't work like a laxative but just makes her stool softer. It's really an emotional battle - if it hurts one time, then she'll hold it for days the next time around.

p.s - miralax is kind of expensive so i get the generic - i cant tell a difference.


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## lovepickles (Nov 16, 2010)

I'm really weary of giving Miralax because it affects the absorption of water and I also figure since water isn't being absorbed by the bowel it probably doesn't take in the normal nutrients because your bowels need the water in the food to absorb nutrients. Miralax is polyethylene glycol (love my wikipedia skills) and also used to lubricate printers ... among many other uses. I can't say ingesting something like that was intended for organic lifeforms but hey it hasn't killed anyone and makes kids poop so I can see why it is available ... just not for MY kid. I feel like doctors mean well by prescribing it but it is really unnecessary with all of the natural solutions out there. People want drugs to fix stuff, I get it. Besides I'm really not interested in giving my money to Merck when I can support an organic farmer packaging pure organic prune juice with no additives.


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## Mandy613 (Mar 11, 2012)

what about glycerine suppositories? and really pumping up the water intake. bowels need water for natural lubricant 

could also make date and prune treats like muffins. most kids will eat something if they think its a treat lol.


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## marsipan (Sep 4, 2009)

we've used suppositories only a few times in 15 months, and i think it really traumatizes her  i try not to use them except in extreme conditions.

she's getting a bit better about her water intake. not where i want us to be, but i can get her to take 1-2oz at a time and i do it a few times a day. honestly, i think once she forgets that pooping hurts, it'll be better. she actively withheld poop a few days ago and it was so difficult to watch because i couldn't do anything. at first i thought she was straining to get it out, but when i checked her diaper there was only 1 quarter sized soft poop. she did it again later on and the same thing again. then i realized she's straining to keep it in :/ she eventually went the next day but we'll see.


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## lessmith23 (Apr 1, 2009)

DD is 2.5 and we battled severe constipation issues with her when she was around 18 months old. We've been able to correct the problem with changes to her diet (turns out she's gluten intolerant) however there is still some anxiousness surrounding pooping due to pain in the past.

In addition to diet changes, we've had success with magnesium. It's a powdered form that you just mix with boiling water. You can cut it with water but I usually do fruit juice with DD. We don't need to use it as much as we did when she was younger as her diet is much more varied now - she'll snack on fruit etc. throughout the day.

The magnesium has made a lot of difference for her because it keeps her poop soft and prevents it from hurting when she goes. DD has to poop everyday or we have a problem. If she doesn't go on her own then I give her some juice with the mag.

We've recently started potty training and there is still some anxiousness surrounding popping even though it doesn't hurt her to go anymore so it's definitely something you want to solve right away.


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## marsipan (Sep 4, 2009)

ooh, that's something to look into. what dosage do you use for little toddlers... DD is probably 25ish lbs. should i ask my doc about this or is it okay to use OTC?

Quote:


> Originally Posted by *lessmith23*
> 
> DD is 2.5 and we battled severe constipation issues with her when she was around 18 months old. We've been able to correct the problem with changes to her diet (turns out she's gluten intolerant) however there is still some anxiousness surrounding pooping due to pain in the past.
> 
> ...


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## lessmith23 (Apr 1, 2009)

The brand of magnesium I get is called "Natural Calm" (I think) and I just buy it at our local health food store. It's not difficult to find, most of the health food stores in our area carry it.

The dosing is on the label. With DD, I started with something small like 1/4 tsp and went from there. Basically you want to get soft stools but not loose and frequent to the point of diarrhea.

You can always check with your doctor to make sure they are OK with you giving magnesium to your daughter. In our case, our doctor wasn't helpful and was pushing prescribed stool softeners and laxatives which DH and I weren't comfortable with. After reading some information on long term use of those methods we decided to try a non-medicated route first which luckily worked on our case.

Good luck


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## Lynann (Jul 29, 2010)

We had issues with DS1 until just a few months ago. It hurt every single time and he would be crying from the pain. We'd also get blood about once a week too. What worked for us was black beans. We just added cooked black beans to his food (no need to even mush them) and within a few days his stools were a lot softer and way more frequent. It probably took about 2 months to finally get him over the fear of pooping and if he doesn't go for a few days we now just add the black beans back in. I was very cynical when I first heard about it, but was willing to try to see if it helped. If you are having trouble getting your little one to take more fluids it might be worth trying the black beans. I did about 2-3 teaspoons twice a day mixed in with his normal food. We continued it for a couple of months and now we only have to do it if he has a couple of days without pooping. We just used canned black beans that were already cooked.


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## lilgreenmama (Jun 5, 2009)

We tried adjusting diet first, Miralax is the only thing that works for MY daughter.


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