Toddler Digestion

My 16 mos old doesn't seem to be digesting her food. Almost all foods come out whole in her diapers. Is that typical of this age since they don't chew much? She has 11 teeth but is still learning to use them. She seems to have issues with cow's milk products. I'm still nursing her and we've been dairy free since she was 2 mos old with a few trials back in our systems. She's been allergy tested by the Ped with nothing showing up. She has always thrived well. Just trying to deterine if her diapers are telling me something or this is typical for the age.

Whole peas, beans, and corn kernels have tough outer skins and it’s a little common for these to show up in toddler diapers. If this is the case then these foods need to be pureed. It’s not harming her to have a little of these passing through but if it’s much, it can cause uncomfortable gas.

If it’s more than just this kind of foods, and things like tomato skins, then she’s rather in the upper end of the age range for it to be purely digestive immaturity. Either she’s rushing foods through because she’s reacting to one or a few things, or her digestive system is just not ready yet.

Allergy testing for food allergies is rather unreliable for anyone but very unreliable for children under two. It's seldom worth the effort and pediatricians often misunderstand negative findings as meaning that mother's observations are in her head. If you’ve been avoiding a food in the weeks prior a blood test, there will seldom be antibodies left around to show up in the test meaning no positive result possible.

Keep exploring the dairy question on your own. Try excluding it 100% with no foods containing casein, whey, cheese, yogurt, etc. and see if things look better. Otherwise, baby may just need pureed foods and maybe a reduction of solids for a while.