- Fiber- there are 2 types. Insoluble and soluble (I know, they sound so much a like! it gets confusing). Think of insoluble as a scrub brush, going through the insides of your intestines, scrubbing (and pushing) everything out. These are fibers your body can't break down in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes (think celery fibers, raspberry seeds, wheat germ). Soluble fiber absorbs water and makes a gel, so while it adds bulk to your stool, it softens it as well. Most fiber supplements have a lot of soluble fiber in them. Foods high in soluble fiber are oatmeal, applesauce, blueberries (if you know about pectin in fruit- pectin is a soluble fiber). There are all kinds of fiber supplements out there you might be able to add to your children's food or persuade them to eat. I know there is a clear, tasteless one that would work in most any food.
So, which type of fiber helps with constipation? Both. And most fruits, veggies, whole grains and legumes have a combination of both fibers. The scrub brushes scrub out the intestines and the gelling soluble fiber softens everything up. When someone has diarrhea, they are told to eat applesauce, white rice, bananas, tea and toast. The foods are high in soluble fiber so that water will be absorbed and slow the transit of the nutrients through the intestines so your body can get the nutrients from the food instead of it rushing right through. If your child is having problems with constipation, try and find fruits and veggies and whole grain foods they like and encourage lots of intake, even buying the same kinds in mass quantities if that helps their intake. The exception to this is fruits like apples, bananas and pears- they shouldn't be eaten exclusively because they are extremely high in soluble fiber and if you take the skin off, they have little insoluble fiber to help scrub those intestines out. HERE is a good chart that lays out how much fiber there are in some common foods. Dietary fiber is the total of insoluble and soluble added together. THIS chart is my favorite, but only lists total fiber together, not soluble and insoluble separately.
- Fluid. Maybe I should have put this bullet first. Whatever you can do to increase your children's fluid intake, try it. Fruit juices watered down are also great to help with constipation. Recommended by WebMD are prune, pear, apple and grape juices. Your kid won't drink much? Try popsicles, watermelon or soups as ways to increase fluid intake.
- Here is another tip that helped me with Franklin- probiotics seemed to help loosen things up for him. There are several probiotic supplements out there that you can add to your children's food. These should be refrigerated when you buy them, I am not an expert on these, but most probiotics I know of need to be kept refrigerated.
- The foods to avoid are salty, processed foods and dairy- especially cheese and ice cream. Other foods that constipate are foods high in fat and low in fiber. Think hamburger and french fries, chicken nuggets, white pasta and white sauce (ahem- macaroni and cheese). If your kid will only eat these types of things, you can increase the fiber in these things in the following ways- whole wheat buns, skin on fries, whole grain coating on chicken nuggets, romaine lettuce and tomato on the hamburger, no cheese, whole grain pasta and red sauce with chunks of veggies with the skin on (you are starting to get the picture, right?) The hard part is that if you want these healthy changes in kid friendly food, you will probably have to make them yourself or pay a higher price.
- Some children are very sensitive to lactose or gluten. You might want to experiment and try 2 weeks without dairy or 2 weeks without gluten and see if their constipation issues resolve during one of these periods of time. Important during any time period where you take a major food group out of a child's diet- make sure they are getting plenty of fat from other sources and taking a multivitamin to make up for loss of minerals/vitamins.
- If you try all these things and you still are having problems, it might be a condition you need to get medical help with. I don't encourage the use of laxatives, even in their most organic and low dose forms, but of course there is a time and place for them. I would only take them when needed most or for small time periods. When I worked in the hospital, there was a woman who had had bowel obstruction because she had taken laxatives and bowel relaxers for so long, her bowels had stopped knowing how to go poop by themselves. While of course that won't happen to everyone, I just think of it as a cautionary tale to not force your body to do something it should be trying to do on it's own. If you need more information, go to THIS website by WebMD on toddler constipation.
~Here's to Healthy Eating (and eliminating)
