I know this is OT but I was really hoping someone here could help me.

I have a 15m old who is having stomach trouble. He has gas and lots of tiny, soft stools then one big stool. When he is having the big stool he will cry for several hours until it comes out. He is crying like he is in pain.

I have been slowly introducing cow's milk and there didn't seem to be a problem. He was on formula from 6m plus and breast milk before that with no problems. He just recently switched to all cow's milk. It is possible that he could tolerate a small amount of milk but still have an allergy?

He also eats a lot of table food. Pretty much everything I eat except raw spinach.

His pediatrician can't see him until later this week. Does anyone have any ideas or thoughts that could help until then?

Sounds like he is constipated. The tiny soft stools are what is making it through the "holes" it sounds like.

As a person with milk allergy and other food allergies, sometimes it can take some time to build up to a symptom. It's not always cut and dry.

I'd try cutting out milk again and see if that helps him. When my little one (18 mo) has tummy trouble with pooping I feed him some prunes to get things flowing.

Alannah, my 6 yr old experienced similiar issues. We started keeping food journals and noticed she was having issues the days following heavy pasta/bread consumption so slowly weeded those out. She did have to be hospitalized for malnutrition, even though she was consuming nutrients, they weren't being absorbed because her intestines were inflamed during the response from gluten so she wasn't absorbing nutrients. We were clueless to the malnutrition as we fed her a very healthy diet and she was eating...just not absorbing. She also had the 'baby pooch' tummy, (she was 3), but that was bloat due to inflammation of intestinal tract. She came back from tests as gluten intolerant which has evolved to gluten sensitivity.

We started noticing the problems again and eventually had her tested for every known allergy to man and she came back as tree nut allergic and pork allergic as well as the gluten concerns.

I'm not saying this is whats going on, but I always suggest a food diary as well as liquid intake diary. Water, alot of people don't give kids water, but I know at 15 months, living in Los Angeles, my kids were active, moving and outside, alot. Watered down juice helped. Kids also require fiber, water etc in order to have proper bowel movements and alot of times, parents just don't pay as close attention to a young childs diet. I certainly didn't until I realised it was an ongoing issue for her.

If your child is constipated often, having the diary to refer back to aid you and your pediatrician in figuring out the cause and if the child should see someone else for testing. good luck!

Make sure your little one is getting enough water and fruits and veg. Be reassuring and calm when he is having trouble going. Sometimes if a child is having trouble with painful stools they will tighten up the muscles in response to the discomfort, which in turn makes it more uncomfortable and difficult to go. Sometimes warm baths help relax the muscles. Some kid need to move around, sort of a potty dance until they go. Good luck. I worked in a child care center and a little boy in my room had trouble going. It was hard to know he was uncomfortable/in pain (sometimes for hours) and not be able to "fix" it.

It does sound like a food allergy or else an intestinal problem. Make sure the dr takes it seriously and does a thorough check. In the meanwhile, fruits & vegs, NO cheese (constipating), limit other dairy, LOTS of water, no bananas. Raisins or prunes might help. And lots of hugs! Hope he feels better soon!

Dr. prescribed bran muffins for breakfast and colace once a day (a stool softener) for my toddler. Yes on the prunes, raisins. Go easy on bananas as they can bind. Make sure he is drinking enough water.

I would cut out the cow's milk. It might be a "sensitivity" and not a full blown allergy. That's what my 2 boys struggle with... it's a pain but I have come to believe that cows milk is for calves.

Water down his juices. Maybe do "weak" formula bottles/sippy cups. Explore other options of drinks: goat, soy, rice, almond....

Best of luck to you & your precious boy!

Thank you all so much! I did not realize that constipation was the problem because of the small stools. I am going to cut out all cow's milk and cheese for now and go back to formula and water. Also cut out bananas which he has been eating a lot of lately and replace with some prunes. Hopefully he will be feeling better soon.

I have to be very sparse with my son and bananas. It binds him up lickity split!

When our younger son was still an infant--perhaps 9 months or so? We fed him some mashed-up banana. Thus ensued an entire WEEK where he did not poop at all, despite all my increasingly desperate attempts to help it happen. What finally did it was giving him prune juice to drink, and then he had the nastiest, stinkiest, most horrifying baby poop ever. Since then, we have not let this child have bananas (He still has problems with constipation, mostly due to the fact that he attempts to avoid any and all veggies and fruit. Also I think he's just predisposed.)

I do hope you get it figured out soon. It's so emotionally difficult to deal with that kind of discomfort in one's child. You have my sympathies!

I wouldn't do a lot of prunes though. Slowly introduce them to see how he responds. All of the older ladies in my family (very old school) told me to use Karo Syrup and water (1tblsp / bottle of water) to keep my now 2yr old from being constipated when I was introducing table food and it worked wonders. Of course my daughter has been drinking water since the day after she came home from the hospital.

Oh MY!! When I first read your post I thought you said he was 15 YEARS old!! LOL Way different!

With my kids if they got "irregular", I'd increase the fruit in their diet... jarred Gerber baby food plums are great and then offer prune juice mixed 50/50 with water in the bottle or sippy cup. Other fruit is good to but prunes and plums seem to be magic in regards to constipation even if they don't contain anymore fiber than applesauce or juice, they really seem to do the trick. I wouldn't feed him any more plums than I would other fruit foods he had been eating. If he was eating one baby food jar of peaches a day, I'd switch it to half plums/half peaches.

If the plums and or prune juice cause very loose stools, that wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing at this point. You don't want him dehydrated from pooping all day but a nice big diaper full would make him feel a lot better!!

Warm baths help as does a nice massage with baby lotion after the bath paying particular attention to the belly and legs. My pediatrician years ago, told me that in chinese medicine the nerves for the belly, digestion, etc go through the belly to the spinal cord and down the thighs. I don't know if it's true or not but my kids loved gentle but deep massage of their little legs.

My little girl has similar issues. We figured it was triggered at various times by high fructose corn syrup, too much cheese, or sucralose (splenda). We try to keep these out of her diet. Seems like everything has HFCS in it these days though, so it's not very easy.

I have a husband and a son with mild milk allergies and another son that does not have a milk allergy but is consistently constipated. My oldest son (the one with the mild milk allergy) used to have the WORST painful gas, as well as constipation and a myriad of other symptoms. What you are describing does NOT sound like a milk allergy. He could have lactose issues which are not an allergy but a sensitivity to lactose. They are completely different things.

However, my 20 month old has had NON stop constipation issues since birth. The stoneybrook yogurts (apple and sweet potato are a current favourite) as well as certain juices help a lot. Also, Karo syrup water is an old fashioned remedy that works VERY well. All you need is a few ounces of DARK Karo syrup (maybe 3, you'll have to experiment to see what works best) and water in an 8 ounce bottle. It will help alleviate the constipation in no time!

My son's pediatrician was able to see him today. He said it was lactose intolerance so no more milk or milk products. I got him a powdered drink called PediSmart to replace the milk and have to keep track of protein and calcium to make sure he is getting enough. After two weeks he should be feeling 100% better and then we can try to work cheese and yogurt back into his diet but leave out other milk products. What a relief to know how to help! Thanks so much to everyone who responded.