Has anyone else's breastfed baby been chronically constipated since weaning?

[Stringervest]

I posted a thread on this last week but things have developed since then. I'm really hoping someone can offer me advice from the benefit of their experience.

DS is nearly 7 months and has been on solids for just over a month. Before we started weaning he was pooing once every week to ten days, but the poo was wet, and he is breastfed, so apparently this was normal.

Since we started weaning his pooing frequency has not increased. He poos once a week at most and really strains. His poos are the consistency of plasticine and one had blood on it, which I understand is the result of an anal fissure caused by straining. Last night he was up in the night for hours straining, but has produced nothing. He is in terrible discomfort and I don't think this can be normal.

We have tried: stomach massage, bicycling legs, prune juice, purées prunes, pears, and peaches, water with all meals, avoiding foods that constipate (eg banana and potato), an infant probiotic. Nothing has worked. He is only eating puréed fruit and veg - nothing that you would usually expect to cause an allergic reaction.

We are trying lactulose now. If that doesn't work we'll use an infant suppository to clear him out. What I don't understand is WHY this is happening. I feel so frustrated that we have tried all the recommendations and still this is happening.

Has this happened to anyone else? Did you find a cause? When did things improve?

Thank you for checking in.

He is ok. He has done two poos in a week (one yesterday and one today). We have been loading him with lactulose at the recommended dose and with water, plus lots of fruit. The poos are a little softer. GP wants us to continue with this for a while before cutting dairy. It may be that he is not currently eating enough at mealtimes to create sufficient mass to poo more frequently. DD was a stellar eater from day 1 so I never experienced that.

He's still pooing in his sleep - the last two have been during naps. They have woken him up and he has screamed the house down. I'm hoping that if we can keep his poos soft he will eventually forget about the painful ones and start pooing while awake.

Ok so a little improvement, that is great. I remember my DD also screaming the house down and I found it so upsetting. Hopefully it resolves if you continue with this. My DD had problems until about 8/9 months and she's been ok since although I'm still careful about giving lots of fruit, so I really hope you'll have the same.

Thank you! Your story gave me some hope that this is short term. Thank you for sharing it.

At 7 months of age he should still be consuming as much milk as he did before starting weaning. Breastmilk is a brilliant treatment for constipation. I just wonder if his milk intake has dropped a lot and that this has been a big change for his digestive system. I am a midwife and lactation consultant and I do sometimes see this with older babies. Of course there may be another cause too, but I would want to rule this out first.

Thank you, @LabiaMinoraPissusFlapus. Great name.

I'm confident that he is still drinking as much breast milk as he always was. In fact, I was a little worried that he was filling up too much on breast milk and eating too little food so I'm glad to hear that I needn't be.

Out if interest, at what point should his breast milk consumption reduce in favour of more food?

Hi Stringervest, left to their own devices and going with the baby's appetite rather than following a parent-led schedule, babies tend to naturally increase their solids intake and decrease their milk intake. They may have a cold, or have an upset teething spell, where they want only milk again for a few days and possibly not much food. This is normal, and they will naturally increase their solids again when they are ready. These spells happen at any age, like when we are unwell and temporarily go off our food.

It is really important to not make an issue out of food, so it really is meant to be fun and enjoyable at this stage, and is all about exploration rather than hunger. A baby may not eat as much as a parent wants, but we can't force feed them more! We kind of just have to go with the flow. I see lots of babies up to 2 years plus, and I have 4 children myself. Some take quickly to solids, and some don't consume much until 10-12 months. I do find that some mums are put under pressure to increase solid intake when breastfeeding, but like I said, we can't force feed babies! They will get there when they are ready. And we definitely aren't meant to be withholding breastmilk so that a baby will eat solids. Of course a breastfeed before a solid meal may be cut short and finished later, but I don't think it really matters as babies all get there in the end.

Sorry, that is the long answer. In short, babies tend to decrease their breastmilk intake around 9 months. However, every baby is different so this is not the case for every baby.

I also realise that parents do things differently. For example, I see mums with twins who understandably need to have less of a baby-led structure to their day as they need to get things done! Some people work, etc so it is a two way thing, which is obviously fine!

I hope your baby gets better soon.

My little boy was like this at the start of weaning, straining and crying often and very solid poos which we often had to help him with. He had bleeding too, it was so sad. I know you've probably tried this but he is my 3rd and I didn't think to but the health visitor suggested to give him more water. Once I did that, along with breast milk and non clogging foods he was fine. I still can't believe I didn't think to do that. He's 14 months now and totally fine. As I said, I'm sure you've tried that but just in case.

