Our first step in combating the probable constipation that is leading to Avery’s wetting accidents, has been a change in her diet. This sort of thing is a bit hard for me to put “out there.” For some reason, I’m a bit sensitive about how well or not well we feed our kids. It is a huge responsibly that has a major impact on children. Well, I managed to start tracking Avery’s diet on some seriously low days for us. Day 1 we spent on a quick road trip, and Day 2 I spent at the courthouse trying to get out of jury duty. I promised to be real, so here it is.
So, for the 3 days prior to any diet changes, Avery averaged 8.5 grams of fiber per day. I would imagine this was pretty accurate for an average, but there were typically very few days as low as 4.
The next chart shows the past 6 days of Avery’s diet after we have made some changes. We’ve made some progress, and some days are better than others. This gives us an average of 18 grams of fiber per day. According to the government’s guidelines as published in the book, It’s No Accident by Steve Hodges, MD, the recommended intake for a child age 4-8 is 17-20 grams.
Things I’ve learned so far:
- A breakfast containing around 5 grams of fiber is almost essential for us to get what we want in a day.
- Breakfast is a fairly easy place to make a big impact. (I’ll share a few of our new recipes soon.)
- Every snack and meal counts. If you miss an opportunity to add in fiber, it is hard to make it up later.
- This would be much harder to accomplish in a child that did not like fruits and veggies.
- Weekends are hard for us with football games and at least one meal out to eat. We’ll need to choose a bit more wisely at restaurants. (We had a few strange looks when our kiddo was running around the football stadium offering to share her bag of prunes!)
- It can be hard to get Avery to eat the entire serving size she needs to get the fiber count we are hoping for.
- I’ve started a Pinterest board for new fiber-ful recipes. Please share some of yours if you have any.
