Not a post asking for help but a post to hopefully help others in a similar situation.
From about 10 days old our girl had issues with bowel movements. She would strain 24/7 and this progressively got worse to where she would scream in pain when passing wind. The straining was a nightmare. She was so loud with her grunting and groaning. It was all through the night too so we got absolutely no sleep. She would be so uncomfortable and would be crying and squirming for days. She would then have a huge explosive poop (normal consistency) and have some relief for about an hour and then the cycle would start all over again.
In the beginning she would go once a day. This then progressed to every other day and then every two days until it moved to every three days.
At first it was put down to infant dyschezia by our HV. We were told nothing can be done for it, we just had to let her learn and grow out of it. I'd never heard of this but it seemed reasonable. As time went on we couldn't continue to just watch her go through it. My instincts told me something wasn't right.
Took her to the GP who just really didn't listen to me. I mentioned that i thought it was an allergy. I have severe hayfever which makes it more likely. She was also getting some spots on her face
..not a rash but there was a few. I was told she didn't have any symptoms of an allergy and they put it down to constipation even though she'd never had a dry/hard stool. The GP even said that they wouldn't diagnose an allergy as there is too much money in it for pharmaceutical companies!
anyway, I told them the cycling of her legs, tummy massage and water made absolutely no difference to her. Still they prescribed lactulose and shock horror, it didn't help her at all. The spots were also put down to milk on her skin and the fact that I wear makeup so this would be getting on her face when I was winding her over my shoulder. Tbh this bit did seem reasonable as she liked to be cheek to cheek with me.
I finally got her in to see a GP who would listen after going backwards and forwards for weeks. I told him the issues we were having and he was kind enough to agree to try her on an alternative milk even just to rule and allergy out. She was prescribed Aptamil Pepti 1 to see how she got on.
We started the milk on a Friday and by Sunday she was a different baby. On the following Sunday she had THE BIGGEST poop she had ever had and then had multiple more through the day. We had a small party! Since then she has had multiple regular poops every day and is so happy and content. She does still strain but only when she's trying to go. She's so alert now instead of sleeping constantly. We just have our happy little baby back! Her skin is also now so clear and we still sit cheek to cheek. It took us until she was 6 weeks to get her what she needed but we didn't give up!
Some babies will obviously be affected by dyschezia but if you suspect there is something else going on then don't give up on it! Trust your instincts and advocate for your little one to get then what they need!