Prunes! Prunes! The Magical Fruit...

I recently came across a mom of a 5 month old boy who needed some advice.  She recently started making the transition to solid foods with the introduction of rice cereal.  However, she noticed that he started having trouble making a bowel movement.  Her pediatrician recommended mixing water with white grape juice.  She tried this, but it didn't seem to be working.  It had been almost 10 days since his last bowel movement when she contacted me.

I had the same issue with my daughter when we started feeding her oatmeal.  Being the paranoid first time mother that I was, I contacted my pediatrician the first time I noticed a struggle.  He said to give her some baby prunes with her oatmeal and it would help move things along.

After some trial and error trying to find the right amount, it worked like a charm.  Each morning we would put 8 baby spoonfuls of prunes (the first generation baby food kind) in with her oatmeal and formula.  By the afternoon, she would poop.  It was wonderful!  After she started having regular bowel movements, we started weaning her off the prunes.  If she started having an issue again, we just reintroduced them until she became regular again.

A word of advice though.  Never ever EVER give an entire jar of prunes at a feeding.  It causes a nuclear blowout.  Not kidding!  We're talking out the diaper, up the front and up the back almost up to the neck!  Ewwwww!!!

Well, I told this story to the mom in question and she proceeded to give some prunes to her son with dinner that night.  By morning he had pooped.  She sent me a very emotional email thanking me profusely for the advice.  I wrote her back, reminding her to let her pediatrician know what she had done and how well it worked, that way her doctor was in the loop with what transpired. 

Prunes, prunes, the magical fruit.  The more you eat, the more you poop!  :-)

If you have a question or need some advice on anything baby related, or relationship related, please contact me.  I am more than happy to help.