Thanks, @LabiaMinoraPissusFlapus. It sounds like DS will continue to need me for a while yet. I was hoping that he might naturally start to want less milk a little sooner as he wakes every 2.5 hours at night to breastfeed at the moment! But I've digressed a little from the topic of the thread....

Thanks @Piccalino3 - after some posters suggested more water last week we have upped his intake over recent days and it seems to have helped a little so we will continue to do this as you suggest.

Hi

I breastfed my DS. His poo was ok until I started him on solids at about 5 and a half months. Very quickly he began pooing only about every 4 days increasing to about every 7 days. It was very worrying. I spent ages bicycling his legs, rubbing his tummy etc. In the end using lactulose regularly - every day - and increasing his water intake, did help but it was good 3 or 4 months before things were working normally. I really would recommend commuting to using the lactulose regularly, I am sure that is what made the difference for him.
He also has a dairy allergy (although it didn't seem to affect him when I was bf in the first 6 months, as I didn't cut dairy out), so I am not convinced that affected it. I have no idea why it happened when he started solids - it was all very normal baby food, fruits and veg etc, nothing unusual or allergenic.

DS was like this. After we took him to a doctor and he told us that our 8mo son was doing it for attention we saw another doctor who suggested we do movicol. DS was on it for a few years, but it really helped. Interestingly, when he started school it seemed to sort itself out, and he's had no problems since. He was also a BF baby who would only poo once every ten days or so.

I still can't believe that first doctor.. We walked out of the appointment. He was a locum, and our regular GP was horrified at what he had said.

@bettythebutterfly wow, that is a really worrying story. I'm glad you were able to get it sorted out with your regular GP.

@BlueRaincoat1 I have already decided that I'll be using the lactulose for at least the medium term so I'm glad to hear that worked for you. How did you discover the dairy allergy and what were the symptoms? Did your child outgrow it?

My DD is 2 now but got very constipated between around a year and 16 months or so, again has a mild CMPA allergy, and would just crouch getting very red and sweaty and straining. She was
given movicol and the doctor said the main thing is that she didn't become scared of doing poos and that it became comfortable. I was quite reluctant to go to the doctor at first, using the health visitor helpline a few times who kept saying just drink water but very glad I did and wish I'd done it sooner.

@Stringervest
We discovered the dairy allergy when I gave him baby porridge with cows milk in it at about 6 months. Straight away he had a hives type rash. I got an allergy referral on NHS as his older brother also had CMPA, egg and nut allergies. They confirmed CMPA allergy by doing a skin prick test. I removed dairy from my diet then as was still breast feeding. By 1 and a half he could tolerate baked dairy but it still makes his eczema flair up so he is still dairy free now at 2.
His brother is 4 now and has outgrown the dairy and egg allergies completely now, it's great.

@BlueRaincoat1 I wonder about dairy allergy and CMPA but if he had one, the constipation is the only symptom which is why I'm reluctant to cut it out just yet. But my dad has a mild dairy intolerance (not an allergy, he just gets an upset stomach if he eats too much of it) so there is a precedent for it in my family.

@Greymalkin12 I do think DS is scared of pooing so perhaps I'll have to force the situation with movicol as if he keeps doing them in his sleep he'll never learn that soft poos are ok!

@BlueRaincoat1 great that your older DS has outgrown it. Hopefully younger will too!

@stringvest Yes I'm not sure the allergy affected the constipation - it definitely affected his eczema and other skin reactions. Perhaps if some is atopic - that is more prone to eczema, allergies, asthma, hay fever etc, it might be another manifestation of that? That's what the doctor described when my older DS started wheezing, she connected with his allergies etc. I don't know though!

@BlueRaincoat1 this all makes sense - my dad has eczema.

@Stringervest how is your DS doing?

Thanks for asking. A little better, thanks. He is eating more now and pooing around twice a week. We get several poos on the relevant days. They are still the same consistency but he usually does them while awake now and doesn't seem to be in pain.

I'm wondering if this is just how he is and whether he might just have a slow bowel which is very efficient at extracting all the calories from food before it produces the waste! The lactulose isn't making too much of a difference.

Oh that's great news that he isn't in pain any more. I hope things continue to improve. It might change further, my DD poos a lot more often now and it is a lot softer, I wonder if it's harder for some babies to adjust to solids.

Thank you! And yes, I think you might be right. Things are going in the right direction so hopefully that continues.