Per our pediatrician, I am feeding the babies more solids than formula after our 6 month check up. Kayla is doing great. (She loves to eat anything any time). Colin does too to an extent. He still has the whole tongue reflex, but he will get the solids down and cries for more. It's just a little tricky to push it in there. Anyway, he has been passing real hard poo these last couple weeks. I changed him from rice cereal to oat cereal last week, and I started giving him him 4 oz. of diluted prune juice this week. This still hasn't helped. Any suggestions?
Personally, if he's having problems with the solids, I would cut back on them a bit. He may not be ready for them, even if his sister is. You might want to try some apple juice - that can help get things moving along. Can work better than prune juice. Also consider giving them a skinned plum to play with. Obviously you will have to watch them carefully when you do this to make sure they don't get the pit or otherwise choke on it - but that's not a major concern until they can really chew / bit off their food. I gave my daughter one when she was around 6-8 months and she loved it. No problems with choking either as she really couldn't do any more than suck on it yet. Didn't eat much of it, but she still loved trying to eat it. LOL And if he does eat a little, that's good fiber.
I would also cut down on the cereal as they are loaded with iron. The iron is very constipating. Consider mashing up fresh bananas and ripe avocados and cooked sweet potatoes. They all have more nutritional value than infant cereal. And they taste better.
I'd also try some apple juice or maybe cherry (always works for us and I don't dilute it). Non of my little ones could tolerate cereal, made them terribly constipated with rock hard pebbles. For us its been a battle to figure out just the right combination of solids and juice and NO cereal.
We've done lots of veggies and fruit now, which I am spending a forntune on buying in the store since I just haven't had the time to figure out how to make my own. (I'm not great in the kitchen). If I were to stop giving Colin cereal, what's the best source of fiber for him? I know the fiber is probably what's giving him a hard time, but doesn't he need it? Will he get enough just from the fruit and veggies? I'll try just apple juice next then. The juice he has is actually apple/prune. I did decide to make a dr. appt. for next week too.
We've done lots of veggies and fruit now, which I am spending a forntune on buying in the store since I just haven't had the time to figure out how to make my own. (I'm not great in the kitchen). If I were to stop giving Colin cereal, what's the best source of fiber for him? I know the fiber is probably what's giving him a hard time, but doesn't he need it? Will he get enough just from the fruit and veggies? I'll try just apple juice next then. The juice he has is actually apple/prune. I did decide to make a dr. appt. for next week too.
The problem with infant cereals is all the iron in them. Iron constipates. Of course they need some iron, but there is also iron in formula. Fruits and veggies are great sources of fiber. Though possibly not as much in highly processed form of commercial babyfood. And avocados and Bananas don't require any cooking. Cheaper than baby food too.
You may want to consider picking up a hand food grinder (I got mine at Toys-R-Us 2 years ago) - or for a little more an electric one - and try grinding up what ever you and DH are eating and see if that works. If you are buying 1 ingredient babyfood, consider cooking up and mashing or grinding your own fruit and veggies and then freezing in ice cube trays. After they freeze, you can put in ziplock freezer baggies and label with contents and date. Just defrost as needed. It doesn't need to be complicated or fancy.
02-08-2008, 11:24 PM
Solids & hard poo
