Weaning and constipation

[Cariad007]

I've been giving my 6 month old DS purees and baby rice for the last week but he is now extremely bunged up! Has anyone else experienced that with their DC? Reading up online it seems that baby rice can have a constipating effect so I'm going to cut that out. I've got some prune purée so am feeding him that along with his usual milk feeds and some cooled boiled water. Any tips on what else I can give to get things going? I was feeding him some sweet potato, carrot and parsnip purée for a few days but that seems to have contributed to the constipation. He strains and cries when pooping and I feel so sorry for him :(

[hollie84]

I'd stop with solids entirely til he's pooing again.

[JiltedJohnsJulie]

Agree with Hollie. Solids are more about exploring taste and texture at this age so its fine to not offer for a few days.

When you do start offering again I'd stop the baby rice altogether and I'd also skip the sweet potato for a couple of weeks as that can be constipating too.

There's no need to boil tap water after 6 months either if you are in the uk. The reason you have to add boiling water to formula is to kill the unsafe bacteria in the powder, not the water

Are you offering solids just once a day and roughly an hour after milk and are you offering milk with each meal? These all help

[madamweasel]

Soak a dried apricot or a few raisins in hot water till soft, purée and add to carrot purée. Sometimes a few sips of diluted orange juice can help too. Stick with fruit and veg to start with rather than stodgy things.

[Cariad007]

Thanks all, some useful advice here. DS is still a boob monster so having milk every 2-3 hours. I've been offering baby rice with EBM for breakfast (about a tablespoon and a half) and then either a fruit or veg purée in the evening. He really took to solids so maybe I went a bit mad and started offering too much. I'll go back to just milk for a few days to clear him out a bit and then slowly reintroduce stuff.

[JiltedJohnsJulie]

Sounds like a good plan . You can add ebm to food if you like but after 6 months its fine to use full fat cows milk on cereal and in food if you prefer.

[Cariad007]

Well I've gone back to just giving him milk and prune purée but he's still only producing little pellets, although he no longer seems to be in pain while he's passing them. I'm hping it's just his digestive system getting used to things. To think my life has come down to worrying about the consistency of poop!

[JiltedJohnsJulie]

Have you changed his milk recently?

[Cariad007]

No, he's only ever had breast milk.