Is Constipation troubling you?

Dear Anonymous who asked about constipation:

Firstly let me disclaim that I am neither a doctor nor a health care worker. (Ca-pishe?)

However, I do have a little one and although not a frequent problem but one I experienced just today, I have a few suggestions.

    When my son's bowel patterns changed once he came home from hospital, I too got concerned that something was wrong. At 3 months my 'Bunny' as we refer to him (something to do with massive feet like Bugs Bunny and skinny ankles - he gets those from me!)  had a bi-lateral hernia operation (one year this weekend - amazing how time flies!). We spent all last Easter weekend at the Sydney Children's Hospital. Anaesthetic is hard on adults and I got concerned about his motions when he was pooing every 4th day, post-operatively. I consulted the Special Care Nursery at Prince of Wales Private because my son came with 24-hour technical support after I brought him home at one month old and I knew the nurses would not think I was being neurotic (which I am to a degree, I confess) and would share their plethora of knowledge regardless of what time of day or night.

    One thing that the nurse Debra recommended was adding a teaspoon of white sugar (ok, clutch the pearls all my regular readers  out there who know how I despise  adding white sugar to my child's food) to either water or formula at feeding time and administer. I am not a 'medico', but remarkably it worked. My son's assigned pediatrician, Dr. Howard Chilton (who is also an author and lecturer on the topic of babies) suggested diluted prune juice, about 2mls juice to 100ml water in a bottle.

    Today, my son hadn't had a poo all morning, (and he is so regular that we can set our clocks by him) and we were observant of this. He is a healthy eater, and gets plenty of fibre in his diet with grain breads intake,  cereal and fruit at breakfast, and lots of water throughout the day. This afternoon we gave him a sippy cup (we weaned off bottles at 11 months) with the sugar/water mixture. Within 3 hours and before evening meal, he had a pain-free bowel movement and followed it with a big dinner of veggies, steamed meatballs, linseed bread, and whole milk. He is sleeping like an angel and went to bed without a whimper.

    I am categorically against adding sugar to a child's diet and teaching them that  'the sweeter the better', but I found this process worked for me. As I indicate in all my advice, when in doubt, consult your pediatrician, health care professional or GP. If you get stuck in the middle of the night and just want to bounce something off of someone, call your local private hospital's Special Care Nursery. Although they may not know you personally, (like in our instance), these nurses are savvy with babies a lot less healthy than yours, and they are awake 24 hours a day.

    I hope this helps.

PS. For weaning tips or advice on feeding, sign up for  my free MyStage newsletter at www.stephenierodriguez.com/stages - I think it will be useful for you in a few months. April is all about Weaning!