Poor little Trey has been experiencing some constipation lately. Just the other morning he cried on and off for hours and was straining to have a bowl movement. I realized obviously then that he was constipated because he usually has a bowl movement everday and he had not had one for 2 days. I felt horrible but at that point there wasn’t much I could do. We gave him some prune juice and I tried to breastfeed whenever he would take it. Sure enough throughout the day he had several bowl movements and with each one I could see instantly how much better he felt.

I wanted to make sure I did whatever possible to prevent this from happening so I did a little research and compiled a list of high fiber foods to make sure I make them a part of his everyday diet and also a list of foods to stay away from or give him only in very small portions or on occasion to prevent any further constipation.

Great high fiber foods:

Spinach
Beans
Prunes
Apricots
Pears
Green Beans
Squash
Peaches
Plums
Mixed Vegetable
Apple Sauce
Peas
Oatmeal, Barley, Mixed or Multi-grain Cereal
Fresh Squeezed Orange Juice
Prune, pear, and apple juice may help too.

Foods that could contribute to constipation:

Milk
Milk products (cheese)
Eggs
Meat
Refined sugar foods like ice cream, candy, etc.
Some fruits low in fiber such as banannas

I really think he eats most of those high fiber foods and he definitely isn’t eating candy and ice cream. I need to make sure he also is getting plenty of water and 1 4oz serving of juice per day. In addition to breastfeeding of course. I think that once he really started to eat all kinds of food I just got a little overly excited about nearing the end of breastfeeding and occasionally try to avoid breastfeeding by giving him some water and a snack. So my goal is to give him plenty of breast milk so ensure this does not happen again. Breast milk is super easy to digest and it contains lots of digestive enzyems. Have your infants or children experienced constipation? If so, what worked best to relieve it?