2 day old baby not soiled nappy in 24 hours - advice needed

[Jellywellyfish]

Hi. My baby was born on Saturday and had probably 8 poos in the first 24/36 hours totally normal ones. I changed her at 2.30am last night and she had done a poo but no poos today just wet nappies (4/5 wet nappies in last 24 hours). I’m starting to get a bit worried.
She’s exclusively breastfed and seems to have taken to this well. As we’re getting wet nappies I’m guessing she must be getting some milk?

Her tummy sounds quite gurgley and she’s trumping. I’m winding her after each feed but I never get any burps up.

I would have just expected a poo by now? I’m calling midwife tomorrow but any tips would be great

Some breast fed babies only poo every few days so I would t worry. Call the midwife for reassurance and to know when to start worrying. Wet nappies should keep coming.

Yup, check everything with midwife/health visitor when they're that new. But I do remember mine went through a phase of not pooing for a week and was nothing to worry about. Just brace yourself for an explosive nappy when it does arrive. Can get very messy

Definitely worth checking with midwife. Try a gentle tummy massage and cycling her legs - YouTube ‘baby massage’ will show some techniques. Keep feeding often. She will probably suddenly go but in the first 6 days, baby should poo twice per 24 hours (after that they often settle into their own poo routine and can go longer between movements with no issues.)

Has your milk come in? Are you feeding every 2 hours? It might be that your milk is still not there yet - you’ll know if it is as you’ll probably be engorged and leaking to start with. At day 2 it’s quite likely that it hasn’t so just make sure you feed, feed, feed at this stage. Do you have a breast pump? My recent baby was very sleepy and not great at feeding so I had to pump to bring up my supply.

Do you have any local breastfeeding drop in groups you could go to? They are great for making sure you’re on the right track and can weigh baby too.

For the first 6 weeks, seeing a couple of poos every 24 hours (about as big as a £2 coin or bigger) is a really good sign that milk is being transferred effectively. It's definitely worth chatting it through with your midwife in the morning - no poo doesn't necessarily mean there's an issue but it can be a bit of a red flag in these very early days. If you can't get through to the community midwives, ring the ward or team who delivered your baby who will support you.

It sounds like you are feeling reasonably happy with breastfeeding - I'm wondering whether your baby is feeding at least 8 - 12 times in 24 hours? Sometimes newborn babies need waking up to feed while milk supply establishes, even though it feels counterintuitive! Some mums also find that squeezing the breast (you can Google hand expressing techniques) so there's a little bit of milk on the nipple before latching on can make sure a young baby has chance to maximise milk transfer as they don't get tired waiting for the milk to start to flow.

Is the wind is bothering your baby? Winding isn't essential for all babies, or after every feed. Some babies are fine with it!

My breastfed baby used to poo about once every 3-4 days. It's quite normal in breastfed babies. The milk is literally everything they need so there isn't much "wastage" for them to poo out!
If there are no wet nappies, that's an issue. But that doesn't seem to be a problem.

I'm a midwife and we actually see this pretty often. If a baby has passed lots of meconium in the first day or so, which it sounds like yours has, there is often a short lag of a day or so before they start pooing again regularly. Obviously check with your own midwife, but it doesn't sound concerning.

I had ds down to the hospital at a few weeks old because his pops were so few are far between. The consultant checked him over and declared him an efficient eater. There was very little waste from the breast milk he was consuming so didn’t produce enough waste to go daily or even every two-three days.
Every time he did a poo we were all delighted because we felt that underlying worry, but no he was absolutely fine.
I think there is a residual memory of the delight his pooing used to cause because now, st the age of six he is immensely proud of his poos!

There is very little waste in breast feeding - ur body only makes the decent stuff!! Some kids go a week without pooping, fingers crossed ur one of the lucky ones.

Thank you for the reassurance everyone. I spoke to my midwife this morning and she wasn’t too concerned as feeding seems established. She has said she will ring me tomorrow morning in case she hasn’t yet gone for a poo and we’ll take it from there.

It’s so scary when they are so small and new!

Do you know when you'll get weight checked as well and when you'll next see a midwife? They should get weighed on day 3 but some areas don't do this which means problems get missed (mine ended up readmitted on day 5 because of BFing problems which could have been avoided if they'd weighed earlier but my area didn't do day 3 weighing).