is it normal for my 6wks old not to open her bowel for three days???????????

[omotunde]

i breastfeed my baby 100% but i notice that she does not open her bowel frequently, if not daily at least every other day. but i notice couple weeks ago that it has days before her last bowel action so i gave her a 5mls of orange juice in 2ounces of water and she had it very well and couple of hours later there was result. but i notice for the past three days she has seized up again. is this normal? how often should i expect her to open her bowels? when should i be worried?

at around 4 wks their gut becomes more efficient at digesting bm so there is no waste of your hard produced milk. as she gets older, it can be as long as 10 days.

i say that mother nature doesn't do leftovers.

I don't think you need to be worried - breastfed babies can go for a long time without pooing - one of my friends' babies used to poo just once a week - always on a Friday night. I think the thing to look out for is a big change in the pattern - from lots of poos to much less frequently, or from hardly pooing to loads. Even then it may not be anything sinister.

I know bf babies can go days without opening their bowels, but I don't think it's this young that you would expect it. At that age my bf dd had approximatley 6-8 dirty nappies a day. Can you ring your hv? Have you had your 6 week check?

I have seen threads on here in the past with bf babies doing this at a young age too so it isn't unheard of but couldn't tell you if there was a reason found for it.

no - don't be worried - breastfed babies can go a long time between poos at this age. I was told over a week was nothing to worry about.

Both of my b-fed babies went for 10 days stretches at a time - it was fab! As long as she doesn't seem to be in any discomfort she should be fine

my DD generally has a poo every two days, or she saves it for three days and then I get one after the other. she started this about five weeks after pooing every three hours since birth, but I've been assured it's perfectly normal.

BF babies often don't poop when they are growing a lot because there is nothing left over from the milk. Orange juice is quite acidic - boiled water (just a tablespoon of so - cooled obviously) works just as well but I wouldn't worry unless it gets to a week or so TBH.

DD pooped five times a day some days and then once a week for three weeks about that age. Babies are just a bit random and weird