Poor kid!, constipation

Allie just spent about 20 minutes curled up under the table, trying to poop. I could tell she was having trouble right away this morning when she got up, and I know it's because yesterday we were out of juice and she didn't go all day. I don't know what to do about this girl, because she seriously can't poop unless she has a glass of juice every day. I try to give my kids vegetables at meals, but they almost never eat them. I gave Allie some juice this morning but she didn't drink it, but she ate the canned peaches I gave her (canned in juice of course ). I'm going to try to push a lot of apples and grapes on her today, but how on earth do I get these kids to eat vegetables?! They like things like raw carrots and broccoli with dip, but only to a certain extent - I don't think I could get them to eat them every day.

Oh and just to clarify, yes I know my three year old is still in diapers. I am having the hardest time trying to potty train this girl!

Ashley has always had issues with constipation. Even to this date, we have to avoid too much dairy, especially cheese, and bananas.... all which she LOVES!

The "P" fruits are really the best for this... Peaches, Pears, Pineapples, and the infamous prunes. I am lucky in that Ashley will drink prune juice. White grape juice (100% juice) is actually better than Apple juice.

Anything with whole wheat and fiber is also good.

As for eating vegetable, I'm really lucky that Ashley will eat her veggies and loves them. But, I have a friend who has to hide the vegetables in other foods. She has a cookbook she uses, but I forget the name of it. I can find out and get back to you.

Do you give her a vitamin? I found that Ashley was getting constipated more when I was giving her a multi-vitamin so I stopped giving it to her.

Another thing the doc told me is to get them in the routine of always trying to go at the same time every day. The body naturally tends to have a bowel movement about 30 minutes after eating, so after dinnner is a good time to set up the routine.

Hope some of this helps.

This was a HUGE issue for us when my dd was your dd's age. It was AWFUL, and caused a tremendous amount of stress for all of us. If your dd goes more than a few days w/o pooping, or is straining too hard when she finally does go, you might want to consider giving her a stool softener like Miralax, which tbh is appropriately named, b/c it was nothing short of miraculous in our case. At the time we had problems, it was prescription only, but now you can buy it otc--you should call your ped's office and ask them to recommend a proper dosage. My ped told us to start with half a cap full, and to adjust accordingly. For Corey, who is a very tiny girl, she needed a whopping 3/4 cap to get things moving. You mix it into 1/4 cup of orange juice or whatever your kid likes to drink--it is tasteless and completely dissolves.
The trick is not to stop after 1 or 2 successful poops, but to continue using it for a few weeks so that a regular pattern of pooping can be reestablished, and so that your dd will hopefully lose some of the fear or negativity around pooping (which is certainly understandable when it hurts so much to go)
Diet and fluid intake is also very important, and Dee Dee already gave you some good tips about that. Avoid refined sugars and carbs and always choose whole grain everything, including pastas, rice, and bread. Freihoffers makes a good double fiber wheat bread, so does Thomas' English muffins. Make your dd drink every hour on the hour if you can. Water is fine. But honestly, dietary manipulation doesn't always do the trick, as in our case, and then it's time to break out the Miralax. One canister will probably last you her entire childhood. GL

Thank you both for the advice! I really really hope it never comes to having to use miralax or something like it, but I'll definitely keep it in mind! Right now, as long as she drinks her morning glass of juice, she goes one or two times a day. I just don't like the fact that she's so dependent on the juice I guess - it makes me feel like I should be feeding her better. I think part of the reason she's been having trouble yesterday and today, is, not only did we not have any juice at all yesterday, but for a couple days before that she'd only had orange juice. And orange juice doesn't seem to do her any favors.
She did finally drink her juice, and I gave her a little bit more at lunch time for good measure, so I'm hoping this will be resolved by tonight. I'm planning on giving her a bowl of grapes for a snack this afternoon, too.

Eliana has chronic constipation. She takes miralax for it. Doesn't matter what she eats or drinks she has poop issues. And it's been like this since she was 6 weeks old.

Why is this a problem? We're all a sum of what we put into ourselves, and we all need to eat in a way that maximizes the efficiency of our digestive systems. If juice is all it takes, lucky her!

Why is this a problem? We're all a sum of what we put into ourselves, and we all need to eat in a way that maximizes the efficiency of our digestive systems. If juice is all it takes, lucky her!

I don't know, I guess just because it seems like if she was getting enough fiber from the food she eats she'd be able to poop whether she drank juice or just had water to drink all day. It makes me feel like I'm failing at feeding my kids the right kind of food. Also, because every once in a while, we run out of juice. We don't live in town, so we can't always just run to the store and buy more. I'm just going to have to make more of an effort to make sure we always have a extra bottle or two in the house so we don't run out. I need to work on getting them to eat more fruits and veggies too. They used to love them, but lately they're just not into it.

I would usually make pineapple shakes for my baby, pure and without sugar. Pineapple is known for being rich in fiber and my son loves it so much and never had problems pooping