Breast fed baby pooing only once a day-normal?

[mariedj]

My 3 week old is only managing one poo a day and is really uncomfortable just before she manages a dirty nappy. Is this ok for a breast fed baby or should I be concerned? This has been going on for 5 days.

I know that it is normal for frequency to decrease as BM is so digestible compared to formula. Is she still doing plenty wet nappies each day? Not sure why she's uncomfy though - could it be wind?

Oh yes. BM is very efficient so not much left to poo out. And don't forget her gut is a muscle too, one that hasn't had to do much for the past 9 months so it takes a while to get moving, so it's not surprising she's a little uncomfortable. You could try doing very gentle n shapes on her lower abdomen with the flat of your hand. It can help poos move through the gut.

My bf fed 12 week old only poos every 4 days or so. He has a lot of wet nappies. He can get quite uncomfortable before a poo, but doesn't last long and we are always, erm, greeted, with a large amount of poop.

I believe this is because there is very little waste created from BM as it's all absorbed mostly, which means it takes longer for waste to build up.

As long as you are getting plenty of wet nappies it's fine.

When researching this I found that it's not unusual for some babies to not poop for 10 days on average and the longest recorded was 43 days.

Never thought I'd learn so much about poop :)

sorry, * my 12 week old exclusively breast milk fed

43 days!!! Glad I wasn't changing that nappy :o

Ooo, also, we do wee exercises on his legs. The 'riding a bike' is one that's good for moving things along. Also, look into baby massage - some tummy massage is good.

Dh pushes his legs up and back too - he loves this. Lets a few rip and feels better.

That's ds who lets rip. Not dh. Wouldn't encourage dh to do that. Baby farts are bad enough!

Mine goes once a week, on Thursdays :o

He's 14 weeks though.

thanks that has really put my mind at rest. I will give the n shape thing a try too.

DS1 would often go up to 10 days between poops. DS2 currently does 3-4 poops a day. They're all different, don't worry :-)

Baths help my DS along... get lots of farts in there, no actual poos as yet (shame as he has all his baths with DH)!! He has just gone 5 days and so we had a cracker today,... needed elbow length gloves for that one!!

15 wk DS, excl BF, goes every 4-5 days or so. And boy does he go! DH has managed to avoid nappy changes for about four weeks as they're always on a weekday morning.

Mine is suffering before his daily or every-other-day poo too. (4 wks) I think this is normal, regretably, and we just have to wait for their digestion and gut to mature. In the meantime, I'm trying Infacol and massage!

there is very little wastage in breast milk so not unusual for BF babies to poo only once a week!

DS2 only went about once a fortnight but he had a lot of "wind". his wind was not pleasent lol! I got lots of looks, because no one would believe a newborn baby could smell so bad

I did a baby massage course and used to do some of the exercises whenever he looked uncomfortable.