1-year-old bowel movements hard?

[jenny]

My DD just turned 1 on Thursday and we switched her straight to cow's milk. The doc said not to give her more than 20 ounces of cow's milk a day and to supplement with solids and with water.

so DH noticed that the other day her BM was hard, like the BM an adult would do...no more wet, melted chocolate-looking BM.

She seemed to be straining today and I changed her diaper and another hard little stool. About an hour later, she was straining again, so I changed her diapeer and a little stool was in her diaper, but this time it was tainted with blood.

So is she constipated??? What's going on?

[sidmand]

DD had a really difficult time with cow's milk. We had to switch very slowly because there were a couple of days were she was straining so hard her face would turn bright red and she would burst into tears.

We gave her a lot of "p" foods (peaches, pears, prunes) to try to get her going and also mixed a little Miralax in with the milk. It's been three months and she still has a little trouble sometimes.

I would try switching over a little more slowly. If she was FF before, mix mostly formula with a little cow's milk until it's only cow's milk. If she was exclusively breastfed I'm not sure how you would ease into that, but I wouldn't give her too much cow's milk off the bat. It definitely sounds like that's the issue and that's pretty common. Their systems just aren't used to it yet and it's kind of a shock at first.

[gatorsmom]

It could be that she is having a hard time digesting it for some reason? Did you make the switch gradually or go from formula straight to milk? Our 20 month old, Greenbean, has always been prone to constipation. We've been feeding him prunes since he started solids. Even when I feed him plenty of liquids and fiber, he still needs some prune juice during the day. Some kids just get constipated easily.

I'm no doctor and I'd ask a ped for their opinion but this is what I'd do. Assuming you switched directly over to straight milk and she's having a hard time with it, I'd switch back to formula for a few days. See if she feels better. Then when she is feeling better and stools aren't so hard to pass, I"d gradually start adding milk to her bottles of formula. Maybe she just needs time to get used to it. If you get her up to drinking straight milk and she's still having trouble, maybe try adding some prune juice to her milk. It works for us. But absolutely talk to your ped first. There might be another reason she's not tolerating it.

[jenny]

she was drinking formula and then we moved her straight to Cow's milk, so that could be the reason.

last night i gave her some diluted pear juice and her stool softened up a bit.

I'll have to call the pediatrician tomorrow and ask.

how long did you mix the formula with the milk to help baby's tummy transition?

what is normal for a 1-year-old BM? Is it supposed to be melted chocolate or a bit thicker b/c of the solids or hard little stools??

[nrp]

Originally Posted by jenny

what is normal for a 1-year-old BM? Is it supposed to be melted chocolate or a bit thicker b/c of the solids or hard little stools??

I think there is a wide range of "normal", but probably somewhere in between the two extremes you mention. My 1-yo's are usually not runny, but also not hard.

[gatorsmom]

Originally Posted by jenny

how long did you mix the formula with the milk to help baby's tummy transition?

I probably mixed them for a week to 10 days. I started with one ounce of cow's milk to 7 of formula and gradually added another ounce of milk at a time.

Now Greenbean gets straight mlik and I add about half prune juice or a bit less in one of his bottles each day. It keeps him regular. He gets plenty of vegies and fruit but he has to have that prune juice added or he really struggles. poor baby. Hopefully you won't have that issue once your daughter is used to the milk. hth.