Hi Claire,
I am responding to your post about constipation, as I am going through similar with my daughter although she is 26 months now.

She had a couple of little bouts of constipation before 18 months which I managed to resolve with upping fluid, giving pear/apple stews and prunes. At about the 20 month mark she again developed constipation which has now been ongoing for 6 months and I have been everywhere for help. I think it came on as a result of her not having enough fluid for a few days for much the same reasons you mentioned but this time nothing I did resolved it.

I visited a couple of doctors, (one of whom told me that some children 'just have sluggish digestion' which I refuse to believe! My DD was fine with digestion up until that point!!) and a nutritionist. I sought advice from other mothers and on BB here. None of the advice worked. My DD has a really good diet (the nutritionist was stumped).

I finally went to another doctor who really listened to me, acknowledged it was not her area of expertise and referred me to a specialist.

Well... today I finally got the appointment with the specialist and I am so relieved. What he had to tell me made such perfect sense and we are on the road to recovery.

I don't want to go into details here as I really don't think it is right to hand over medical advice when every situation is different and I am not trained to make medical judgements . However, my advice is that if you try all of the advice that is standard for constipation and none of it works - get a GP referral to a specialist. There is a solution that is simple and it is really important to get sorted out. Children can become chronically constipated which can lead to a stretching of their bowl - further constipation and at the very worst fecal incontinence. It is incredibly traumatic for them and for mothers to watch. The key is that children's constipation should not really be treated in the same way as adult's constipation. There is a whole other approach.

I hope you are not getting to that stage yet and that you are able to knock this constipation on the head with the suggestions you have been given so far as they are all pretty good remedies in a normal circumstance. If it goes on though, don't hesitate to seek help!

I am just on cloud nine today to have my questions answered and my plan of action! We have a bit of a path ahead, but for the first time in a long time I feel positive and realise there is a solution.

Finally, you have some great advice for ideas to increase your DDs fluid intake. I used all these tricks too. I also have a crazy number of cups of different styles as I find that new cups/drink bottles will capture the attention of my DD and guarantee more drinking. I dilute her milk so she gets more water, give her home made icypoles (Milk and water or water with a splash of juice or hydrolyte) and offer drink to her allllll the time! That has all helped us so much! I also try to model as much as I can and mention whenever I am having a drink.

Good luck, let me know if you want any more details of my experiences.