Q&A: Our baby's constipated. What can we do to help her?

Your friend has given you well-meant but misguided advice and your doctor is right: low iron formula has no place in your child's diet for two reasons.

The first is that it won't help the constipation. Unlike in adults, iron does not constipate children, so removing the iron won't solve the problem. The second reason is that iron is very important for early brain development. So much so that children who are iron-deficient have been shown to have lower IQ's than those with enough iron, and this effect is permanent.

Your baby is particularly vulnerable since she missed out on the last trimester of pregnancy when babies build up their iron stores from the placenta. So, keep her iron-enriched. But I agree with your reluctance to use laxatives to combat the constipation. Medicines should be given to children only when absolutely necessary.

Since apple juice worked for a while, you already know that diet changes can be helpful for her. Try an even better one: prune juice. Juices help constipation by being sugary. The sugar draws water into the intestine, which slowly mixes with and softens the stool. Prune juice tends to be more effective at this than other juices and contains some vitamins as well, making it a more nutitious alternative than a concentrated sugar like Karo syrup.

Start with one ounce per day, mixed with one ounce of water to make it less sweet and more palatable. This may take a few days, but should slowly and naturally soften her stool. You can continue this off and on until you add solids to her diet, which should change her stool pattern.