Soft bowel movements (Page 1)

Maybe try increasing his intake of banana? This can firm up a bowel movement.

have you considered the possibility that he may have picked up an intestinal parasite? Giardia is common in kids and it results in loose bowels. Google it.
hope it helps
maria

My 23 month old son has exactly the same problem as in constant soft bowel movements. I have taken him to the doctors who initially thought that it might be a food intolerance but before we go down that route he suggested that we get his stools tested.
I will update once i get the results from this.
I also have a daughter and i never had this with her so i know that that this is not normal as he has a good diet and eats exactly what we do. Plenty of fruit and veg and also he loves bananas which dispels that theory.

Right. Bananas and plantains work for me (an adult). Also, dysentry could be another possible cause. And this is also diagnosed via stool sample.

Parasite is a possibility. You can keep him free of those by giving him diatomaceous earth food grade for humans ...more info on that at the freshwater organics website.

Also foods such as cheese and tortillas will help harden them, just make sure you don't give him too much and end up constipating him.

Stool sample came back clear. Had chat with doctor who has recommended him to a specialist. Agreed that my son is healty and active. Had to get him weighed for an up to date weight to forward to specialist. His weight is spot on for his age which is good as that means that food is not going straight through him.
Wanted to know if there were any bowel problems in the family... which there aren't...
Have been keeping a food and pooh diary to give to specialist to see if there are any patterns which at the moment there aren't. Doesn't matter what he eats the result is still the same. Diahorrhea. 2 or 3 times a day.
He also loves cheese which again dispels that theory.
Will update once we have seen the specialist.

Our son has always had soft poop, occasionally but rarely he will have a firm one. He also loves cheese and eats it everyday. Otherwise eats a wide variety of food. I wonder if the cheese has something to do with it?

Thanks for the update. If you have anything else you need to talk about, don't hesitate to ask. It will be interesting to know what's going on!

I know it's been awhile since this subject had a post, but just wanted to share my same problem I had with my daughter, with an easy solution.

Since birth she had soft stools that would ooze out normal diapers and it continued, I could only use diapers with elastic around the legs. Like others here, her weight gain and health and everything else was perfectly normal so her doctor said to not worry about it. I gave her a lot of apples and bananas, as well as juices, which were supposed to help harden up stools, with minimal help. Around age 2-1/2 years though, she started waking up in the middle of the night vomiting. Every night.

While at the doctor about the vomiting, we started thinking about possible food allergies. And the only thing she had consistently on a daily basis (she was in pre-school, so had a good varied diet) was milk.

I stopped the milk and all dairy products, and the vomiting instantly stopped that first night... and so did the soft stools she had all her life. She apparently was somewhat lactose intolerant at birth, which just became progressively worse by drinking milk daily, which eventually ended up with her vomiting nightly.

I'd try eliminating all dairy products for awhile and see what happens. And don't do what I did the first day... skipped the milk but brought home a cheese pizza... wasn't thinking all dairy products at that point yet.

My daughter has this too and she has been going in her pants. She was fully potty trained then in the past year she hasnt been using the potty. I called the doctor and she said increase her fat in her diet. SHe didnt even give her an appointment to see her. What should I do. What if she dose have a parisite or another medical issue?

My 2 and 1/2 year old daughter has had the same issue for about 5 months. When we first saw the doctor we took x-rays and found alot of food in her belly, the pediatrician recommended an enema thinking maybe there was a bowel blockage. That cleared her up for a couple days and she had one hard poop. Then another couple of days and she went back to loose mushy stool. Then she came down with the Rotavirus and had severly watery tan stool. This only lasted about 4 days, but it was bad! She had probiotics prescribed which were supposed to firm her up, but have not helped. We have stopped milk and fruit juice for about a week, hoping that may be the cause, but unfortunately this hasn't helped either. I am in the process of switching pediatricians because I am so frustrated with her current ped. If I find out the cause I will definitely post. I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one worrying.

I am having the same problem with my 19 month old son. He has this watery stool for almost a week. I went to his pediatrician and she gave me Flagyl Suspension as well as Pedialyte. My son is not responding with the medication. He still has the loose bowel movement evnthough he is taking the meds. I am thinking of taking his stools for a lab test to figure out what was causing the hassle.

