1week newborn not pooing

[Springtime26]

Hi, I am getting really worried by baby who is breast fed has not pooed for 2 days. On day 5 he had lost 8.1% weight. Is he getting enough milk? I am trying to express x2 a day and getting just under 50ml. I'm feeding on demand. He is very windy. Midwife is coming back tomorrow for weight check. I am worried she will ask me to top up. I really wanted to ebf this baby. He is 1 week old now . Thank you

If I were you, I would get that baby to a doctor as soon as possible. After a few days old, there should be as many dirty nappies as days old, so five on day 5, etc. I think your midwife is being too blasé. Not passing stools could have any number of causes, including insufficient milk take but lots of other things either. I presume your desire to breastfeed comes from wanting the best for your baby? In some cases, breastfeeding or exclusively breastfeeding isn't always the best thing. Please please get medical attention for the baby as soon as you can. Ring the NHS medical line now. I don't wish to alarm and chances are everything is fine or will be fine with a few formula top-ups but you can't take that risk with such a young child.

Best wishes.

Has he passed his meconium? The black sticky stuff.

After that he should be doing green, then khaki then yellow/orange.

There's no harm in formula top ups if needed. Keep putting baby to breast to stimulate milk production. Has your milk come in yet? Did your boobs get really sore and engorged? Are you leaking between feeds? These are good signs of milk production starting.

If he has lots of wet nappies (wee) that's a good sign. But please get him seen as soon as possible.

I did formula top up DS at one point in week 2 because he clearly needed more but my boobs hadn't caught up production yet, I felt dreadful but it was the best thing for him. We used ready made formula. Went on to ebf. I have a friend whose DD is the same age and she has been combination feeding since week 2, it's the only way she could continue bf.

Congratulations on your DS

Get baby checked but try not to worry. I had the same with my youngest and I got myself into such a state. Breast milk has very little waste and so less poo is not uncommon. The key thing is is your baby having wet nappies?

Oh and my breasts were never good at expressing they knew the diff between a baby and a machine

My little boy was exactly the same last week, he lost 6% but has put it back on now thanks to a cluster feeding growth spurt. 2 days would not worry me and my MW wasn't worried as breastfed newborns can often hang on to every last thing and not poo, but if it goes on much longer I would talk to midwife. When they weighed him were they concerned? Is there a reason why you are expressing? My advice is lots of skin to skin, get into bed with him and just feed feed feed if you can. Has he been checked for a tongue tie? Lots of wind can be a sign of poor latch. If you are giving expressed milk how much is he having at each feed? And what sort of bottles are you using?

Try not to worry, but I would definitely speak to midwife in the morning.

You need to see a lactation consultant to get latch checked and check no tongue tie. A normal midwife may think this is fine but they are not always able to diagnose / identify a tie.

If you need to top up use a SNS (supplemental nursing system) as then the top ups will stimulate milk at same time.

How many wet nappies is he Having? I would expect a lot of wet and dirty at this stage as baby clears bowels, as they get older breastfed babies can go days with out pooing but on day 7 I would still expect to see dirty nappies. Ring midwife hospital for advice or better still a breastfeeding support line.

It may be nothing but if there is an issue like a tie, or something else being proactive and knowing to ask to see a lactation consultant and making sure they know you want to continue to breastfeed and asking for SNS, donated breastmilk for top ups if in hospital etc

My first lost 12% but with a very supportive midwife I continued to EBF. I used the hospital pump and baby was topped up with expressed milk. For 1 day.

I know getting goox support is so important because without the support I would have panicked and thought I had no choice but to move to formula.

With my 2nd he lost 9% and the midwife was horrible and told me that i may not be able to breast feed. I was vulnerable and scared about her visits but knew if there was a problem there were option but that I would have to fight tooth and nail to bypass her for proper support as she would be pushing formula. If I'd had that midwife first time round I couldn't have breastfeed either child. That is why support is so important to mums and babies.

Good luck and if you aren't happy with advice tell them you want to see the lactation consultant today or at least speak to a lactation consultant today

Is he having wet nappies? I would definitely suggest getting the latch checked.
At 7 days 2 poos a day is to be expected.
Try drinking fennel tea yourself, it will help with your milk supply and also filter through your milk to ease baby's wind and help him poo.

