Ok so here goes: I am a mom to 3 (almost 4) & my oldest son never had digestion problems. My daughter started having severe constipation at 6 months & has fought it ever since (age 4 now). We tried everything for her & nothing seemed to work consistently & now she has such terrible emotions associated w pooping, she can hold it for days. When my 3rd child, my son, started w the exact same problems as her, at 6 months, I knew something was wrong. Personally, I have been paleo/primal for the past year & have had really great success w it. In the last month I have taken my family off grains as well, in hopes of seeing a change, especially w my two youngest kids & their constipation. I have kept a vigilant food journal for my son (19 months) & he has been doing so well for 25 days. Now, the last 4 our of 7 days he has started up w sever constipation again. It is misery for all of us. I don't know exactly what to do now. Probiotics? Take him off dairy? He has 2-3 cups of cows milk a day. I was feeling so thrilled & like I was making the best choices for him until this happened. Now I am feeling insecure & confused, especially seeing him in so much pain & now having to field questions from people like - how does he get his calcium, what about fortified cereals, he probably has too much iron from protein, etc. Please be kind & give me some words or advice or at least reassurance.
|
5
|
||||||||||||||
|
|
4
|
Could you provide some examples of what he eats in a typical day? If he isn't getting enough fat, that could be a factor. You may want to look at the GAPS (Gut and Psychology Syndrome) protocol; that can fit really well with paleo and might help! |
|||||
|
|
4
|
I don't know how helpful this will be but I have had varying digestive issues most of my life. I am 24 now. I agree with Jules K on GAPS but if that is to harsh the Specific Carbohydrate Diet. I also agree with Korion on the gelatin but stir it into homemade bone broth. Homemade bone broth will provide minerals and vitamins and some calcium the broth is also healing to the gut which is why it is recommended on both the Specific Carbohydrate Diet and GAPS. Also more Omega 3 to help with any inflammation they may have. If you make salmon loaf or fish cakes or fish burgers using canned fish with the bones there is plenty of calcium in there. Just blend it really well so no one knows there is bones in there. Fermented vegetables helped a lot for me personally but before I could eat the vegetables I was just drinking the juice. It has to be traditionally fermented no vinegar and start with a 1/2 tablespoon of juice and work your way up. These can be bought from your local Weston Price chapter store or Bubbies is a pretty decent brand. I also drank kombucha. If you really want to do dairy, milk kefir is super amazing. Make your own or buy from your local farmer who uses raw milk or your local Weston Price chapter, do not use store bought! Start with 1/2 tablespoon a day and work up from there, it is pretty powerful stuff. Also don't forget yogurt. Again this has to be homemade you can follow the procedure here on the SCD website http://www.breakingtheviciouscycle.info/beginners_guide/yoghurt/yoghurt.htm It must be fermented 24hrs to get rid of any lactose and if you use a pre-made yogurt as a starter it is 1/4 cup yogurt to a pint of milk. Hope this helps again this is from my personal experience. |
|||||||||
|
|
2
|
Yep, sure! Here is a list of his typical day. Breakfast: milk, scrambled egg in coconut oil, banana, maybe a home made grain free blueberry muffin. Lunch: milk, usually leftovers, reheated in a pan w coconut oil, so chicken, pulled pork (some kind of protein) w leftover veg - spaghetti squash, sweet potatoes, shelled edamame, broccoli, etc. He stays home w me so I'm able to cook us an actual meal every day. Snacks are usually craisins, raisins or apples. Dinner is same as we eat, some kind of protein, chicken, pork, etc w a cooked veg side. For him, his veg is topped w coconut oil or organic butter (we don't have access to any grass fed butter where we live). I do think I get a decent amount of fat into his diet as I'm currently 8 months pregnant, so I am consuming a lot of fat myself. He has a pretty consistent habit of eating his plate & then heading to my lap to eat mine as well. I will try & make sure I am more diligent of giving him even more fats tho. |
|||||||||||||||||
|
|
2
|
Some kids just have a hard time with constipation. A friend of mine went through this with her daughter and was told to add a 1/2 tsp of Miralax to some water every day. It's totally helped. |
|||
|
|
2
|
I would definitely try giving up dairy to see if that helps. If your kids are already fine with almond milk, that's a good start. If it's difficult to get a subsitute for butter, you might try ghee, clarified butter that lacks the milk proteins that can cause problems. You can make it at home from regular butter, if it's not readily available. You can also make it easier to poop by teaching your kids to squat on the toilet seat to poop, rather than sitting. It requires less abdominal effort. Ask older Japanese who gripe about newfangled Western toilets. Because your kids' constipation has been going on for a long time, it may have disrupted their learning how to control their sphincter. Once you remove dairy and have them squat on the toilet seat, they might still have difficulty. You can try giving them a mild laxative such as Miralax in a small dose every night, and taper down the dose to zero as they learn new pooping habits. Best of luck! |
||
|
|
|
2
|
Avoid the soy (shelled edamame) its a huge digestive upsetter. Also I found what works is a good course of non-dairy probiotics and coconut milk gets things going (sometimes too much but in small doses it can help).Avoid dairy, it is completely unnecessary and is very likely causing his issues. If people are celiac, they are usually casein intolerant as well. Trust me, we went through this with an 11 year. Avoid raw vegetables also, always cook them well and have lots of fat in them (butter/coconut oi). |
||
|
|
|
2
|
I was constipated for more than 10 years, without realizing it. After those 10 years, I tried coconut oil, magnesium, more fat, more water, more fiber, ... Only the first three didn't make it worse. Gelatin solved it all. Let the kid try gelatin, it's the best food I ever introduced into my diet. |
||
|
|