Happy 2022! We hope this year is off to a smooth start for your family. This month’s topic is one that is perhaps a little awkward to talk about but is very important just the same! Constipation. Constipation can stop appetite and interest in food in its tracks! Children need daily bowel movements the consistency of soft-serve ice cream to fully vacate their colon. Lack of bowel regularity can be a big contributing factor to limiting both quantity and variety of what a child eats.
Here are some tips to encourage consistent bowel movements:
- If your child is potty trained (or working on it), have your child sit on the potty at the same time every day for short periods
- Make sure that their diet is rich in both soluble fibers and insoluble fibers
- Soluble fiber: attracts water to drier stools, feeding helpful gut bacteria in the process. Some good sources of soluble fiber are chia seed, flax meal, citrus fruits, peas.
- Insoluble fiber: speeds up transit through the gut while creating softer, bulky stools. Some good sources of insoluble fiber are oatmeal, bananas, and brown rice.
- Carrots, beans, and hemp seeds are good sources of both!
- A diet with some color and variety is best for digestive health. Safely cut fruits, such as apples, pears, grapes, and stone fruits are especially helpful because of the fiber and sorbitol (a sugar alcohol that pulls water into the large intestine and loosens hard stools). Limit snacky/carby foods. These are not helpful for regularity. Too much milk can also be constipating. See recommendations for daily milk intake below.
- Insisting on eating fruits and vegetables can backfire if your child is a picky eater. Soaked or ground chia seeds, whole or ground hemp seeds, ground flax seeds, and powdered magnesium provide options to stir into purees, yogurts, or smoothy, or add to a familiar recipe.
- Make sure your child is getting plenty of exercise/being active!
- Make sure your child is drinking enough water!
A few tips to increase water intake:
- Offer frequent opportunities during and between meals to drink water. In smaller amounts, water is not going to interfere with appetite.
- Keep water handy always. Don’t leave home without it.
- Take family water breaks. Model good water drinking habits. Anchor the habit! This means that you connect it to another existing consistent behavior to build your new habit on. (For example, always drinking water when upon wake up)
- Value water and teach your child the value of water. We are so fortunate that we live where we always have access to good, clean water. So many people around the world do not have this! Water is so important to so many of our body’s functions. Talk to your child about this!
- Experiment with fruit, vegetable, or herb infused water, ice cubes, or even popsicles. Have your child help with the food preparation! They can help choose the fruit, cut it, and/or drop in each piece.
- Encourage self-service: Keep cups where your kids can reach them to encourage them to help themselves to water.
- Try fun cups, water bottles, or straws to making drinking water more enticing!
- Experiment with the size of the cup. Some kids find smaller cups more fun, less intimidating, and easier to hold themselves.
- Limit juice to no more than 4 oz/day. Undiluted pear, prune, or purple grape juice due to the mild laxative effect of the sorbitol are great. Prune juice is ideal. Apple juice is another option and is usually well-liked by kids and easy to find.
- Add extra water into cooking when possible
- Suggested Daily Water and Milk Intake for Infant and young children:
| 6-12 months | 12-24 months | 2-5 years | |
| Water | 4-8 oz/day
(1/2-1 cup/day) |
8-32 oz/day
(1-4 cups/day) |
8-40 oz/day
(1-5 cups/day) |
| Milk | None | 16-24 oz/day
(2-3 cups/day) |
16-20 oz/day
(2-2.5 cups/day) |
Too much milk consumption can be both constipating and filling, reducing appetite for solid food.
- Check with your child’s pediatrician about a laxative, but this should not be the first line of defense. Relying on laxatives to keep bowels moving might result in negative consequences for the entire body.
These tips are meant to be helpful but please keep in mind that chronic constipation requires professional guidance and support that is outside of our scope here at Therapy at Play. If your child is chronically constipated, ask your pediatrician for a referral to a Pediatric Gastroenterologist.
If your child’s diet repertoire is limited and they lack variety in their diet, or mealtimes are creating stress in your home, please consider reaching out to us for a feeding therapy evaluation.
References
Potock, M. (2016). 5 Fun Ways to Get Kids Drinking More Water. ASHA Wire Leader Live. https://leader.pubs.asha.org/do/10.1044/5-fun-ways-to-get-kids-drinking-more-water/full/
Potock, M. (2016). 5 Common Mistakes (and Solutions) When Dealing with Kids’ Chronic Constipation. ASHA Wire Leader Live. https://leader.pubs.asha.org/do/10.1044/5-common-mistakes-and-solutions-when-dealing-with-kids-chronic-constipation/full/
Muth, N.D. Recommended Drinks for Young Children Ages 0-5. Healthychildren.org.