Long time between poos in BF baby - 10 days average

[Cheeser]

My DS (25 weeks old, 15 corrected as was premature) has been exclusively breastfed since about day 3 (well, he had an NG tube in the early days, but you get my drift).

Over the last few weeks he has been gradually going longer and longer between bowel movements, 7 days, then 8 days, then 14 days, then 16 days and at this point he started vomiting due to a cold he had so took him to the doctors, who said I should be giving him water every day to move things along, or water with a few drops of prune juice (he said vomiting can also be a side effect of constipation). Gave him about 1oz of water and he filled about four nappies the next day. So I've started to try and give him some water every other day but he hates it and often won't take any and will just let it dribble away.

This approach hasn't worked since so I have added some prune juice to the water, which he seemed to enjoy (no wonder as it's pretty sweet). This has still not worked and it's been 10 days now since his last poo.

He seems happy enough but I know from the last few times that there is a lot of poo lurking in there and I want him to be more regular as surely it must be better for him.

Is there anything else I can do? We do tummy massage every morning and quite a bit of tummy time. Do I just accept that this is part of his natural rhythm? Lots of wet nappies.

my DS did the 10 days between poos thing too, it was apocalyptic on day 10. DD is going the same way, except tends to do a week of none then 2-3 days of every nappy.

it is normal for ebf babies, but not sure if the prem aspect makes a difference here?

It can be the case in EBF babies as breast milk is so efficiently digested that there isn't any of it left as "waste" to pass as poo, and I think this is especially the case as they get older.
If he were mine, I wouldn't be keen to be giving anything which has a laxative effect, as long as he's not showing any signs of being constipated. I'd have thought if there was any constipation, the tummy massage would have helped things along a fair bit anyway.
When you've given the prune juice, it's possible that the full nappies are as a result of the laxative effect rather than because thre was actually any constipation. (Bear in mind I have no medical training whatsoever, Im Only going on my own experience with my babies )

hmm yes Shesparkles thats what I wasa worrying about, I don't want his body to become reliant on any kind of laxative or anything that helps him along, surely he needs to be able to empty his bowels himself. He has actually just gone, but it was by nowhere near as much as last time.

thanks Kveta - I also thought it was fairly normal until the doctor told me off

My baby is 5 weeks younger and I had similar gp advice when I went after 13 days of no poo. I continued with water which had no effect as he wasn't actually constipated just normal bf baby behaviour. I really had to hold my nerve and day 19 yes 19! He finally went. Since then has typically been 10-13 days between poos although sometimes goes twice on that day. He was otherwise happy, so I just had to trust that this is what bf babies do.

So unless your baby is in discomfort I think you have to trust that he's just using up all the bm goodies! Oh and stock up in wipes for when it does happen!

Thanks monkey I think I will do the same. I don't think he's actually constipated either - according to the health visitor he's only constipated if it's hard when it comes out and he struggles to pass it/uncomfortable. But this morning he's been his usual cheery self, then did a big whoosh which filled his nappy (soft mustard yellow, same as usual) so I am inclined to stop the water as I don't think it's doing anything. Plus he hates it. Good idea to stock up on wipes!!

Sounds exactly like DS3 - he would be windy on day nine and then on day 10 we would have a poosplosion! I always tried to stay at home and put him in clothes I didn't care about him staining as nothing I found would contain the quantity! At one point he even had a "poo day" outfit - The day I was expecting him to poo he would get a particular outfit the one MIL bought him and I hated on until he'd exploded.