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!

omg, i am totally dropping it!

lol, I did try eating prunes as well!

so maybe if you drink orange juice and eat prunes, the laxative effect works it's way through!

I hadn't realised this would cause such an argument. I just want to say to everyone, thank you for your advice.

Interesting about the orange juice :-) If it's indeed a myth, I guess it's a very popular one in health visitor / midwife circles, because my health visitor told me the same when my boy had diarrhoea (i.e. she advised me to cut out citrus juices for a while). Really have no idea how all these things affect (if they do) the baby's health... would love to know more about the whole issue.

Anyway. Since the topic of the thread is constipation, just to report that my 6 month old is quite constipated these days. He's been weaned a couple of weeks ago & I think the baby rice is to blame. Just to report that pear puree & also prune puree moved things along And since it started coming out... it wouldn't stop (4 separate poos today) .

i had a chat with my hv this afternoon and she assured me that by my drinking orange juice, that the laxative effect would definitely filter through my milk to DS!
i only asked out of devilment!

But, this is the same hv that told me that there's no way i'd be able to ebf DS because "he's such a big boy". Needless to say i was more than happy to accept her challenge and prove her wrong!

Miamla, really funny about this idea that EBF is impossible with 'big boys' (particularly big boys, not so much big girls!) It seems to be quite a widespread idea. Quite like the 'surely your milk is too watery by now, give him some proper milk now that he's so big' thing!

chandellina - great chiro for babies (and bumps) is Julian Keel at www.barnes-chiropractic.co.uk

He has done wonders for my two wee ones. He's good for digestive probs - knows all about the valve thingy that gazarka mentioned and also loads and loads of other amazing things. Definitely helpful for getting things moving bowel-wise and also for making sure little ones are comfy. He's very helpful so you could always give him a call and ask lots of q's if you're unsure. His website is helpful too so worth having a look.

I've mentioned to him before that some HVs have said a baby not pooing for several days is not a prob but he disagrees and says a healthy system should generally be metabolising and moving things along regularly. He knows his stuff. Worth asking him.

Best wishes x

foodonthecarpet one of the reasons why bf babies poo so little is that there is little waste, it is made to order. so there is very little to move along.

not knocking chiro by the way, I know it works, but sometimes the 'science' used to explain it can be a bit doubtful. Like the thing about the valve in the stomach. The actual digestion that does or does not cause constipation takes place after the stomach in the bowels.

Iam not medically qualified by the way, nothing relevant beyond an A-level in biology, so happy to be corrected.

Hi madmouse. I agree bf gives little waste but quite a few of the posters said their babies were unhappy when not pooing/or when trying to poo so I thought the discomfort is likely to indicate there are things to resolve within the digestive system.