Constipated breastfed baby - help!

[Annie75]

My DD is nearly six months and has been exclusively breast fed. It's the one thing that has gone really well for us. She's always been a 'colicky' baby - read gassy - but over the last month she's become v constipated, sometimes only going every 6 days. I'm on a day 6 today and have just changed her nappy and she screams in pain when she's trying to go. The poo is thick and sludgy and a honey colour when she does go. In between she farts LOADS!

The doc suggested I give her diluted fruit juice as she might be dehydrated but I thought that she'd get enough water through my milk as I feed on demand. I'm also going to try some baby-led weaning over the next week - the doc also reckoned she was hungry but she's putting on weight just fine.

Any ideas? I hate seeing her in pain and want to keep bf. Thanks!

Hey I'm not a scientist and I don't have a strong view on it, tbh. Initially it was something I was told by two midwives - to be careful about drinking too much orange juice.

Then I saw this study where the researcher specifically mentioned the chemical properties of citrus and carrots altering the milk. If you have a chemical change in the milk from food, surely it's not a leap to say the laxative properties of those foods could make it into the milk?

But I also understand that the acidic properties should only affect the mother and then are digested ... so I don't know what to think. I can attest to some big carrot poos though chez-Chandellina.

Is it only really dairy that has a proven effect? Because there are a lot of experts out there saying mum should cut out wheat, soy, beans, etc. if baby is having colic or wind.

You cant really claim something about breastfeeding without being able to back it up otherwise other parents will read it and believe it to be true. You still havent explained how it is true. How can laxitive properties get into breastmilk?

A lot of 'experts' and midwives know f all about breastfeeding so that in itself isnt proof.

chandellina, not getting at you, honest....but there is so much mythology about breastfeeding and ultimately, myths are not helpful. I accept the midwives told you this, and also that some very sensitive babies appear to react to maternal diet by being windy/colicky, though I think the reported incidence of this goes way, way beyond the real, certain reactions.

www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/jul/24/humanbehaviour.foodtech - looks like it really is flavours (as we already knew) and not the actual chemical constituents that change with the mother's intake of carrots...unless you are thinking the flavour compounds the researchers found is the same as a chemical change.

DS has pooed
I'm not quite sure how one little boy can have stored quite so much up!

tiktok, interesting article, thanks for the link

actually i am not even making sense really because the carrot poos here have been after DS ate carrot, not me!

I am perfectly happy to accept nothing in breastmilk will affect the baby - but really - hercules, there's no need to come down on ME. What about Dr. Sears, Kellymom, and all the other people regularly cited on mumsnet who say any baby can be sensitive to any food in mum's diet.

And I love your sense of outrage, hercules, that nothing should be claimed about breastfeeding without being able to back it up - welcome to mumsnet because it goes on day in day out.

Anyway, I'm happy for Miamla that the poo arrived.

chandellina, I think a few very sensitive babies can react to maternal diet via the breastmilk. This is quite different from the midwives' suggestion that one can somehow engineer a response in the normal, healthy, non-sensitive baby's gut by drinking orange juice, for which there is really no evidence at all - don't you agree?

but i have been drinking lots of orange juice recently so maybe....

and in my 5 1/2 years on mumsnet I've seen countless number of people questioned about spurious claims they've made about breastfeeding. Can you see how it's important to try to stop the myths about breastfeeding? Of course if you make a claim to be true you will be asked to offer proof - that's the beauty of mumsnet .

You still havent done this btw

I dont remember saying nothing will affect breastmilk - I said I couldnt see how the mother drinking orange juice would chemically alter her milk as you claim.

Miamla....you might as well make a claim for the severely cold weather having an effect

Just because two events coincide, it does not mean one caused the other.

Hercules - by all means yes it is important to stop myths about breastfeeding. There should certainly be more research to back up various things that even the so-called experts say without citing any evidence. So, Tiktok - I don't know if there is evidence, but agreed - I have not produced it. Nor have Dr. Sears or Kellymom, etc. etc.

