tiktok - any advice?

[davidtennantsmistress]

with BF, i'm sure DS is constipated slightly, although he will do 2 lovely runny nappies he seems to also be straining to poo as well esp early hours of the am and nothing will settle him only bobbing on/off the boob.

we've had issues with reflux/gavisgon ( see my thread in chat) i'm not 100% are right tbh, he keeps popping off constantly pretty much and is a v windy baby in this way. we've seen a BF councillor who slightly adjusted my latch with him.

can BF babies get constipated/how do we help him, am seeing my HV today however if I go in for armed am less likely to get the BF babies are not constipated line as they all seem to be drilling out at me atm.

sorry he's 4 weeks thanks.

If poo is soft no he's not constipated - which means a hard ,dry stool which is hard to pass. Grunting and straining is normal

if the nappies are runny then he isnt constipated. They do make an awful effort to poo at that age.

Yep - none of this sounds in any way an indication of anything 'wrong'. Sometimes, young babies (and older ones, too, actually, but esp the younger ones) do this pushing and red face thing and wriggling and apparent straining but they're ok. If any of this was actually painful he'd be in great distress.

It's normal for babies to want to be close to the breast in the night and to seek comfort and closeness there - more so if the sensations in their tummy are keeping them from falling asleep. Your baby sounds quite sensitive to his gut-related processes (some babies are; some are not) so it fits with this picture.

Bf babies really don't get constipated - but your HV should have ideas on how to help your baby become more comfortable, and there might be some ideas on mumsnet, too. Easiest thing (IMO) is to go with the flow and if he settles with this on/off bf, that's fine to do :)

see sometimes he is in distress with it, other times not so much he'll settle & be fine until it gurgles around again, but mostly he's just farting (lots! lol) the last time he strained on saturday he managed to do a little nugget of a poop but it was solid.

have been debating if to use formula for the night feeds or not. also the BF councillor told us that he had to feed for longer to get the hind milk & fatty milk behind the quenching stuff - I didn't say anything at the time but when I leak/express even jsut an ounce when it seperates you see the fatty deposits and the thinner stuff, I assumed that DS would get the fatty stuff at the same time as the quencher - his weight gain certainly seems to suggest this, I know from DS1 I have a fast let down & plenty in the boobs as there's usually a load coming back out of his mouth - could all of this be upsetting him?

Are you still using the Gaviscon? That can cause constipation and in your last post you mention the solid poo which is not really how it should be.

Why are you considering formula for night feeds?

Don't worry about the foremilk/hindmilk thing. You're right, even leaked milk (which is usually the lowest in fat) will separate to show the fatty content. The emptier the breast, the higher the fat content but generally speaking this just causes confusion and can be safely ignored provided you're feeding on cue and allowing your baby to choose when to come off the breast to move to the other side.

There's not really enough info to try to work out what's going on. Can you describe more about what is worrying you and what his general behaviour is like?

just to try & settle him, he seems to be in a lot of pain when grunting/groaning, he'll fight his sleep by day when he's not crying in pain (high pitched screeching) his legs will come up & then he'll really seem to strain let out a fart then settle again.

am we stopped the gavisgon. (the only way I can see to get it into him is in formula, althou he'll only have that if he's really hungry which isn't the point I don't feel - however sometimes he'll feed for a good half hour on each boob every hour to hour and half (from the start). we were not convinced teh gavisgon was actually helping him.

mostly I allow him to feed when he wants (I try for every 2 hours minimum thou) he'll have one boob for about 15-20 mins and then offer the other one, I leave him there unless he's groaning/fussing about in seeming pain then I delatch wind and we try again - this can happen 3 or 4 times sometimes at a fed, other times it won't happen at all.

his sickiness (apart from yesterday) seems to have calmed down quite a bit since stopping the medicine.

This sounds a bit like my DD (9 weeks). Often when she has wind, she will scream in pain, and she is very windy (and smelly with it). She unlatches often at the breast because of the fast flow and so gets lots of air in, I try and wind her during the feed rather than just wait til the end. But she is otherwise OK, responding well, growing and with nice runny poos, so I think it might have to do with her bowel development. She stops crying as soon as she has finished farting so it's obvious that's what it is. I just give her Infacol and lots of cuddles.

If he has got an unseatled gut formula is more likly to upset him then help him setal. It's hard for them to digest and is more likly to casue consipation to.

If he's pulling up his leg's and crying this is offten a sign of colic. Not nesarly anything you can do about it but it's ovously very hard to deal with. Some baby's are fussy in evening/overnight they offten just want feeding a lot and to be close to you.

If you still feel it's more then that, have you considered other cause's as you've been using gavisgon I take there has been some consideration of reflux. There are other meds to try or there is a possiblity of an intolerance to something in your diet ie dairy is offten a comman one. Cutting out dairy from your diet for at lest two week's (as it takes this long to see a change) mite be something worth trying. Ovously if it is something like a dairy intolerances then adding formula again woun't help.

Agreed, the formula may well be what's upsetting him and it can cause constipation. You mentioned considering it at night - for what reason? Just wondering if there are other options you see.

Oh dear....who is this breastfeeding counsellor who is telling you he has to feed longer to get to the hindmilk?

It just does not work that way.

Seriously, which organisation is she from?

You can PM me if you prefer.

Aha.....you say he has formula, and that he is in real pain it seems....it could be the formula if he has a sensitive tum, and/or the Gaviscon.

she was the local one from the hospital so not sure what group/body she's with,

yes there's consideration from reflux, but he's not seeming to be in pain when he's sick so I'm not sure on that front tbh.

ref the formula, it's purely from a pov of hoping he'd be more settled at night so I can keep feeding & sort ds1 out by day, atm we're in the middle of a house move (literally half suff in 2 places) ds1 needs to be sorted for school & is a v energetic 5 year old, while ds 2 is up half the night literally so am a bit at the end of my tether with it all and unsure what else to do, DP & I are in agreement thou we both want me to carry on feeding ds2 so thought to do by day up until the 10pm (ish) feed then a formula after that might help?

If the formula is upsetting his tummy then it's probably not a great idea to try it at night time. Here's some info:

www.kellymom.com/nutrition/solids/solids-sleep.html

Night feeds can be so hard :( Dr Sears has some advice: www.askdrsears.com/topics/sleep-problems/night-weaning-12-alternatives-all-night-nurser. There maybe something here that might help a bit?

Have you condisdered co-sleeping?

I know it's not for everyone, But it does help a lot with my energy level's. I have an energic 4year old myself who's just started school. I think I wouldn't be able to function if I was having to get up for night feeds. My DS is a older though so we're passed the hard newborn phase.

He's still very tinny and thing will change very quikly, doing everything you can so that you can get some rest at this point is often the best way to go.