I'm hoping someone out there might have a bit of advice. My DD is 14 months old, still breastfed and taking solids, but really bad at drinking water/ milk/ juice/ anything other than breastmilk. At the moment she's having a pretty horrible time with constipation, and I think it's related to her low fluid intake.
She'll only take a bottle at daycare but not at home, she'll have a few sips at a time from one of the four or five different sippy cups we have at home, and she'll also have a few sips from an open-mouthed cup if we hold it. My breastmilk supply is dropping fast as she's just started sleeping through the night and is now down to three or four feeds a day (until about six weeks ago she was feeding around 20 times per day/ night- crazy but true!).
She's upped her solid intake dramatically in the last couple of months, though she's still pretty picky. She gets about four serves of fruit a day, plus a wholegrain cereal with fruit puree for breakfast, meat and veggies for lunch, and a veggie and rice/ pasta dinner every day. For a while after this diet change, she was pooping like a newborn, three or four mega nappies a day.
Now, though, she's really struggling to poop at all. She gets out maybe five or six tiny hard pellets (about the diameter of a twenty cent coin) each day, and today despite her usual struggles (she goes bright red in the face and has to sit down wherever she is to try to get it out) she's got nothing out. Nada.
Obviously this is not good in an urgent kind of way- I'm taking her to the doctor tomorrow- but I'm wondering if anyone else has had a similar situation, and what you've done to fix it.
I've tried prune juice, prunes, bran, pureed apples and pears, you name it. I just think she's not getting enough fluids because she's no longer getting as much breastmilk and she won't drink properly from any other source.
I'm on the verge of weaning her anyway (or rather, she's kind of weaning herself), but I'm feeling like maybe I should speed it up so that her only option is to take a bottle or cup. Then again, breastmilk is currently pretty much her only source of fluid.
Does she show any interest in cups at all? We had similar non-drinking problems here, until we got him a cow sippy cup
Then it was a drink bottle that is a smaller version of my bottle. She's getting to the age of choosing stuff - take her shopping, get her to choose a cup and get her attached to it. It'll make it easier I hope - it did for us. Now he gives me my big bottle to match his little one, and won't stop drinking!
In the meantime, try a little brown sugar in water, it clears them out.
Yes, have and still do have prob with DD. Luckily she drinks very diluted fruit juice and we have to be sure she gets heaps in the day. Be careful with some foods like bran as it needs heaps of water to help it pass or it makes the prob worse. We have been to a GP and tried all sorts of chemist items- coloxyl drops was the best by far and still need to resort to it occasionally. It is best for us to get fluids in any way we can- so even if it is weakened choc milk (for example!!) it is better than constipation, in my opinion! I still even hold the drinker up to DD's mouth because if it is just left lying around she wouldn't touch it. Straws are a great novelty and encourage intake.
both my girls have had constipation issues from not drinking enough but I got them to choose their cups and all seems a lot better lately. I also added more fluids to meals, ie soups, noodles etc, but the one thing that seems to have worked the best is porridge, brown sugar and milk at breakfast
Kazbah, I think the brown sugar in water might be something she'd take to- she has a bit of a sweet tooth already I'll try that tomorrow. At the moment, her idea of "choosing" her own cup is to take home all of them :P She's very entertained by cups, loves to carry them around, but has a super short attention span when it comes to actually drinking from them.
Katie, the straw cups have been the most successful so far for us too. We've tried a range of diluted and even undiluted fruit juices, but she's still not all that keen- apple juice today was more successful than usual. I gave her some Milo last week working on the same theory as you (any fluid is fluid!) but that got the veto, too. Maybe I should move onto Coke or Fanta next (kidding :P). Thanks for the pointer about bran, too- that might be part of the problem, ironically.
Kitten, she used to have porridge for breakfast and liked it. Thanks for the reminder- I might start giving it to her again. And I was just thinking about soups today- definitely a good idea. I've been giving her jelly and watermelon and things with high water content on occasion but for some reason hadn't thought of soup.
Major constipation- help!
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I'll try that tomorrow. At the moment, her idea of "choosing" her own cup is to take home all of them :P She's very entertained by cups, loves to carry them around, but has a super short attention span when it comes to actually drinking from them.
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