Constipated baby - are some formula's worse than others?

[Zil131]

Sorry to post another poo thread...

9 month old DS has issues with constipation - screams when trying to squeeze one out, and takes all day, rabbit pellets when he manages. I'm trying all the usual stuff: cutting out bananas, limited cereals, weetabix, prunes, orange juice etc
However, he is bottle fed, and whilst trawling the internet I found a comment that 'SMA is famous for constipating babies, try Cow and Gate'. I have 5 tins of SMA red in circulaton (home, grandparents, nursery), so before I give up on about £35 worth of milk - does anyone have any experience of this??

Thanks.

[seeker]

My ds got incredibly constipated when he went fro exclusively breast milk at 7 months to the occasional bottle of formula. I cured it by making the formula up weaker than recommended. He was still getting loads of breast milk and he was a good eater as well so I reckoned that it wouldn't hurt him.

[Seona1973]

follow on milk also has more iron which in itself can be constipating (I gather you use sma progress?). Some formulas also have prebiotics in them which is supposed to help keep the poo soft - ds had soft poos with both aptamil and cow and gate which both contain prebiotics.

[myermay]

I stopped using sma red after a few days as my ds1 really got badly constipated. I used aptimal with ds2. Stop using the following milk as that will be what's doing it

[gegs73]

I found SMA constipated DS1 and swopped to Cow and Gate which solved the problem, but this was before he was weaned onto food. It might be worth swopping him depending on how much milk he is drinking a day. If he drinks more milk than he eats food I definately would. But if he eats more food than milk ISWIM I would look more at that. Also does he drink water. DS1 and DS2 both had beakers of water at this age too which can help with constipation. Hope things get better for him.

[Zil131]

Thanks all!
DS does have a water beaker, but doesn't really like it (basic tommee tippee) hwever he will drink water from a pint pot if dad is drinking... Think I wil buy some cow and gate and try it all weekend, and Monday at Grandma's before replacing all the SMA.

[angel1976]

I also switched from C&G after SMA was making LO spit up a lot and also fairly hard poo. His poo and spit up were all much better after going on C&G. You might want to give it more than a weekend though... Try it for a week?

[ConstanceWearing]

I found SMA was a bit of a bum binder for my DC's when tiny. I used C&G.

[elmoandella]

i changed from sma to aptimel as hv advised it would help with constipation.

definately did. noticed diferecne by second day. why not just get a couple of cartons of ready made before commiting yourself to a whole tub of powder

[Tinkjon]

Same here with DD - used SMA and very constipated, switched to Aptamil and fine.

[alysonpeaches]

SMA has always been known for constipation, but that suits some babies. Cow and Gate with its prebiotics made one of our little girls too loose, so we had to change to SMA to firm her up. She didnt get constipated. But my firstborn son did on SMA.

I would second the idea above of trying those small ready packs before you buy a whole lot though. Thats what I did. I also had to be sure she would drink it, as it does taste different.

[alysonpeaches]

Just thought, if SMA suits and you really dont want to change give orange juice diluted with water to get the bowels regular.

[Pip2018]

My baby boy is on aptimal reflux milk , really constipated went on it because he was growing up so much!!!
Anyone had this problem?