constipated breastfed baby just started weaning please help

[Bex1775]

Hi, my baby has just started weaning, until now been exclusively breastfed, she has been having a poo once a week. For the first week she had a huge poo, but the week after it started off quite soft and as she did more it seemed to be harder. Now she has still only been pooping once a week and it seems quite hard. We had given her a bit of banana the first week, have completely avoided it since though, she has only had homemade fruit and veg purees, such as baked pear, apple, I have added water to it as she's still not that keen on drinking water (looks disgusted and dribbles it out with a grin)
What are we doing wrong? I thought by sticking to easy to digest thongs such as this she would be ok, really quite upset, she is loving eating food and gets excited when she sees her bowl and is quite vocal when she's being fed
Any advice would be really appreciated, I have two older boys but had absolutely no problems, and they were a lot younger than her when we started :(

I don't think you should be too concerned unless it is causing pain.I think it is normal for babies. Solid food is new to their bodies so it will take time to adjust. It sounds like you are doing all the right things. Try to make sure you are drinking plenty as you are still breastfeeding and it has been warmer lately and remember that they are still supposed to get most their calories from breast milk so making sure she still has enough milk. Try other foods too like yoghurt mixed with fruit and baby porridge or normal porridge. I had a whole freezer drawer full of bags with frozen carrot,sweet pot,broccoli,cauliflower,pear,apple and cheese sauce etc and mixed the oddest combinations.
Good luck, always see the health visitor if you think there is a problem tho.

Thanks very much for the reassurance :) I've been really worrying, but racking my brains as surely a pure fruit and veg diet should be nice and easy to eat. The first couple of times she had a poop after solids she as upset, but the last two times she's not made a murmur, so I think she's fine.
I always give her a really good breastfed before puree, thinking that at this stage that's the important thing. Think I've not been drinking enough though, we've been for daily 2 hour walks and I've hardly been to the loo today! Do you think that might make a difference? It's just that the two have coincided. Bit of a random coincidence probably?

I agree with lotsoffun, a little constipation is normal. I saw my HV for this reason and she said it's just their digestive system adjusting. She told me to offer water with every meal, reduce but not exclude banana and continue breastfeeding. All of which it sounds like you are doing.

My baby is much better now as he's just natural started adapting (he's 7.5 months).

Good luck. I also am finding the baby led weaning cookbook to be really useful.

Ditto what Soursweets said - my DD got quite constipated a couple of months after we started weaning - to the point of being quite distressed when pooing a few times. We found that despite syringes of lactulose (prescribed by GP), loads of water, veg, good balanced diet, lots of tomato soups and soft fruits like pear, ripe apricots, cutting out banana, trying to spoon purée in, and loads of prune juice in everything, she still carried on being a bit constipated for about 2-3 months and then it just suddenly got better and she's not been constipated since. I think it was just her digestive system adapting to solids - one nice HV we talked to was quite reassuring about this and GP was totally unconcerned about it and just said to keep on doing what we were doing and wait it out.

NB prune juice is actually quite nice and bland, I was pleasantly surprised never having tasted it myself before (!), but you can put it in loads of things - fruit purée but also veg, esp tomato based things. And if your baby is old enough and you have or can borrow a jumperoo, a bit of bouncing helps with comfortable pooing! We used to call it the jumperpoo - even now if we want to go out and DD hasn't had her daily poo yet we put her in the jumperoo for 20 mins - sorted!

Hi, I've had the same problem but have over come it with one of Ella's kitchens sachets that has some prune in it, also, the best thing I have found that works amazingly and quickly is dragon fruit, at such a young age though you will prob have to sieve it to get the seeds out, you only need to give about a quarter a day and mash it, can be mixed with whatever u like or lovely on its own. Best of luck