Pooh Solution

I imagine Avery will probably not love me writing about this in the net, but since the blog is about the girls, not only for them, and our loved ones we don't talk to enough keep updated by reading it, I will talk about poop. (Momma's favourite subject.)

Since Avery started solid foods, she's been battling constipation. We feed her a very healthy diet, high in fiber. Any other kid would freely poop, if they were fed the same foods. Since Avery associates pooping with pain, she doesn't go, making the stools hard, and creating a cycle of pooh pain. We watch her holding it in, and I call it, "Hunch and Suck." Hunches her back, sits down, and sucks in the pooh. It's extremely sad seeing your baby in pain, and you can't do anything about it!

I took her to the doctor when she was about six months old. She hadn't gone in about seventeen days. I knew nursing babies didn't always go every day because the milk is so nutritious and abosorbed so well. She was eating solids though, and it was too long. The doctor said she didn't need water (which I couldn't get her to drink at the time), and to feed her prunes.

I bought a couple jars of pear/ prune baby food, and the little she ate wasn't doing the trick. Here's a picture of that:


We have had nothing but pooh problems ever since. I took her back to the doctor, and we started giving her mineral oil mixed with plain yogurt, when she got backed up, but you're not supposed to over use it, or you can become dependant. I took her another time because she started holding it in, and we were told to keep the pooh soft, and to put prune juice in every bottle she drank. (She was weaned at that point, due to milk depletion.) Like I said before, any other kid would've gone pooh, but she had already established pooh with pain by that point.

Basically, the last six months of pooh has been held in to the point she can't hold it anymore, and then I either give a suppository during the "Hunch and Suck" days, or sit her on the potty where there's no restriction under the bum bum. And so the last week or so, my poor, poor baby has had some blood come out, and I decided to go to a different doctor yet again, and seek some advice. I mean, I didn't know if she was getting damaged, and the other things we were doing weren't solving the problem.

And here we are today, back from the doctor, who was a totally cute freshy doctor guy :), and we are going to keep her on a regular gentle laxative plan, until she is old enough to understand and ready for potty training. We have to give her an enema tonight, in the bath tub, and I am not looking forward to that, or the clean up one bit! But at least the problem should be solved for now, and with the laxative added, we should feel a bit normal.
(And I spell pooh like that on purpose, CK)