ways to increase fiber in 15 month old diet

[lmh2402]

in the last few weeks, DS has suddenly been having a hard time moving his bowels

i am thinking the difference is tied to several things:
1. his increasing love of cheese
2. the fact that we are trying to cut back on purees/jarred food and his veggie consumption is going down as a result

he eats a lot of certain fresh fruits - pears, apples, watermelon, grapes. he loves banana too...but i know this won't help with the poop problem so i try to limit it

he despises nectarines, peaches, any berry that is not baked/cooked in something, papaya, mango

and he will not eat veggies. so i do end up resorting to purees about once a day

any suggestions? should i stop giving him cheese all together? we give him cheese at either one meal or one snack. he has a total of about 16-20 oz of dairy (milk, yogurt, cheese) a day...is this too much?

he was having multiple BMs a day without issue

and lately he's been having maybe one a day...or skipping altogether...and they are quite hard

thanks for any suggestions

[Smillow]

Does he eat toast? I buy Nature's Own Double Fiber bread (w/ peanut butter or butter) and give DS (16 months) at least 1 slice a day. He is still nursing, though, which I think helps his bowels move (also eats mostly fruits - cantaloupe, mandarin oranges are favorites)

[infomama]

Have you tried prunes?

[lmh2402]

he eats toast so i could try that... though, isn't PB binding too? he loves pb though...

he willingly eats prunes. but only the puree/jarred kind

he gags and throws the sun dried kind

so we've actually been giving him a jar of prunes with breakfast each morning, but it's not helping

[daisymommy]

Fruit does still help with moving the BM's. Any of the "P" fruits for poop Prunes, pears, peaches, plums. And apples. Bananas are binding. I think a small piece of cheese each day is okay as long as he is getting fruit and/or veggies. Fiber is good, but you need water to go with it or it will constipate too.

[TwinFoxes]

Does he seem uncomfortable? Because at that age it doesn't seem weird that he isn't having multiple bowel movements. Every other day isn't that extreme to me.

You could try stewed prunes, they are packed in liquid in a jar, but they're not baby food.

[infomama]

The fact that his poops are so hard is what would concern me. Those can cause tears and if they hurt to pass it may interfere with potty training as they can try to withhold. Dd1 and 2 both had bouts of seriously hard poops and it's not fun times. Diet adjustment was the key for us.

[Myira]

You have mentioned he does not eat veggies. how about soft cooked lentils and beans? May be rice and lentil soup? Is there some way you can get spinach into him? May be add spinach to cheese-potato patties or croquets and he'll eat it since he likes cheese? Actually you can probably sneak in other veggies like corn, green beans and peas as well in these croquets.

Cheerios is another thing that comes to mind for fiber.

[peanut520]

what about making a cheese sauce and giving cooked veggies to dip?

[katydid1971]

I've had good luck putting groung flax seed in DC's food. I sprinkle it into yogurt, onto sandwiches, in cereal etc. DC don't seem to notice and it really helps Ds who gets constipated often.