help - BF baby straining big style to poop - what do I do?

[Munz]

any ideas what I can do? we've had yet another sleepless night as Joey's been straining to poop, he's 8 weeks now, by day he's exceleent as long as he poops after his feeds and has big burps, he does have colic which i'm using infacol with, brings the wind up lovely, at night the first half he'll do really well - normally 4/5 hours strech of no feeding/letting me sleep, but when he wakes for his next feed (can be anything from 1am to 3am) and can take anything from 35 mins to 2 hours he will not settle back down again he's straining to poop i'm sure- least that's the noise he makes, he pokes his bottom out and really strains going red in the face, once he's pooped he's more than happy to go back to sleep after a fresh nappy is on - (and after he's had another good strain)

I've taken him to the dr's only to be told basically i'm a neurotic mother cos this is my first, there's nothing wrong with him cos he does do wet/soft poopy nappys (althou when he's not been for 12 hours they have more substance) the thing is thou the dr literally see a slight skid mark and said oh yes he's pooing fine - how would he know thta from a skid mark??? the H/V first said he was fine then said he might suffer cos my bowl movement isn't the best - I have IBS. m/w said he was fine and is a 'strainy' baby - but surely it can't be good for him to strain all the time, some tiems he's asleep and does it, sometimes he's not, inveriablly thou it will wake him up which in turn wakes me up cos he's by the bed and I sleep light.

I don't want to stop BF and switch to formula if I can help it but tbh I'm dreading everytime he crys for a feed at night, I'm sat up crying with him cos he won't go back to sleep, the DR will only say i'm depressed if I take him in to see him (which i'm not - a few hours un disturbed sleep would solve the problem there) DH keeps on to give Joey a bottle which i'm not wanting to do. Can my milk be too rich for him? also if I do make the switch and it doesn't solve the problem I will ahve stopped for nothing, and all the time i'm able to feed I wanted to, althou i'm also starting to resent the fact that i'm lucky to get 5 hours broken sleep a night on a bad night, whilst DH sleeps soundly from 3 am to about 2pm (then says I should be grateful he's helping me out then - I don't need help then I need help when he's crying and trying to settle him)

sorry it's long, and it's prob in the wrong place, but I need help sorting out this strainign problem - another thing, my m/w said give him water, the h/v said he was too young for it, and the dr said water with a tea spoon of F.Orange juice in it (I did that and it seemed to help but then stopped) althou I only tried it for about 5 days as Joey wasn't keen on the water, and neither was I in giving it as he was taking approx 4oz throughout the day which I thought was excessive.

Help am I being neurotic?

not read thread but.........breast fed babies are not constipated..they strain sometimes its kind of a practice for when its harder!!!
Dont give anything!!!

Did the stout help your production, Munz?

lol, I took about 1 sips, bearly a full mothfull and had to stop - the stuff's horrid - how anyone drinks it is beyond me! lol.

I did try the cycaling thing thou today - thank you for who ever suggested that, along wiht a nice loose nappy (literally was only just done up) anyhow good job it was on - boy did that cause a big poop! :o lol, so i'll be doing that now during our play itime together.

Hi Munz,

I tried the baby yoga because I hated the thought of filling my baby with nasties from such an early age. I was just glad that it worked for me and my baby.
The video is called 'baby yoga' I got it from www.thebabyyogacompany.com

They were very helpful, I ordered over the phone. 01371 873138

I didn't do much of the later bits (it goes upto 18 mths) as my DD was late at doing everything, sitting, shuffling, walking etc.

The move I described (well tried to) worked best for me.

Good Luck.
xxx

hi munz
so the expressing/dh feeding worked out then?! However strange it seems, worked well for us, so hope it gets you more sleep!
I'm sure I read that it's an old wives tale about stout being good for new mums (my mum said this to me too!) - if it's iron you're after, could go for really good quality dark chocolate (any excuse) or from greens etc in your diet. Also, I take spatone for iron as I was v anaemic and needed extra iron on top of what I got thro my diet

spatone? will look for that, i'm on tablets but forget to take them, the expressing - erm yeah it works well as Joey's back in bed but i'm not quite finished so the pump keeps him awake, so tonight we're gonna swop - me in the spare room expressing and him feeding in our bedroom to see how that goes, althou he's just had his 8 week jabs so tonight I think we'll be back to normal, esp as one of my boobs dosen't seem to want to let him have the milk (well it's giving out drops instead of squirting! lol) so he's getting frustrated. on the whole thou yes v good, once DH is back to work, i'll do expressing 3 nights p/w and feed him 4 when DH is up for work early.

Hi Munz et al,

A bit late to this thread but thought I'd add my two penn'orth.

My 12 wk old son has always made a bit of a performance out of farting & pooing. It used to really distress me (and I still don't like to witness/hear it) but I've finally relaxed into looking at him and realising he's actually growing well and not in so much distress himself that he cries. So, I think the babies are OK - it's we fretty mums who suffer! Worse if breastfeeding cos you (well I) feel bad for providing something that leaves him so windy and gives him 'issues' later.

When you think about it, babies put up with fairly high levels of discomfort as they adjust to the outside world but they won't remember it later...