Mamta,

Quite impressed with the site. Please keep up the good work and keep adding such helpful stuff.

Tried Tinda Do piyazza from your site. It was yummy.

I am from Delhi. Have a 16 month old daughter. Would like to know some tasty and nutritious receipes for my kid. She doesnt eat fruits, not even grated. I would like to know some fruit based receipes. Already giving fruit custard to her.

Thanks!

Anoushka

Hi Anoushka

I am glad you like my site and find some recipes useful. Feel free to send me some of yours. As long as I don’t have them already, I will give them a try and add here, if good.

For feeding a child, see baby Foods > You might it useful.

At 16 months, she should be eating many family foods, as long as you take her portion out before adding spices and a lot of salt. Eating with the rest of you will encourage her to copy you and eat.

Have fun at her meal times, not a tussel on who is going to win. You will soon see that she learns to eat everything. I can't tell you to stop worrying, because that is not possible for a mother. But I can tell you that you will be fine, if you make her mealtimes happy ones.

Fruits: To start with, give her fruits she likes. Introduce one new fruit at a time, she will soon get the hang of it. If everyone else is eating it, a child will usually copy them. Best wishes

Mamta

Thanks a lot Mamta!

The link is quite useful to me and to all the mothers.

My kid eats little bit of everything cooked for family with less spices.

I am worried because she has got extreme constipation. So I want to give her foods that can relieve her of that problem.

any particular foods that can help her to get rid of constipation? I have heard papaya and raisins. Confused over banana, some people say it should be given to her and some contradict. Also giving her fig syrup that acts as a natural laxative.

But nothing has helped much and the problem remains unresolved. She drinks a lot of water. But am unable to understand the reason for this. Have consulted pediatrician also.

Please advise on what diet is good for her.

Hello Anoushka

It is a long time since I retired/did a ‘children’s continence clinic’!! Don't take what I write below as gosple, check it out with your own doctor first.

Constipation in children is quite common, so you are not alone in this. I am sure that you are doing many right things and have already seen a good paediatrician to exclude any medical causes of constipation. This is an important thing to do in children with chronic constipation, because if it continues untreated for a long time, the rectum can become ballooned & muscles lax. This in turn stops the child ‘feeling’ that she needs to ‘go’ and unable to push the faeces out, when she does know. It then becomes a vicious cycle. You are quite right in trying to put is right early on. However, do not make it a big issue between her and yourself. It is probably a simple matter of adjusting her diet and fluid intake.

It is possible that it is simply too painful for her to pass out the ‘hard’ faeces and she holds it back longer and longer. Sometimes, a constipated child gets a little liquid ‘overflow’ with rectum remaining full. This is ‘soiling’. Because of it's watery nature, sometimes it is treated as diarrhoea, which is absolutely the wrong thing to do. It can cause a lot of irritation/anger to parents. Remember that it is not her fault, she is not doing this to punish you in some way.

Her doctor may give her some laxatives that make the stools soft and painless for her to push out. If there are any anal tears/fissures, he can treat those too. Do not self medicate your child without proper consultation. There are many good ones in Delhi to choose from.

Once you have done that, visit the site below and read each ‘clickable’ section at the bottom of the page. It is full of good, sensible advice.

http://www.childhoodconstipation.com/About/WhatIs.aspx

Meanwhile, a few general things to do are;

Give her plenty of correct fluids like water, fresh fruit juice (ready made have too much sugar). This is specially important in summers. Prune, mango, apple juice are all good.

Diet with more roughage/fiber; Child should have 5, child size portions of fresh fruit/vegetables per day. One portion is roughly what she can hold in the palm of her hand. Give less of fried/high fat foods.

Give some food early in the day, before sitting her on the toilet. It can trigger gastro-colic reflex and thereby produce bowel movement. That is why many grown ups have their cup of tea in the morning :-)!

Make sure that there is a smaller toilet seat/potty for her that is appropriate for her size. Don’t get angry with her if she takes a long time or does it in her pants. Gently tell her something like, “never mind, let’s go and wash you up. etc.” If she does manage to use the toilet, praise her profusely, what a clever girl she is and so on. It may make you feel frustrated, but constipation is not her fault, She is not doing it to ‘annoy you’.

Banana question; small amount helps to bind the stools and helps in diarrhoea. Large amount increases bulk. It is rich in pectin which absorbs fluids, making stools bulky.

Hope this is of some help!

Mamta

Thanks a lot for your valuable help!