I apologise for contributing to a myth, though I would argue that sometimes myths do turn out to have a factual basis when they are properly studied.

chandenllina, it seems a shame to come back to you when all you wanted to do was to help, but Dr Sears and kellymom do not say that a mother drinking orange juice will help her bf baby's constipation....

I knew about the dairy thing because DS def reacted to any dairy in my diet and I had to cut it out for a while BUT he also reacted to oranges! Anytime I ate them he got a terrible sore red bum. I cut oranges out of my diet because of that as well. Even now if he eats some himself or drinks orange juice he gets the same reaction so something must be getting through. I know anecdotes can't be taken as hard evidence but I think if it's possible for dairy proteins to enter mums milk then something could be getting through from oranges as well? It would be a v interesting study...Any takers?

I still dont get your point and would disagree that what you said is just waiting for the research to be done to back it up. But [smile.

bubbley, no one is disagreeing that very sensitive babies may react to specific things in their mothers' diet. A baby who has shown clear signs of being able to react to dairy in the breastmilk may well react after she has eaten other stuff as well.

This is not the same as deliberately introducing oranges or juice or anything else in the hope they will have a laxative effect on a normal, non-sensitive, healthy (albeit constipated) baby....'cos there is no evidence, or even common sense judgement, that it will work.

Following on from a previous poster, my baby was very windy and seemed to find pooing quite uncomfortable. Also he was only pooing every few days and there was lots of unproductive straining and crying inbetween times. It got quite distressing for all concerned and the doctor was useless. I took him to a cranial osteopath who sorted it out in 3 sessions. He's now pooing every day and is so much more settled. She reckoned it was because he was back to back and therefore his digestive system had been squashed by being pressed against my spine. It was a very gentle treatment and ds seemed to quite enjoy it.

The only thing is, my ds is younger (17 weeks now) and this problem started when he was quite small. If your baby has only just started showing these symptoms then this may not be remotely helpful!

I don't think I said that Dr. Sears and Kellymom specifically referred to orange juice, but to sensitivities to foods including citrus fruits.

I also found this, from a lactation consultant addressing the question:

Should I drink orange juice if I'm breastfeeding?
I've been told that orange juice isn't good for a breastfeeding mom. Is this true? Why?

Expert Answers
Jan Barger, lactation consultant

Orange and other citrus fruits are great for a new mom to eat and drink, but some mothers find that if they drink several large glasses a day, especially during a nursing session, the juice may bother the baby. For the first few months of your baby's life, her intestinal tract is immature and can be sensitive to large amounts of certain foods, including citrus. If you notice that she's unusually fussy or gassy, or is spitting up within a couple of hours of breastfeeding, try cutting back on citrus to a glass at breakfast, and drink water while you're nursing until your baby's intestinal tract is more developed, usually around 3 to 4 months of age.

FGS, chandellina, drop it. You will easily find references to babies showing a reaction to certain foods...the point is that this is different from deliberately engineering your diet to produce a 'cure' for constipation.

I don't want to spur on an argument but I don't really see the harm in trying something like orange juice - it may work on certain babies. The OJ may have a laxative effect on them - that might be their 'reaction' - just as my son's reaction to it was a sore red bum! I'm not saying it would work on every baby but I don't see the harm in trying...

No harm in trying, agreed

But being dogmatic about it - saying or implying that things will work - is not helpful.

Why don't you try eating prunes? I did this and it worked a treat. Prunes are supposedly one of the only foods that easily gets passed on in breastmilk. My baby is on iron supplements and this can make her constipated, so I eat prunes whenever there is a problem and it seems to work well.

lulu144, I hope you read the rest of the thread before posting that? Watching responses with interest

madmouse, I am saying nothing

Sorry- couldn't read the whole thread as had fretting baby... that will teach me. But I am just saying what I was told to do by HV and friends and it seemed to work... don't attack