Newborn Bowel Problem URGENT ADVICE NEEDED

[rosinaboudicca]

Need some advice re my 8 week old granddaughter. She was born healthy 9lb baby and was passing stools normally until around 3 weeks old. She is breastfed and feeds well.Then, suddenly, around 4 weeks old she has stopped passing stools regularly and, for past 4 weeks, has only been passing stools every 6-7 days. She is gaining weight handsomely and appears healthy. But she is continually fretting and frantic whilst awake and desperately trying to pass stools and red-faced, crying and generally unhappy. It is affecting her sleep too as she is passing foul stenching gas. When she does pass a stool, it is literally everywhere. It's as though it has all built up and blasted out everywhere. We have taken her to GP 2-3 times now and they are not in the least bit concerned. But mum is seriously concerned because her feeding is now deteriorating also because when she does feed, it all triggers her bowel and so the cycle begins again. Screaming, shallow breathing, red face, drawing up knees and unable to feed well. Mum is becoming agitated and concerned all is not well, but we have been sent home from the doctors yet again yesterday with some powder form laxative. Doctor seems to think baby is constipated, but her stools are not hard, they are normal consistency when they do appear.

We are at a loss at what to do. Anyone else experienced this?

Unfortunately I think you'll have a long wait before this is taken seriously, my 21 month old was never breastfed but was like this from a week old before leaving the nicu (he was prem) it took till 14 months to be reffered to a gastro and that was for severe reflux but they were more concerned about the conatipation. I was told that if it starts in the first 2 weeks after birth it's a big red flag.

My first thought would be milk allergy causes constipation and a very unsettled baby an elmination diet is quite easy if breastfeeding as in you dont have to beg for perscription formula, might be worth mentioning to the gp.

I hope dgs gets sorted soon it's terrible to see them like this so young, also has he been perscribed lactulose yet we were given it very early by the gp might also be worth asking for it just softens the stool I think also cooled boiled water inbetween breastfeeds.

What is tongue tie? Anyone?

I'm not talking about diet as in good or bad. I mean monitor when it happens - see if there's a pattern relating to re food eaten. Milk is the obvious one, but it could be other foods.

Their poo changes consistency from scrambled eggs to mr whippet ice cream, as their guts become more efficient. All three of mine went through exactly this. If you are worried, a midwife, a health visitor or a doctor is probably the place to double check x

Baby has been given all the colic drops under the sun. Plus lactalose. I'm beginning to think it might be an allergy as one grandparent has lactose intolerance. What would be the first step in getting this diagnosed? Really ignorant on this subject...

Maybe get them mum to cut it out of her diet and monitor it? I don't know how long it would take. You would need to ask a medical person about it.

Keep hounding the gp for referal to peads theres a website I think cows milk allergy uk has a good list of symptoms for breastfed babies, if it is an allergy mum would have to stop eating anything with milk in you would be extremely suprised how many random things contain milk. my son has cows milk allergy.

I honestly think this is fairly common. Not saying you shouldn't be concerned, but baby poo and vowel habits change a lot when you're little. If doc/hv isn't concerned and she's ebf it's very probably a phase, I do remember all of mine going through this.

I think the elimination diet is 2-4 weeks allthough I've heard some see improvement straight away many dont for the full duration.

Bowel not vowel. Not advocating SATS for babies!!!

Got some very useful suggestions from this thread. I think the allergy route may well be worth pursuing.

My daughter was very similar. She never went any less than every 24 hours from birth and would get increasingly upset after an 11 day gap we ended up in out of hours and were prescribed movicol with them saying we needed to get GP to refer. GP wouldn't though although he did give lactlose.

We had her tongue tie treated by a private lactation consultant and then I went dairy free (we also then stopped the formula top ups she had been having). I think she was not able to transfer milk properly before tongue tie and the fomula upset her system leading to constipation. Going dairy free helped and I didn't find too hard to do just was very aware of hidden dairy. Baby is now six months, just started weaning and doing well.

DS's lactose intolerance was diagnosed by GP, he sent a stool sample off. Apparently lactose intolerance is very rare in newborns - GP told me this and I had to push for sample to be sent off, so you might have to be assertive.

Lactose is in all milk, including human milk and can't be eliminated by mother's diet in breastfed infants. You can get lactose free formula on prescription.

