Prevent your baby from becoming constipated when eating solids

This is an automatically translated article.

The article is professionally consulted by Master, Doctor Dang Huy Toan - Pediatrician - Neonatologist - Department of Pediatrics - Neonatology - Vinmec Nha Trang International General Hospital.

The best way to prevent your baby from becoming constipated when eating solids is to build your baby a complete and healthy diet, drink plenty of water and practice proper hygiene habits. This requires parents to be fully prepared in terms of infant nutrition knowledge.

1. Constipation in babies

Constipation is a phenomenon where bowel movements are difficult and require more effort. Your baby's poop is hard and dry, making it painful to pass. This happens when the body lacks water, the intestines will automatically absorb more water from food, thus causing the stool (waste) to be dry, harder than usual.
Normally, children have a habit of having a bowel movement 2-3 times a day. If this habit suddenly does not maintain, there is a big chance that the child has become constipated. If constipation lasts for a long time, the child will easily have fecal incontinence.
Causes of constipation in babies are quite diverse, focusing on diet and daily activities, including:

1.1. Diet Baby is constipated when the diet is too high in fat and protein but low in fiber. In addition, for some reason, if the baby does not drink enough water each day, it can also cause constipation, difficult bowel movements.
This condition is also common in infants with an unexpected change in diet, for example, switching from breast milk to formula/formula, or when the baby starts solids, etc. Another reason is that the milk is not mixed in the correct ratio of water: milk. If you mix less water, your baby is also prone to constipation. As for the mother, if the mother has chronic constipation, there is a high chance that the breastfed baby will also have the same condition.
1.2. Sedentary Children with little activity, passive... will also make the intestines work less efficiently, thus causing constipation.

1.3. Gastrointestinal diseases Constipated baby when eating solid foods can also be caused by diseases:
Diseases of the digestive tract, rectum, anus,... Nervous system disease (eg. cerebral palsy in infants). Certain endocrine problems, such as hypothyroidism. If your baby is on medication, some medications containing iron, codeine, or antidepressants can also cause constipation.

2. Preventing constipation in weaning children

Weaning phase is one of the periods when babies are easily constipated due to a change in nutritional sources. To prevent your baby from becoming constipated when eating solids, you need to pay attention to some of the following issues.
2.1. Children need to eat foods high in fiber Some hard foods such as bananas, carrots, rice cereals... can make it difficult for your baby to have a bowel movement, dry stools. On the other hand, foods rich in fiber such as pears, plums, oats, barley cereals... can prevent this condition.
2.2. Help your child move As mentioned above, if the baby is too passive, it will also cause constipation due to the intestinal system not working effectively. For babies, you need to support them in this regard.
You can move your baby's legs gently like riding a bicycle when he is not yet crawling or when he is lying in bed. Moving your baby's legs up and down regularly will help your baby's intestines work better.
In addition, you can also let your baby play with toys that can roll and move automatically like small balls. Baby's curiosity will motivate him to move with his toy, thereby increasing his daily activity level.
2.3. Weaning foods for babies to prevent constipation Babies will start showing signs of weaning when they are 4-6 months old. At this time, the change in nutrition is very big.
According to experts, babies should start eating solid foods when they are 6 months old. In the period before this age, weaning is only for the purpose of familiarizing the baby with solid foods, and the baby's main source of nutrition is still breast milk.
To start weaning your baby, you should:

Let your baby get used to one food for about 3 days, then change it to a new dish. At this point, you will easily find out if your child is allergic to a certain food or not. Do not give your baby too much, just 1 meal a day and gradually increase after the baby gets used to it. It is advisable to choose unprocessed natural foods such as vegetables, fruits, red meat, white meat, etc. to ensure high nutritional value and a harmonious combination of many nutritional components in the snack. . Children should drink more water. For infants from 7 to 9 months old, you can increase to 2 solid meals per day and in infants from 9 to 12 months old, you can give your baby 3 main meals and 1 to 2 extra snacks per day. 2 sessions.
Nutrition experts recommend that, in order to prevent the baby from becoming constipated when eating solid foods, mothers should know how to balance the daily nutritional intake for children, practice feeding them fruits and vegetables. It should also be noted that some small foods such as braised grapes, peanuts, roasted peanuts, etc. are not suitable for children's weaning menus.
Weaning phase is one of the most common stages of constipation in children. To prevent children from becoming constipated on solid foods, mothers need to be more prepared about their diets as well as how to take care of them scientifically.
You should not let constipation in children last long, both causing discomfort to the baby and causing serious complications related to the gastrointestinal tract. As soon as your baby shows symptoms of constipation, you should take him to a reputable medical facility for examination and treatment.
To limit the child's constipation as well as the use of antibiotics, parents should pay attention to the nutrition that improves the child's resistance. At the same time, supplementing with supporting foods containing lysine, essential micro-minerals and vitamins such as zinc, chromium, selenium, B vitamins, etc., helps support the immune system, strengthens resistance so that children are less sick and less likely to have digestive problems.
Parents can learn more:
Why do you need to supplement Lysine for your baby?
The role of zinc - Guidelines for reasonable zinc supplementation
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