OP. I'm sure the more recent posters here are entirely well-meaning but please please bring the baby first to a doctor, not a midwife, not a lactation specialist. The cause may have nothing to do with breastfeeding, and while longer intervals without a poop may be normal for BF babies from about a month old, it definitely isn't normal or healthy for one week old. See the doctor first, then look at doing whatever you feel necessary to get BF support but not the other way round, please. Nobody online can or should reassure you that it is healthy or normal for a baby to stop having bowel movements at just five days old.

Your baby needs to be seen by a gp today. It is perfectly normal for bf baby to go days without a poo but not at 5 days old. You should be getting g frequent wet and dirty nappies. Has his poo turned from brown/black mecon um to soft yellow poo?

Agree with sycamore. Get doctor to check. Should be seeing 2+ yellow mustardy poos per day. Can call postnatal ward and ask to bring in for paed check. Combined with weight info, suggests medic needs to look. Milk supply can be safeguarded at this stage, the urgent thing is to get baby seen.

After the dr's have looked, you can then get specialised lactation support to optimise the bf technique. But baby first, given the signs you report. You could try gp but given age, I think the hospital paed's via the postnatal wards would be best. Be sure to talk them thru everything to do with nappies etc.

No need for a doctor at this stage (why a doctor? This is not a medical emergency and the midwife should be more than capable of sorting this and assessing if medical advice is needed).

OP, your baby needs to be weighed ASAP and feeding needs to be evaluated. He should not have continued to lose weight, and if he has, he needs more milk....breastmilk is fine, as long as he has sufficient. This can be increased by more frequent, more effective feeding, and you can continue expressing. On the info you have given here, formula supplementation may not be necessary. Fix the BF and all should be well.

Glad to see only one poster is stating this incorrect myth about it being normal not to poo with BF - it is always a sign to evaluate and weigh if there is little poo in the first week or so.

Honestly Tiktok I admire your posts on feeding a lot of the time but to say there is no need for a doctor here is irresponsible. A midwife has extremely limited paeds training and has already adopted a wait-and-see approach when the baby was just six days old, which in my opinion is highly risky. Newborn babies have a tiny number of behaviours that can be assessed to indicate wellbeing and this week-old baby is failing on two of them. This may be nothing to do with feeding but with other physiological or anatomical issues with the baby's digestive organs; only a fully trained doctor can rule this out. If I'm wrong and it's a feeding issue, great, that's reassuring and let's sort out the feeding. If you're wrong and there is an unnecessary delay in having the baby see a doctor, ...

Unless I've missed something, some of the responses seem a little dramatic.

The baby is a week old, most babies lose weight in the first week, some continue to lose weight in the second week. If your Borough is anything like mine, you'll remain under MW care (as opposed to HV care) until the baby regains birth weight.

It is also very normal for babies not to poo for a few days, I was told up to a week (by my GP) when DD was a few weeks old and hadn't pood for three days as a PP said, breast milk can give very little waste.

Are you getting wet nappies? That's key to ensure they're getting enough fluid and processing it correctly.

How is his fontinelle? If it's dipped in it can mean that he's not getting enough liquid.

I wholly recommend you continue to seek medical advice until you're happy, and continue to get Bf support until you're confident he's getting enough milk. But I don't think there's any need to panic.

There's a big difference between a healthy ebf baby a few weeks old going days between pooing, and a newborn of a few days old who may still be losing weight.

kingfisher it is normal for bf babies not to poo for days at a few weeks old. Not at 7 days old.

This is interesting and shows the vast difference in advice given by midwives, please don't listen to me as I was just sharing my experience which was similar - I was reassured by what the midwives told me and now everything is fine but perhaps I should have been more worried. Listen to your instincts and go to GP if it's still going on. Hope you and little one are ok.

Peads nurse here. PP's are right, the baby needs to be seen by a doctor before you se anyone else. Lack of poo in such a small baby could indicate a problem with the bowel. Such as Hirshsprungs or an ileus. Both fixable but can be serious If missed and the baby becomes unwell.

My point was the midwife is capable of evaluating whether the baby needs medical assessment or not. None of us know if the baby needs a doctor or not! The midwife is the hcp on the ground here. The midwife will be able to rule out Hirschsprungs or bowel defects. The overwhelmingly likely reason for a term baby whose shown normal signs up until now, of ceasing to poo is feeding that needs fixing. The gp would almost certainly refer back to the midwife for this.