From dropping cows milk we saw a huge improvement in two weeks and then she's just regulated so well that if I've accidently ingested something with cows milk we can tell right away. I also went soya free as well.

My son was very constipated when he was tiny and did the knees up red face thing. The powder laxative you've been given is hopefully movicol which is amazing and kind to small tums. If you get very constipated a plug of poo can form and the only thing that manages to get past it is very liquid poo. Does that sound like what might be happening?

That said the posters who mention milk allergy also ring bells. Can mum try excluding dairy completely and see what happens? As others have mentioned there are some great websites so you can get informed. GPs are notorious for missing milk allergy and bein reluctant to refer to paediatricians but if you think it's a milk allergy that's what is needed.

Mum is probably pretty exhausted and fraught with the poor little mite in this much pain. She may need someone to go to the gp with her so she isn't just brushed off as overly worried new mum.

Good luck x I'm sure with a Grandma like you everyone will be doing much better very soon x for you all

If push for a referral before eliminating anything. I know it's easier said than done when the GP seems to think there's no problem.

I have 2 DSs with lactose intolerance. Both were like this as newborns. Hospital did a reducing substances test on a stool sample, and it was diagnosed that way. Each time, within 12 hours of moving to Neocate, symptoms disappeared.

It's horrible to see the like this when they're so small. Trust your gut. If you don't think it's right, then odds are it isn't.

My Health Visitor advised feeding 1oz of cooled boiled water. Works every time.

My DS had this problem but he was mainly ff. He was allergic to cows milk with reflux and was taking in air at feeds.

Giles and starlight are thinking along the same lines as me. Lots of GP s are rubbish at dealing with allergies. First thing mum can do is stop consuming any dairy products. She will be fine with breast feeding as long as mum drinks plenty of water and liquids. I fed one of mine for about three years. It can be a blockage and then it builds up behind, squezzes past so then you get the explosion while some of the bowel is impacted. Ask for a referral to a dietitican I took one of mine privately even though I couldn't afford it. He was allergic to dairy and soya and he and the eldest were put down as failure to thrive babies. Once we sorted out the allergies they put weight on.

If you have the means to do so, consider seeing a paediatrician privately. I've had a much better outcome doing this for similar issues for DS2 than for DS1. If Mum/Dad have private healthcare cover see if baby can be added on. Both my DS have had similar problems. With DS1 it was treated as constipation with Movicol which never fully resolved it. DS2 was diagnosed early with cow's milk protein intolerance and other food allergies (by specialist paediatric allergist) whilst still has some straining, trapped wind etc is not as bad as DS1 was. It seems to be worse the more he eats (he's weaning now). I really feel for you and your daughter - it's hard when doctors are unconcerned even though you know baby is not right. Does baby have any signs of reflux? Just asking as both my DC had it along with tongue-tie and the osteopath we saw recently said he often sees a reflux/tongue tie/colic combination. Ask the osteopath to check baby's neck muscles are not tight as this is what the osteopath I saw recently for DS2 thought was part of the problem.

Meant to say that if excluding dairy from Mum's diet, exclude soy too as often a baby can be allergic to both. It takes several weeks to clear cow's milk protein from both Mum and baby's systems though you may see an improvement before that Mum will need a calcium supplement. Sorry for essays - I've learned a lot in the last 4 years of baby tummy troubles! Most importantly, be persistent.

I found this thread really useful - I made a list of suggestions and worked my way through them www.mumsnet.com/Talk/childrens_health/a713896-Toddler-with-trapped-wind-at-night. Me drinking fennel tea with fennel seeds in it (try Pukka Three Fennel) twice a day seems to help. I'm also avoiding onions, leek, garlic which seems to help but is very restrictive on top of avoiding all the diagnosed allergens for DS2.

I would ask mum to stop her dairy intake for a few weeks and see if things improve!!!!
This sounds like my DD who screamed red faced constant.. She had a dairy intolerance but as soon as I took it out if my diet she was fine !!!

My breastfed DS has gone nearly 2 weeks now without a poop, he usually a goes a week at least and then will go constantly for a few days then stop again but his time it's for longer so I'm onto the docs tomorrow. However I was told it's not uncommon for breastfed babies to go 7-10 days without a bowel movement apparently breast milk is a laxative?
Hope your stuff from the docs works and they start feeling better soon! Fingers cross my DS gets
Some help tomorrow bless him x