Parenting expert questions & answers ConstipationAnn Douglas, author of The Mother of All Baby Books: The Ultimate Guide to Your Baby's First Year is here at GeoParent! Read Ann's advice on everything related to having a baby and raising kids. Have a question for Ann? Ask her here! The question: Our six month old baby strains so hard to have a bowel movement that she ends up vomiting and crying. This has been going on since she was born. We have tried switching formulas but the problem still continues. After many appointments with our baby's doctor and naturopath, we have narrowed the problem down to something diet related. We believe that the iron in our baby's infant cereal may be causing the problem. Is this possible? What can we do about the problem? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. By the way, I love your books. Ann answers: Thanks for your kind words about my books. I'm glad to hear that you're enjoying them! (I had a lot of fun writing them.) I'm sorry to hear about the distress that your baby's constipation is causing you and her. It's awful to see your child going through such agony and to be unsure what -- if anything -- you can do to relieve her discomfort.
It's certainly possible that your baby's cereal is contributing to her misery. You might want to try increasing the proportion of fruits and vegetables and decreasing the proportion of infant cereal and other constipating foods like rice and bananas in her diet. And, of course, you'll want to ensure that your baby is getting an adequate amount of fluid in her diet since constipation is, by definition, caused by insufficient water in the colon.
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About the author: About the author: Ann Douglas is an award-winning pregnancy and parenting author and the mother of four. She is the author of The Mother of All Pregnancy Books, The Mother of All Baby Books, The Mother of All Toddler Books (all part of the internationally best-selling The Mother of All® Books series), as well as the two debut titles in the The Mother of All Solutions series: Sleep Solutions for Your Baby, Toddler and Preschooler: The Ultimate No-Worry Approach for Each Age and Stage (Mother of All Solutions) , and Mealtime Solutions for Your Baby, Toddler and Preschooler, Part of The Mother of All Solutions series: The Ultimate No-Worry Approach for Each Age and Stage (Mother of All Solutions). You can find out more about Ann Douglas by visiting her website! |
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