Constipated baby - when to worry?

[NapaCab]

My 8 month old has been having hard, dry stools for the last few days. He is pooing at least so that's something but the stools seem painful for him to pass.

I've been giving him as much fluid as he'll take but that's only formula milk as he refuses any water (from either a bottle or a sippy cup) and apparently juice is the work of Satan until they're 1 year old so formula is the only liquid I can give him. He's been on some solid food since 6 months but I'm mostly doing BLW so it's not a lot of food really. I've resorted to spoon-feeding him fruit puree and butternut squash this week because I want to get his system cleared out. It doesn't seem to be working though, his stools are still dry.

We have had hot weather though (living in the US) and so I'm inclined to think it's just a lack of fluid? But should I worry / visit the doctor or is it fine as long as he's pooing? He's due a check-up with his pediatrician in 2 weeks anyway.

fresh fruit juice diluted with water would be ok to give him - better than being dehydrated

My DD is now 8mo and when we started weaning the exact same thing happened.

I was ebf and we started BLW at 6mo. After a few weeks I figured she wasn't getting enough of the essential food groups and introduced sone spoon feeding. Now we do half and half. She is spoon fed cereal (weetabix), yoghurt and meals like cottage pie, fish pie, pasta and sauce etc bit has all her fruit and veg as finger food as well as breadsticks etc.

I dropped the mid morning and lunchtime bf and substituted the midmorning feed with a yoghurt or banana and formula. Gave water at lunchtime. As she was 6mo + I used Aptamil 3 but her poos became like smooth pebbles. Kind of like play-dough balls that look solid and 'mouldable'!!! My HV suggested dropping down to no 2 or even no 1 as there's a lot more iron in no 3 and this can make the stools harder. Have done this and we're back to soft pop now!

Watch out for bananas as they can make LO's quite constipated. And maybe think about getting something like a wholewheat cereal into them. Might help???

My health visitor and doctor both recommended pure orange juice and my LO is only 4 months. Mix 1 part juice 2 parts water you can also use pear juice or apple juice if you don't want to use orange or even baby juice a tiny bit in water just for the taste.

the orange juice has worked a treat.

Thanks for all your replies - in the end, I bought DS a couple of jars of pureed prunes (baby food, not adult of course) and that worked like a charm... although I think it's almost worked too well as he's pooing so much he has some nappy rash now. You just can't win!

With the juice and fluids, I tried some apple juice on him but he just didn't want it, kept wrinkling his nose and batting it away. Beats me that he can prefer the taste of that awful formula milk to nice fresh apple juice! Possibly it's because I'm offering it to him in a sippy cup, not a bottle?? I'm just trying to keep up his milk feeds in the mean time anyway. I hope he starts drinking something other than milk soon though...

Glad things are on the move!! You could try cutting up some pears into small chunks and mashing them down as they cook in the pan. Then I drain off some of the juice. Freeze the pear purée for yoghurts and porridge etc and DD drinks the drained juice. She loves it and it certainly helps keep her 'moving'!!!

Hey NapaCab,
My DS was/is the same and I started weaning him at 18 weeks due to his reflux. Because we are weaning to assist on a medical condition, BLW was not an option but with the purees that I have been feeding him, he can have quite claylike stools that are powdery sometime! Maybe I didn't mix the baby rice or cereal with enough fluid but if too runny he wouldn't have any! So our paediatrician prescribed lactulose which simply softens the stool and is not a laxative or sort so no worry apparently about over-reliance. Whereas prune would I was told? When we went to California a month ago we got those pureed prunes too and added a couple of spoonfuls to each meal and yes it worked but we were told to stop that. Hmmm. Oh yes we do try to offer water throughout the day, through the bottle though.

I've found the best way to get ds to drink water is just to leave the cup in his reach or hand it to him and when he wants some jr does it.

Refused for a while, then I used a free flow sippy, which he mostly spat out, and transitioned back to the non spill. Took about 4-5 weeks to get from refusing to now hell pick it up and drink it!

Why cant you give an 8 month old adult prunes? My first would eat them as finger food from pretty young. If he drinks formula enthusiastically and takes plenty I would just put 10ml of extra water in each feed.

Brettgirl - I assume because the regular tin of prunes would have a lot of added sugar.