General Health Information

Constipation

Constipation can be defined as hard stool. As much as your child may seem in distress, constipation is NEVER an emergency.

Babies less than 6 months of age will commonly grunt, push, strain, become flushed in the face and draw up their legs during bowel movement passage. This is normal as long as the bowel movement is soft.

Here are suggestions of what to do when your child is constipated:

• For children under 4 months of age:
  
  
• Give your child fruit juices (grape, prune, apricot) twice a day.
• Avoid strained carrots, squash, bananas and apples.
  
  
• For children between 4 months and 1 year:
  
  
• Add strained foods with high fiber content including cereals, apricots, prunes, peaches, pears, plums, beans, peas or spinach to your child's diet.
  
  
• For children over 1 year of age:
  
  
• Increase the servings of raw, unpeeled fruits and vegetables to your child's diet to three times per day. Include prunes, figs, dates, raisins, peaches, pears, lettuce and cabbage.
• Increase foods high in bran, such as natural cereals, bran flakes, bran muffins, shredded wheat, graham crackers, oatmeal, brown rice and whole wheat bread.
• Increase your child's water intake.

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