From: dmusican@figment.prime.com (Diane S. Musicant)
Newsgroups: misc.kids
Subject: Constipation - Summary and thanks
Date: 30 Sep 92 13:11:55 GMT
Reply-To: dmusican@figment.prime.com (Diane S. Musicant)
Organization: Prime Computervision, Bedford MA


 


First of all I would like to thank everyone who responded to my
post. It's great to get so much support and know that I'm not 
alone. 

Adele finally pooped! And it was a doozy! 

The immediate solution was to give her kidney beans. Since she
only seemed to want finger foods, and I happenned to be cooking
with kidney beans one night, I cut a bunch in half and let her 
play with them. In no time at all, she had finished them and 
was looking for more. I figured that at best, she would poop, and
at worst, she would still be constipated and have gas. In my opinion,
it was a chance worth taking. I was surprised, no compaints of
excess gas at all :-)

The long range solution will be to monitor what she eats (as we have
in the past) taking many of your posts into consideration.

As for the eating difficulties, someone suggested that her teething
pain might be making her fussy. I think that might be part of the 
problem. So if she is being fussy, I'll either give her cold finger
foods, such as cut up cucumber or frozen french fries to gnaw on, or 
else, I'll be a little more reasonable about letting her have a few swigs 
from the bottle. Other than that, it appears as though this is just a 
message from her that she wants to do it herself. So we are trying to 
be a little more creative about how to get food into her stomach. It's a 
learning process :-)

Here is a summary of everyone's suggestions. Some of these things we
have either tried and they don't work, or we chose not to do them.
Most of them, however, we have incorporated into Adele's routine.
I wanted to list them all for other people's benefit.

	- Corn syrup in the formula ( 1 or 2 Tblsp per 2 oz formula)
	  I am a little more willing to do this considering it's
	  pretty common practise with few resulting problems.
	  As many of you have mentioned, formula already contains
	  corn syrup.
	  We give her one bottle a day with corn syrup to keep her
	  in check. 

	- Juices
	  Prune, pear, apple
	  (see my comment on apples below)

	- Fruits
	  The "P" fruits: Prunes, pears, peaches, plums 
	  apricots

	- Fruits that are NOT good:
	  Bananas and solid apple products

	- Apple Juice but NO solid apple products
	  This is consistent among everyone except one doctor (not mine)
	  that said apple juice can constipate some babies.

	- Vegetables
	  All vegetables are very good. In particular, sweet potatos supposedly
	  have lots of fiber.

	- A daily bottle of warm water - with a little sugar if necessary
	  to entice baby.

	- Cereals
	  Oatmeal is loaded with fiber.
	  Barley might be ok.
	  Rice tends to cause constipation.

	- Low Iron formula
	  About 10% of people (on the net and elsewhere) are concerned about 
	  anemia resulting from low iron formula.
	  About 50% of you insist that this the best solution for constipation.
	  The rest of you are pretty neutral.

	  Susan Gauch referred to a parents magazine article from last year
	  that states there is no proven link between iron and and 
	  "digestive problems" or constipation (she's not sure which).

	  Another suggestion was to use vitamin drops with just a small
	  amount of iron to supplement the low iron formula. (That way
	  she'll get "enough" iron but not too much)

	- Soy formula
	  Someone mentioned that soy formula might *cause* constipation. 
	  Most people believe that dairy formulas can cause constipation.
  	  We plan on sticking with the soy for now.

	- Whole wheat toast pieces
	
	- multi-grain cheerios

	- Breastfeeding
	  I have gotten lots of support	when I said I considered relactating.
	  It appears as though my chance of success (at relactating, not
	  curing the constipation) would be pretty low.
	  For anyone who considers this, contact your local LLL chapter
	  for help.

	- Kidney beans for finger food
	  No one on the net suggested it, but that's what caused
	  the initial "blowout". I would caution anyone who tries it that
	  it could cause ALOT of gas.

	- Suppositories
	  Only in extreme situation and with pediatrician's ok.

	- Malsupex
	  Malt syrup laxative. It's does not create dependancy because it's
	  completely natural. It's also expensive (~ $20 per bottle)

	- Coloxyl drops 
	  This is from an old post, so I don't know much about this.
	  If anyone wants to comment, feel free. 
	
	- Give her an opportunity to squat correctly by having her sit
	  upright, with her back against my chest and her knees pulled up to 
	  her chest.

	- Massage of the abdomen
	  I cannot do this e-mail justice. Jim Fee sent me a posting
	  from Lynnette Atwood. If anyone wants a copy, let me know and
	  I'll send it to you. I'll post it if there is overwhelming 
	  response.


Diane
(Mommy to Adele (6 months))

Special thanks to those who responded:

Thomas Kiefer 		thogek@cco.caltech.edu / thogek@seismo.gps.caltech.edu
Dena Rollo		rollo@xylogics.com
   (Thanks to Dena esp for saving old posts on this topic!)
Susan Gauch		sgauch@flora.ccs.northeastern.edu
Kathy Tavenner		kvt@willow.mitre.org
Marcie Plaice		plaice@matt.ksu.ksu.edu
Nanette Salvaggio	salvaggi@alnitak.kodak.com
Michele			mgaudrea@afit.af.mil
Diana Choi		choi@nas.nasa.gov
Stephanie Winner 	winner@apple.com
Jim Fee			fee@asel.udel.edu
Suzanne Jacobs		sj@netcom.com
Christine Quinn 	quinn@ee-cf.stanford.edu
Dawn Cappelli		dmc@sei.cmu.edu