I was reading a fellow blogger's post a couple of weeks ago and the topic of poop came up. I thought, geez, I could do an entire post about our poo adventures! I mean seriously now. Pre babies, poop was a topic that was not readily discussed. . .ever. But now, somehow poo has become a daily topic of discussion! How often are they going? How much are they going? What's the consistency (hard/soft/pasty)? Color? Smell? Blowout? No blowout? Clothes change needed? How many wipes did it take to clean her up (two wiper/three wiper/four wiper?!)? Funny how much things change when you have kids!
(But they are super cute and full of smiles, so you don't mind the changes one bit!)
So. . .my reason for bringing up the topic of poo is that I am sure some of you have some useful advice for me. Yup, I am soliciting advice again. Imagine that! BUT, you guys have a wealth of knowledge and experience, so I know that pretty much regardless of the topic (even poo), that you guys probably have some info that can help a momma out! So here goes!
I make all of the girls baby food. We do chicken breast (and now chicken thigh), pears, peaches, bananas, applesauce, sweet potatoes, squash, green beans, broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, then yogurt (which I obviously don't make), oatmeal cereal, and prunes (on occasion, which the girls really don't like).
In a normal day they have cereal and pears, chicken and pears, sweet potatoes, peaches, broccoli or california blend, and yogurt. Some days we add in mac and cheese or mashed potatoes, or add a snack of bananas and applesauce mixed, but for the most part, the first sentence is what we eat for solids in a day. We drink breast milk too - 15-20 oz per day, and have one formula bottle at night.
We have a daily issue. Constipation. The pediatrician suggested that we try giving the girls juice - no more than 4 oz a day (we give them 2 oz juice mixed with 2 oz water)- to see if that would help them "go". While it does some of the time, there are plenty of times that it doesn't.
I was trying to figure out what was causing our problems in the first place to see if there was a way that we could correct it before it got to the constipation phase. When the girls had their ER mishap about 2 weeks ago, we had to go to giving them breast milk only for 24 hours. No juice, no formula, no food. Only breastmilk or pedialyte. While they were doing this "diet", they had no problems "going", and it was a normal, happy, poo consistency, color, etc.. We slowly started to add foods back in after the 24 hour period. When we added the chicken in, we got our issues back. We've reduced the amount of chicken that we give them a day to about 1 oz each, and I mix it with pears (as pears are a "p" so they are an anti-constipator), so I wouldn't think that it would cause too many issues. . .but it somehow still does.
Chicken is the only meat the girls are getting right now. I asked the pediatrician if it would make sense to switch out the meat to a red meat like steak, but she said that we would see the same problems regardless. So. . .I'm curious. Am I the only one in babyland with these issues? If not, what do you guys do to help your little ones "go"? Does it work?
If they are haivng these pooing issues now, are they just going to continue to have issues or even get worse as they get older? How strict do I need to be with their diets and avoid certain foods?
The suggestions I have heard so far to assist in the "going" process include adding apricots to their diet, avoiding the apples and bananas (which would be okay, but, I don't want the girls to never have apples or bananas simply because they could constipate them - I think that's silly!), and now leaving the skins on the fruits when I bake and puree them to add fiber. I've also heard that some moms give their babies miralax by sprinkling it on top of their food, which we could do if we got desperate. All good suggestions really. But what is tried and true for my readers? Throw it at me ladies! My ears are open! =)
As always, your advice and guidance is appreciated!!!
Until next time -
Megan
