Let's Talk Crap

Excuse the language, but I meant it literally.

My poor boy suffered from constipation 2 days back. And by constipation, it's not the usual have-not-pooed-for-few-days kinda constipation. It was the rock-hard-poo-stuck-at-anus kinda constipation.

Well, sorry for the visual imagery you might have now, but I reckon since most of my readers are mothers, you probably also hold a major in poology.

It started when he was doing his usual straining, as he always does, regardless the texture of his poop. And after awhile after he stopped, we thought, "ok, time to change him". Turned out, nothing on his diaper. We scratched our head but let it be. Almost an hour later, the straining started again, and we checked, and yet nothing. This time, B started whining a little. The whines became louder and it evolved into cries. I checked his anus and saw the poop already there but it was too hard for him to force out. Poor baby. We didn't know what to do, he was crying, we were helpless and the poor boy had to suffer. So I tried to lift both his legs to his chest and he cried even harder. I undress him and took him to the shower and spray water up thinking it might perhaps help. No idea what I was thinking. In fact, I wasn't thinking.

We decided to stop and let him rest when I saw "it" gone back up. He stopped crying. Took and chance and gave him dinner, surprisingly he still had an appetite and finished dinner. I thought maybe some form of exercise or movements might do his bowel movement good, so we let him play/chase bubbles. Then it happened again - this time he started crying at the first strain because he knew what was coming. No choice we decided to help him dig it out. Now is the time to skip to the next paragraph if you do not want visuals. Not wanting to injure the area around his anus, we took cotton buds and tried to dig the poo out. Indeed, the poo was rock hard, it was difficult to even dig the middle portion out. All this while I was carrying him, knees to chest and DH was trying to help. It did work though, within seconds IT came out. Poor baby - the look of relieve on his face. This is something I do not want him to go through again.

Prevention is always better than cure, and I have been conscious to make sure he gets his fruits servings every day. Usually apples, blueberries, papayas and kiwis. As for his water intake, boy, does he love water. I almost need to refill his magmag 2-3 times everyday. Our group shared before fruits that causes constipation and those that relieve it. The 4 Ps are good to relieve constipation - prunes, plums, peaches, pears (I'm surprised papaya is not one of them). A simple way to help relieve constipation is to get the BRAT out.

B = banana
R = rice
A = applesauce
T = toast

I think probably what contributed to B's constipation was too much bread and rice and apples! He has toast for breakfast almost everyday because he has no interest in other food. He has rice most of the time, and his favourite fruit is apple! I had introduced prune juice (diluted with some water) and gave him dragon fruit and papaya this week instead of apples. He was fine yesterday, but today no bowel movement. Hope it will be smooth sailing tomorrow.