Constipation. This is often a concern what parents starting solids because they notice the baby's poop is changing in terms of smell, color, and even frequency. And those are completely normal because baby digestive system is still adjusting with new foods. And each new foods that you're adding will change the color consistency of their stalls. So definitely expect changes in your babies. Wherever we get concerned as to why one is red blood, babies or babies poop is dark and sticky, which can also mean that baby is leaving somewhere.

You also want to think back to if you did offer baby's red color. For example a couple of times I got concerned because I saw some redness in, in my babies. But, in fact, I have some beats or dragon is one of the babies who read. If it's really noticeable as blood, then that's when you need to speak to your doctor to evaluate food allergy or other medical conditions. There is a huge variety in terms of how often babies should be pooping. I often get parents telling me that they're concerned because their their baby is only pooping every three to four days or every week.

And it might be normal for that baby. In the study that they looked at six to 12 months babies, there was huge variety, from zero to seven times a day, from five to 25 times a week. There's no normal frequency that maybe should be but in fact, you want to make That baby is having soft stools and that's a really good sign that baby does not have constipation. So the frequency doesn't matter as long as the baby is still going happily they might strain they might get red and also normal summit's baby inconsolably because it hurts when you poop. You see there is a tear and we call it inner fissure or is there is fun in this tool which can be caused by you know, fissure, right, if their stools are becoming small, like rabbit droppings consistently then that can be a concern. That baby is constipated.

There are a couple of steps that you can follow to help baby managed constipation. Number one is adding fiber in their diet. If you are feeding baby pureed foods smoothly, beanie char or baby pouches, they might be low end Fiber because the strain goes to make it into a very smooth texture when they sell it in the stores. If you are making your own pureed foods or making your own finger foods at home, I would recommend leaving the skin on as much as possible. So, for example, when we do mashed potatoes I always leave the skin on the potatoes so that I can mash in with the skin to increase the fiber. Or Same thing with making applesauce.

I always make the skin on and sweet potato and yeah, those are good fiber sources. Other really good fiber sources or whole grains, your fruits and vegetables, berries, berries are great sources of fiber, blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, they're all great. Your nuts and seeds, patterns of peanut butter, sunflower seeds better soybean manner. almond butter, and the other one will be your legumes, beans lentils, beans, those would be a great source of fiber as well. The second thing you want to look at is making sure that baby is having enough water, especially if you are starting to add fiber and maybe start gradually. So making sure that you are spraying water with your with food.

If baby is not drinking much when you're offering these water then can offer in between meals as well. You want to make sure that it's not replacing your breast milk or formula. Third thing that you could try is including everyday and baby's diet. So we recommend starting from one tables, up to four tables. Increasing gradually does contain sorbitol, which is a sugar alcohol that has a laxative effect. Another food that you could try are some juices.

So if you do offer juice just to make sure offer in small amounts no more than half a cup at a time in a day because we don't want to take away from baby's nutrition. But you also have the sugar alcohol in them which can help baby pass for easily. So your prune juice, apple juice and characters are the three choices that we will recommend try if baby has constipation, and there are babies with chronic constipation or long term constipation, which is defined as constipation longer than eight weeks, and some of the signs are having less than three complete stools a week. Having heart like rabid shopping is crying or in distress when they're trying to prove so not not your normal straining, but they're crying and obviously in pain when they're pooping. There's blood mixed with the stool like can be from the Fisher heart stools.

So those chronic constipation needs to be addressed by a doctor because sometimes they might need to use medication as the first line of treatment for chronic constipation diet. So adding fiber in those kids diet would not help with those type of constipation. And I often get this question about if dairy products are constipating we'll say cheese milk. There is no research to support that dairy products is constipating. Or in fact, any food is constipated. The most common reason is, we don't have enough fiber in our diets.

So I encourage you to definitely try to add some more fiber, more fluids