Panicking re lactulose

[NauseousKitty]

My 6 week DD hasn't pooed for a week and is clearly having issues as she is straining a lot and is crying,although infrequently. The GP. Prescribed her lactulose but I am really loathe to use it in case she comes to rel on it. Am I being stupid as she is clearly uncomfortable? Please help!

I think U should give it to her. She might be in agony! Does not matter if she comes reliant. It is really only a short time til they start eating solids and you can control it that way. My DD has had such bad constipation that she tore her tiny bottom doing a poo and it took weeks to heal!

Oh god. That's awful, hope she is ok. I will do it, just called NHS Direct for doseage. Bloody GP didn't tell me!

lactulose is really gentle, I honestly wouldn't worry about it. A little to get her going will help her so much. If you're BFing, I could taking a little prune juice also helped.

There are two types (broadly) of laxatives. Ones that work by softening the poo and ones that encourage the bowel to squeeze harder. Your bowel can get "used" to ones that make it squeeze harder, so they don't work hard enough if you don't take it, but not ones which make the poo softer, which work by encouraging some of the fluid that would be sucked out of the poo to stay in it. Also, if the poo is very hard the "squeeze harder" ones, like senna, can cause cramp. These are very rarely used in children, especially nowadays. Lactulose is a poo softener. You don't get reliant on it, it doesn't cause cramps (although some people find it makes then very farty). If your little one is definitely constipated (not exclusively BF and now she is 6 weeks old just using up most of the milk so not having much poo to come out) she will be much more comfortable with something to make the poo softer and easier to push out, and much less likely to get a sore bottom.

How is she fed?

If breastfeed then pooing infrequently is not unusual and you don't need to give anything. As long add poos are still soft when they go.

If formula then it could be the formula you are giving. I Hurd some mums say giving a few ready made cartoons seems to help. Or you may need to switch formula brands.