My daughter suffered chronic constipation from birth. I've seen paediatricians and naturopaths and between the two, have discovered a few things...

some kids need more fibre than others...make sure you're not just feeding your child lots of white bread/baby rice/processed baby foods/potatoes/bananas. If you can't always make your own food, you can make jar food more nutritious by adding cubes of brown rice, cooked to a pulp and blended (you can freeze them in cubes) or try grating in some real apple or pear. I also found tinned kidney beans, whizzed up, made jars tastier as well as more nutritious. The above suggestions can help add flavour and nutrition to home-prepared foods too - the kidney beans with pumpkin is delicious (nb the tinned ones are better than home cooked here for babies - if they're not cooked enough, they can be hard to digest). I did try red lentils too - with no probs, although the jury is out as to whether you should introduce these later.

2. try to avoid introducing wheat and cows milk too early; you can create intolerances if you do this. There are lots of alternatives around if you look - they can munch on fruit and lightly cooked veg and there are more and more wheat-free crackers around.

3. prune juice is a laxative, but it can cause extra wind pain (according to my paed). There are other options, but I'm not sure how early you start, as I got this advice when she was over 1. However, in case it helps anyone - a daily banana milkshake with psyllium was recommended. My daughter wasn't so keen on this, so we added the psyllium to her cereal. I've later found that ground linseeds mixed into her cereal is also excellent (and tastes a lot better). Probably 1-2 dessert spoons per day.

good luck!

my son started screaming when he made a bowl movement once starting solids. At first my pediatrician said that he needed more non binding fruits and cereals, in other words cut down on the rice and bannana's more juice and other fruits. As my son grew he still had the problem and then the pediatrician said that his rectum might be to small. I paniced but now at 16 months he has almost ceased to scream when making a bowl movement and it all has to do with the right combination of foods in his diet.

My wife and I had a similar problem so we asked around and were told prune juice works well.  Personally I don't like it, but hey who am I to stop my daughter form liking it.  Anyway we mixed a small portion of prune juice into formula and let her drink it that way.  It looked horrible, but worked fine.  She seemed to like the taste as well.  As she got older we could mix it inot mild as well with the same result.

Hope this helps.

Mike D.

Any change in diet will change yor baby's bowel movement. Since you have just started on solid foods, poop schedule will definitely change from what you've gotten used to.  Also, it is normal for some babies not to have bowel movements for days at a time. I suggest making sure that your baby gets plenty of fluids by either breastfeeding more often, or by giving water. Watch your baby for a few days and see if she has trouble moving her bowel. If your baby is visibly having trouble, I suggest calling your pediatrician.