I recently shared the very beginning of feeding Baby H solids (for us, a variety of purees). It was so happy-go-lucky and fun: having Baby H try different foods and watching her face change into either excitement or absolute disgust! It was fun and an adventure and everything was going great… until this last week (our third week of “food”) when constipation hit!

Baby H’s look of terror at the thought of eating constipating food. Nooooo!


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The fact that Mr. Bee just posted about constipation couldn’t be more fitting at this time, as we just, ah hem, worked through some tough issues in our house over the weekend.

This past week we noticed that Baby H hadn’t pooped one day. Then she hadn’t the next day and by the following day our nanny told us that she thought Baby H might be constipated. We’d seen her regularity change a bit in the past and things were fine, but this was the first time we’d seen changes since starting solids.

By this past Saturday (day #4 of no poop!), Baby H was visibly uncomfortable, poor girl. She just could not go! So we started proactively trying to remedy the situation:

  • Introduced prune puree (which she now loves!)
  • Did lots of tummy massage, rubbing her belly in a clock-wise motion
  • Lots of “bicycling” of her legs
  • Warm baths
  • Ye olde thermometer-in-the-rear trick
  • Made sure she nursed PLENTY to ensure she wasn’t dehydrated

Finally by middle of the day on Sunday she was able to poop a little bit, but it was painful. It is the worse thing in the world to watch your baby cry like that and know that you have already done everything you can do to help.

By Sunday evening, right before bedtime in fact, it seemed that the prunes had worked their magic and Baby H was able to go with little discomfort. Much of it, actually, ended up all over her changing table and Mr. H’s hands, ha! We were just so delighted she was pooping though, we could have cared less!

What this experience did teach us is that we need to be much more thoughtful in what foods Baby H is eating on a daily basis. Of everything I’ve read as we’ve started giving her solids, nothing really emphasized the importance of the order of the food. I know that adding in solids ultimately will change their digestion and you can’t completely control the situation, but I feel like you can be more proactive in what you feed them and in what order. Here’s what we did:

  • Bananas
  • Carrots
  • Applesauce
  • Avocados
  • Butternut Squash
  • Sweet potatoes
  • Prunes

What I wish we had done was started prunes in much earlier on as well as pears (which are also supposed to be great for keeping your baby regular). We were feeding her far too many bananas because it was easy and she loves them! But bananas are definitely constipating and should probably be given with other higher fiber foods, like prunes or pears.

Now that we’ve lived and learned, Baby H will be getting much more of a variety on a daily basis with a good mix of high fiber foods.

What lessons have you learned as you started to give your LO solids?