I have the same problem with my 20 month which started the day I stopeed breast feeding (when he was fourteen months) He has no dairy in his diet becuase I know he is lactose intolerent AND milk protein intolerent. My doctor says I am making a fuss about nothing as his weight gain is fine as with all the others above. She even saw one nappy and said it was normal, she mkaes me feel like I am making an issue out of nothing so I have taken matters into my own hands and reduced his diet to pasta and liquidised meat. It was going well he stools started to become much less loose, ( i wont say firm) then he picked up a virus and has had runny stools and vomitting for three weeks now. They tell me it is a virus and there is nothing they can give him,

FInally they gave me infant gavicson which has stopped the vomitting but guess what the side effect is thats right loose stools. So now I can not start to reintroduce foods becusae his nappies are so bad I could not see the effetc of the change in diet

All I do is wait in the meant ime he is having no calcium at all, which again I am apprantly mkaing too much fuus about too

You can get calcium to him from many other sources besides milk. Vegetables, beans and nuts are another natural source of calcium. Kale, broccoli, spinach, cabbage, mustard greens, turnip greens and dandelion greens are all good sources of calcium and provide up to 400 mg of calcium in 1-3 servings.

Thanks for your reply regretfully having now spoken today again to his doctor they have asked me tokeep him all leafy vegetavles and all layered vegetavles, (like cabbage and onions) becuase these are hard to digest they tell me

However Brocoli is on the list of OK foods so I use this thank you

No actually, they shouldn't be any harder to digest if they are cooked and more than broccoli would be, especially fresh steamed spinach...yum! I don't understand the reasoning behind that. Giving him just broccoli is ok as long as he likes it...I hope he does as long as that's his only option lol.

Ugh, My 15 month old daughter has been having soft stools for a few months now. Nothing has really changed in her diet other than a small increase in milk. But her poo is soft and mushy like peanut butter and she is constantly getting a rash with open sores!! We cloth diaper so I am trying to strip her dipes. We don't have a pedi. I'm not a big fan of them but this is starting to consern me. We've been using the Wal-mart brand Advantage formula that claims prebiotics. Plus using Motrin almost nightly for teething. Not sure what the cause is but I'm ready to make an appt if it doesn't stop soon. ..

Just though I should for completeness reply re the brocoli, having done a fair amount of research on tis a child portion of brocoli contains 40mg not 400mg of calcium and therefore although it is calcium intake it is not enough to cover the recommended 350mg a day

Just thought I should write this in case other people rad the replies.

The very plain diet is working and to night we are finally bacxk off teh gaviscon so hopefully we can start toexpland the diet again

VannaO... ref the rashes with open sores. You need to get a handle on that one quickly. Is there any chance you have recurrent yeast infection? It's hard to shift, especially in cloth diapers. If you can, without wrecking them, boil the diapers to kill the yeast. If you think it is yeast it's also really good to wipe baby's bottom with a mix of grapefruitseed oil (15 drops to 2 oz water). Note grapefruitSEED oil, not grape oil.

I also have an issue with my son recently having soft stools when previously he had "perfect" poops. As I understand it it is NOT normal to have overly hard or soft stools.. and it is worth investigating the source pretty aggressively. It is good for long term health.

Good luck everyone. I suspect milk protein is the cause of mine but we need to do an elimination diet of sorts to confirm.

VannaO- we cloth diaper and our daughter had the same mushy poop issue. she is gaining weight, and eats very healthy, so we're not too concerned right now. i am suspicious it is a touch of lactose intolerance. (but of course she loves milk and yogurt!)

she also got nasty diaper rashes, so we started taking her diaper off during naps and at night. put a lap pad or two and cloth diapers (prefolds) under her. worked like a charm and ususally kept the bed dry. or you can use the cloth diapers with a G diaper insert on top -- we do that every night now, and she has not a diaper rash/sores since! you could try using plain olive oil with a few drops of tea tree oil instead of diaper rash cream. it comes off the diapers easier and helps with the rashes if they are yeast.

good luck!