Patient's question:
My daughter is already 4 years old. Since she was young, her bowel movements have been dry. Usually, I always make sure she drinks plenty of water and eats bananas. In the morning, she drinks a cup of honey water first. However, every time she has a bowel movement, it's very difficult and quite dry. I was wondering if there are any good methods to solve this troublesome problem. Thank you.Doctor's answer:
Constipation in children is often caused by dry stools, which result from slow intestinal movement and excessive water absorption, leading to dry, hard stools, reduced frequency, and difficulty in elimination. Due to the limited variety of food in infants and young children's diets, the foods they commonly eat are low in fiber and high in protein, making it easy to cause dry stools. Dry stools can then damage the delicate skin of the child's anus, leading to anal fissures.The first step in addressing dry stools in infants and young children is to identify the cause. If the child is breastfed, constipation caused by insufficient breast milk often includes symptoms such as poor weight gain and crying after feeding. For this type of constipation, simply increasing the amount of breast milk can alleviate the symptoms.
Infants fed with cow's milk are more prone to constipation, which is usually due to the high content of casein in cow's milk, making the stools dry and hard. In this case, reducing the milk intake and increasing the amount of sugar can help.