Breastfed baby constipated or normal??? -herniated belly button

[Tinybop]

I've posted this on child health and someone suggested I post it here as my son is exclusively breastfed…

My son who is 8 weeks has a herniated belly button (quite large...about 4 cm in diameter and it has grown by 1 cm in last 2 weeks). He also stopped pooing recently. He went over 48 hours without passing stool so my GP gave us senakot. He has now passed a very large stool... normal consistency etc, but a lot. My GP was concerned that the herniation, which she described as a 'defect in the abdominal wall' might be causing him to struggle to poo. He was straining a lot and it seemed to be causing his herniated belly button to get larger. He also appeared to be in pain/uncomfortable when the herniated belly button was pushed in and when he was straining to poo (crying and screaming loudly), but the herniation still goes in nicely (no worries about strangulation etc). He has not gone since yesterday and I have not given him anymore senakot as I feel uncomfortable using it. He also seems more cheery since poking yesterday!

1. Does anyone have any experience of this? 2. I understand that some breastfed babies can go quite a while without pooing-how long should I wait before intervening?

Many thanks!

No personal experience but it would be unusual for an umbilical hernia to cause constipation, especially as you can push it back in freely. It's a small bit of bowel that's usually what's poking through the defect/weakened area hence the small possibility of it blocking poo from passing along normally. However that's more likely if the herniated bowel gets stuck out and can't be pushed back.
It could be simply EBF infrequent pooping. Was his poo still nice and soft and yellow when it did come? I understand they can go a week or more without any action (though plenty of noises and squirming about) but I didn't think they usually got so upset - tears/screaming etc. Hopefully someone with more experience will advise!

Oops, I see you've mentioned normal poo. So I think maybe constipation is less likely then??

I am coming to the conclusion the not pooing might be completely normal and not related to the hernia. DS passed stool on his own without the senokot, so I am going to try not to worry and just keep checking that the hernia can be pushed in. Many thanks for your response!

I think these issues might unrelated. It's odd that your GP would give a laxative so quickly - 48 hours for a breastfed baby not to poo is not long at all. As babies develop, their bowels change so they're not so responsive to food going in - so they shift from pooing as soon as food hits the bowel to not pooing so often - my son could go for days and days. There were occasions where I think he was uncomfortable and windy, but it wasn't constipation - it was more his digestive system working itself out.

I used to start tummy massage after a few days. I have no idea whether it worked, or whether it was coincidence, but I'd only really be worried about constipation if the poo that came out was hard, or it was clear that what was coming out was overflow from a blockage. A big old normal looking poo that happens fairly infrequently is fairly normal .

When my DS was born he was pooing with every nappy change and when he was 4ish weeks it dropped to about 5 a day.

When he was about 6 weeks he went from having about 3 poos each day to suddenly going 4 days without one. I was a bit concerned so spoke to my HV who said it was completely normal.

She told me that a young baby's digestive system works on the basis that as something goes in one end (milk) then something has to come out the other end at the same time. As the digestive system matures it means it can hold more poo in the bowel as opposed to regularly releasing it.

I was told that an EBF can sometimes go up to a week without a dirty nappy and it is normal. Don't forget there is hardly any waste in breast milk, most of it gets digested so there isn't much content left to cause the baby to regularly poo.

My DS is now 14 weeks and has one dirty nappy every 3 days.