constipation!!

[lozzenge]

My son was born a week ago and is having trouble with constipation. He is on infacol and boiled cooled water with the tiniest drop of fresh orange recommended by the midwife. Does anybody know any other remedies as we are running out of ideas.

lozzenge, sorry to hear about the constipation. Is he breastfed or bottle fed? Has he had any poo at all since the first couple of days?

Very unusual for a baby of this age to be given infacol, boiled water and orange juice. Costipation rare in a breastfed baby - lack of poo can mean something else.

He is bottle fed. He has drips and drabs but hard tiny stools. The formula is at the right volume but he keeps bringing legs up to chest. Yeah midwife said about oj.

OK - not saying midwife is wrong, just that it's unusual!

Options would be

• to switch formula brands
• to consider switching to breastfeeding (it's not too late, honest)
• get paed to look at him to check for any problems with rectum/intestine (unlikely as it is)

Hope this helps. Sometimes, mums do a tummy massage that can help - there should be info in the archives on this.

why dont you put him to your breast?

Hi Lozzenge

My DD was constipated for 5 days (meconium on delivery, then nothing for 5 days) and was exclusively breastfed.
We were also told to try freshly squeezed orange juice, mixed one teaspoon (5ml) with 2 teaspoons of cooled boiled water. Plus hot baths, tummy massage {gentle and clockwise}, peddling the baby's legs, etc. We did these from Day 2 onwards. My sister arrived on day 4 and did reiki on her. None of these things seemed to make a difference at the time - though they may have had a cumulative effect - my milk came in on day 5 and 10minutes after her first feed of milk (as opposed to colustrum) my DS had an explosion in her nappy ;-) I would probably avoid infacol, as it might make a constipated baby even worse? (Isn't it for wind/colic?) However if the medics have advised then they know more than I do.
By the way I'm sure they've told you this already but when the first poo occurs it will just keep on coming, so have plenty nappies ready!
Best of luck...

what formula do you use? Why not try a different one and see if it helps. SMA seems to be a common cause of constipation (from reading threads on this and other forums)