Constipation is sometimes a chronic problem for people from a young age. Helping kids to have healthy and regular bowel movements from the start is important for health and comfort! If you or your child has a problem here are some simple things you can do to help.
- Eat more vegetables and fruit. For kids who do not like vegetables cook them into spaghetti sauce and soups sauces to hide them. Get them to have a taste for them at a young age. Smoothies are another way to hide some green. My granddaughter loves organic strawberries or blueberry smoothies with kale, or spinach blended in. She has no idea it is there.
- Fiber. Chewable fiber tablets that can be eaten with meals are easy, taste good and natural, non habit forming. Make sure to drink more water or you will just become a brick factory!!!
- Probiotics are very important to gut health and good bacteria that keeps our immune system healthy and happy as well as aides digestion. Jarrow makes a good shelf stable probiotic that is not too expensive, naturally fermented foods are great probiotics as well as Keifer has the most probiotic in the yogurt type world. Dr Ohira’s probiotic is my favorite grand slam probiotic and we have that one at the office as well as the Jarrow, and a powdered probiotic I like by Orthomolecular that you can put in juice.
- If needed there are two products I use for patients a lot. One is Blue Heron that has fiber, probiotic, marshmallow for gas, and Triphala an ayeruvedic formula to tone the colon. You have to be able to swallow pills. Start with one and go up slowly up to 6 per day with a large glass of water. Stop at whatever amount that makes you regular. Another good option is Colon X which is magnesium, aloe, and triphala. Take one to two at night before bed and almost everyone goes with this!
If these things do not help it is important to look at thyroid function, this can be a sign of low thyroid function. Did you know the poop has now been patented!? Yes indeed this is a strange world we live in. Read about the gut microbiome. Fascinating.
— Connie
More info at this great NY Time article here: The Pain of Constipation