Home Remedies to treat constipation in toddlers!

Welcome back to Best Case Parenting, and our little mini-series on helping toddlers poop. Our first article went over the problem in detail, and offered some general solutions and advice. This article will continue that by offering some ideas for home remedies you can try to get your toddler pooping again. 

What do we mean by home remedies? Home remedies are things you can try at home, to treat a toddler’s constipation problems. Usually, using materials that are easily available to you within your home, or the local supermarket 🙂

We would like to preface this by saying it is always a good idea to go see a medical professional if your toddler is having problems pooping for extended periods of time.

What are some home remedies to help your toddler poop?

Massage

When your toddler can’t poop, a specific type of massage can really help. These massages help to encourage bowel movements by stimulating the very organs that produce them. However, if your child shows any signs of pain or serious discomfort, please stop immediately. 

It is hard to explain how to do massages well in text form. Thankfully, I was able to find an excellent video online by Lucy Johns. I really like the cute names she used for the different types of massages you can give a constipated toddler.

Popcorn

We all know how important fiber is for any child’s diet, especially one that is suffering with constipation problems. However, it can be tough to get most children to eat food that contains enough fiber. This is where popcorn comes in…..

This is a really great home remedy for toddlers who cannot poop, as most children simply love popcorn. It also has a 10-15% fiber content (when cooked properly), which makes it the perfect way to get fiber into a child’s diet. Especially if they are a picky eater!

Having said all of this, there are some caveats here! We are not talking about going to the shop and buying those highly enticing bags of caramel popcorn. Whenever you add a lot of fat or oil to the popcorn, you are actually reducing the amount of fiber.

Therefore, air popped popcorn is the most suitable for this purpose. And there is no need to buy the store bought microwave popcorn either, you can make it yourself. Simply put a quarter of a cup of corn kernels into a brown paper bag and microwave on high for 2-3 minutes. Just make sure the paper bag is well sealed. The best way is to fold it over several times.

Just make sure that the corn kernels are fresh to enable the best popping. Also, different types of corn will give you different success rates when air popping. If you are not happy with the result, simply buy a different brand and see if that helps. Be careful not to overfill your paper bag, this will lead to the corn not having the room to properly pop.

Failing all of this, you can buy simple kitchen appliances to make air popped popcorn! Below if one example I found on Amazon. Click the image to view it over there.

Pear and prune juice

Nothing much to say here, except that this is a mix of pear and prune juice. Pear and prune juice on their own have been known to help with constipation. So, this is a match made in heaven!

The taste of prune juice isn’t that great for most toddlers, hence the reason we mix it with pear juice. If your toddler still isn’t keen, try adding a dash of honey to make it taste a little sweeter. 

A high quality store bought prune and pear juice would work well. Ideally, cold pressed. But it would be even better if you could make the juice yourself. Experiment with the ratios of pear and prune juice your child can drink, but the more prune juice in the mixture the better.

If your toddler flat out refuses anything with prune juice in (it can happen), you may find pear juice on it’s own could be enough to do the trick.

Another thing to note, is try not to give too much juice to a toddler, as dentists don’t like so much sugar (even natural sugar) coming into contact with their teeth!

Acupressure and reflexology

Similar to the massage method above, you can also use acupressure techniques to help your toddler poop. Some parents may doubt whether this method would work, but my view would be what’s the harm in trying? Try a few times, and see if it gives results. I have lived in Chinese cultures for over a decade now, and trust me over in this neck of the woods they are believers in the use of acupressure or acupuncture! Don’t knock it until you try it and all that!

As with the massage technique, it would be a painful experience if I tried to explain it to you in text form. However, Katrine Birk has an awesome Youtube video all about it. Although this particular video is talking about babies, these techniques are also effective for toddlers.

Aloe Vera 

Believe it or not, Aloe Vera can be an excellent supplement for a child that is struggling to poop. Aloe vera is a natural laxative, and can be bought in a juice form. As a bonus, it is also an excellent source of vitamin c. 

This aloe vera juice can be mixed with one of your toddler’s regular drinks every day. Just make sure to start with a small amount at first, and work up slowly until it has the desired effect. 

Click the image below to go see an example of Aloe Vera juice at Amazon.

Flax Seed Oil

Another natural supplement that will help a toddler with constipation issues is Flax Seed oil. This is more of a remedy when you really need your toddler’s bowels to start moving. This is not really the type of remedy to do daily or anything like that.

One teaspoon of Flax seed oil should get your child going in around an hour.

Just be sure to buy a good quality oil, as it will be taken orally. An example of this can be seen by clicking the image below. You will be taken to Amazon, where you can view this particular high quality oil in more detail.

Karo Syrup

This is more of an old school remedy that will likely have been passed down from grandparents! A quarter of a teaspoon of Karo Syrup in your toddler’s milk will greatly help them with any constipation issues they may have, Just be sure to keep the dosage low.

Click the image below to view Karo Syrup on Amazon.

Let’s get your toddler pooping….

We sincerely hope that with these simple home remedies you can ease your toddler’s constipation problems, and get them pooping again.

Just remember that each child may react differently, so start with small doses and work your way up from there. Also, be sure to check any of these remedies for things your child is allergic to. 

If you have tried your own home remedies that are not featured here, we would love to hear all about them in the comments section below. The parenting community is all about sharing, and we hope to be one of many portals that enable this!

Also, if you tried out any of the remedies we featured here, we would love to know how they worked out for you!

Happy parenting!