Treating Constipation Caused by Solid Baby Foods

After you start introducing solid baby foods into your infant child's diet, you'll no doubt start to notice differences in their bowel movements. While on breast milk or formula, your baby would have had many movements a day, most of which were a liquid consistency. As solid baby foods are introduced into their diet, their stool will also become more solid and possibly less frequent. While it will be normal in some cases for your infant to go a couple of days without being considered constipated, you do have to monitor them carefully.

Symptoms To Watch For: (Note: These symptoms can be a direct result from introducing solid baby foods, or a result of general sickness, such as: flu, diarrhea, cold, etc.)

The symptom that is the most obvious is the one your baby won't tell you about. Look for solid, dry stools.

Obvious discomfort during a bowel movement. This doesn't mean grunting and groaning - as these can be natural, but rather prolonged and painful-looking bowel movements.

Blood in stool - see your doctor ASAP.

Help Ease Things Along

Regardless of the cause, it's important to realize that your baby's intestines are getting used to the solid foods that are being put into the digestive tract and if you find they're constipated, back off for a day or two. Giving your infant lots of fluids will help ease out any stools that haven't passed and help get them back on track.

Foods To Watch Out For

There are certain foods that have been found to cause constipation in infants that are being newly introduced to solid baby foods. To name a few: pasta, dry cooked potatoes, rice and rice cereal, refined white bread, yogurt, whole milk, along with any other foods you find slow down your infant's bowel movements.

It's important to be aware of the impact that refined sugars will have on your child's digestive tract and future well-being. Their body will eventually get used to processing refined sugars, but they can cause severe constipation among other things. The best time to prevent them from eating such foods in excess, is before they even start.