Weaning and Constipation - any help gratefully received!!

[Redbush]

My DD2 is 25 weeks old - we have been giving her baby rice, fruit and veg for 4 weeks as she was definitely ready for it - would have had the food off my plate if she could. She has taken to it and loves her food - knows what the little red pot means and eats every last drop offered to her. Big problem though is constipation. Mainly over the last week with straining and crying - all rather heartbreaking. We've been giving her lactulose for 5 days now but it doesn't seem to be helping. My theory is she needs some ruffage (is that how you spell it?) but not quite hitting the 6 months for wheat. Has anybody else had the same problem? Worried now that she'll associate BM with pain and that'll just make things worse. HELP

[MrsBadger]

lay off the baby rice and stick to fruit and veg

you may think she's ready for food but it might be a sign her digestive systme isn't quite up for it yet

[MrsJamin]

Yes I have to agree with MrsBadger, constipation means that her gut is not ready for food. It's 6 months for a reason - sorry to be so honest. Stay off the food for a little while. Surely roughage would make things worse, bung her up even more? I have heard that orange juice diluted with water may help - but verify this elsewhere as I'm not 100% sure.

[nowwearefour]

i had this problem for dd2 despite waiting til 6 months. i was too nervous to wait any longer. are you breastfeeding? someone told me to eat grapes and it shifte things boy did it shift things for her. i ate them by the bag and it worked for her. orange juice diluted and prune juice didnt work except give her tummy ache and make her scream even more. but every child is different.

[choufleur]

DOH guidelines do say weaning around six months and 25 weeks is around that.

[Seona1973]

baby rice can be constipating so I would maybe stop with that and stick to fruit/veg. Will she take water along with the solids?

[Redbush]

I know there is a big debate about when to start weaning - I discussed with my health visitor that I was starting as at 21 weeks she went from sleeping from 7pm til 5.30am to waking 4 times a night to feed again. Yes until that time I was totally breast feeding as she wouldn't take a bottle even when we tried. As I start back to work in 2 weeks I had to find a way of getting some sustainance into her so please don't give me a hard time about starting weaning too young. She has now improved and will take water from a bottle and some formula. Thank you for the advice regarding grapes I'll give that one a go.

[Seona1973]

prunes are supposed to be good for constipation too - you could mash some from a tin or use the prune juice from it.

[MrsJamin]

Hi redbush sorry if it came over like I was having a go, sounds like your LO was just having a growth spurt like all 4 month olds though? Anyway I hope your DD gets things moving so to speak!

[serant]

What is she driking? She needs more fluid be that water or fruit & veg,

could you try offering watered down ebm, if your trying to stop bf?

[serant]

oh, too slow typing, sorry redbush see you are giving her water.

[Redbush]

Thanks folks - I'll try a combination of me eating grapes and her having some prunes!! I'm hoping to still feed her am and pm - I managed to do that with DD1 until she was one. It seems wrong to stop giving her solids now as she's 6 months old next Friday and then I'm supposed to be thinking of getting meat etc into her to make sure she has enough iron! Fingers crossed things will settle - any idea how much water I should try to get into her - is it ok to give it between meals as well?

[simpson]

Redbush - the same thing happened with my DD a few weeks ago. It was heartbreaking to see and she was very distressed.

I gave her very diluted apple juice, steamed apples and pureed prunes, as much water as she wanted. My DD was ff and I think part of the problem was she loved the solids so much she cut down on milk too quickly (she was over 6mth at the time)I did continue to give solids but just gave pureed fruit/veg and yogurt for several days. I avoided babyrice (which i think was the culprit) and weetabix and banana too.

Don't worry about the iron thing as supplies don't deplete overnight another few weeks wouldn't make much difference.I would not introduce any new foods till things are back to normal.

Hope your LO gets better soon

[benandgerry]

Pureed fruit and veg are a common cause of contipation in 6 - 9 month old babies. They don't have to make any effort to chew so the food slips down easily and they end up having more fibre than their system can cope with. If she wants to take the food off your plate why not let her? If she feeds herself with fruit and veg (ie baby led weaning) then she'll only take what her system can cope with. Its more about tastes and exploring textures than actually swallowing mouthfulls of food at this stage.

[MrsBadger]

(NB I wasn't having a go re starting too early, just meant that it might take her body a while to catch up with her appetite!)

[Redbush]

Hi ladies thanks for the new advice - we did slightly better today - she managed a poo without crying and seems generally happy. Have read a bit about the baby led weaning but not sure if I'm brave enough - I would worry about her choking - what would you advise starting with benandgerry? would you give her a piece of fruit??

[MrsJamin]

Hi redbush, just seen you didn't have any replies to this! Great to hear your little one is doing better - hope this is still the case a couple of days on.

Everybody's first concern with babyled weaning is choking but it is very uncommon. Perhaps learn the first-aid to know what to do if it happens though? Quite a few babies gag whilst getting used to lumps of food in their mouths - whether it's lumpy puree or finger food. Choking is when the child stops breathing and very different to gagging which just looks like they might be sick.

Good things to start on are toast, roasted veg sticks were DS's favourite first foods as they're nice and sweet, easy to grasp without mushing in the hand but they have a great easy-to-chew consistency in the mouth.