Frequent Bowel Movements
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Frequent Bowel Movements
Jan 2009
My son hit a record 11 poops the other day, and has averaged 6 per day
for the past 4-5 months. Our doc says ''there's a wide range of how
frequently people poop'' but this seems ridiculous. It's not
diarreah, consistency is normal. Each day some are large, some
medium, some tiny (my husband calls these ''nuggets''-- though their
not hard) and sometimes just a smear, but we still need to change it--
we change his diapers constantly or he gets a rash. We've tried
cutting way down on fruit and that didn't seem to make a difference.
More rice and bannanas and that didn't change frequency. Any advice?
mc
Well that sounds like a record to me, but surely there is a
normal range. My question is, why not potty train him. No more
diapers, no more diaper rash. Try the book ''Diaper Free Before
Three'' for the why and how. Also it sounds like he is
constipated. My girl had the yucky 'smears' in her underwear when
she was constipated and trying to avoid a really productive bowel
movement. (Well, you did ask!) Ask your pediatrician about
laxatives. I think between that and potty training, you will see
this change a lot in the next few months.
Know too much about ''poop''!
You might want to consider introducing your son to the potty.
Your son may not like the feeling of poop in his diaper so he
releases as little poop as possible (which may sometimes still be
a large amount) each time to reduce the ''icky'' feeling. Our
2.5yo son would poop 3-4 times a day. We let him know that the
potty was an option and he basically self potty trained in a few
weeks. Now he goes once a day like clockwork...and sometimes my
husband and I cannot believe just how much can come out of such a
little guy! If your son starts sitting on the potty he may be
like our son and although he is on the potty a bit longer than
you expect, he may relax a little more and ultimately get more
out than he would have if he was pausing momentarily to poop on
the run.
Just a possibility...
For the past couple of months my 17 mo. old has been pooping
5-6, even 7 times per day - basically every time he eats. The
pattern is for the first 3 or 4 to be little, building up to
a pretty good one later in the day. Is this normal? My
pediatrician seems unconcerned but I would love to hear that
other people's babies did this (and promptly grew out of it).
If your child is eating more, his through-put would increase.
But depending upon the consistency of your toddler's poop, you
might look at the foods he is eating and try to correlate that
with his changed pooping patterns. Often a food that is poorly
digested/malabsorbed passes through quickly.
sometimes this can be caused by excess juice consumption; the
sugar acts as a laxative. For a child under 2 years old, I think
as little as 8 oz can cause a problem.
this page was last updated: May 2, 2009
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