4 week old - no poo for a week?!

[TakeLovingChances]

My 4 week old DS has been EBF, and my milk supply is good.

He's never had many dirty nappies, in fact I could count the number of them - about 10 in all his life. He has a wet nappy every time I change it.

Initially the community MW was worried about him and the community HV is now involved.

Overall he's a bright, alert boy and is putting on weight. But he hasn't done a poo in 6 days now and it seems to be starting to effect him

He's always been a windy baby with smelly farts, but for the past few days he looks red in the face like he's straining and cries in pain. This happens a few times a day and last night it seemed to wake up up a few times.

I've been massaging his tummy and bending his legs, but so far no poos, just the same amount of wet nappies. I tried Infacol as I wasn't sure if it'd help or not, but it hasn't.

Any advice/support would be really good.

We had that with ds. Are you taking an iron supplement? I was and it was leaching into my breast milk and bunging him up. Straining and red does sound like he's constipated.

I stopped taking iron and he "exploded" about 36 hours later.

If not, the gp will be able to give you a very gentle laxative.

No, not taking iron. Not taking any vitamins or anything

I was on the phone to HV this morning, the just told me to keep massaging his tummy and to ring her back on Wed morning if there's no change (Wed will be the 8th day).

A midwife friend of mine recommended giving baby a teaspoon of (no pulp) orange juice in about 100mls of cooled boiled water. Baby only needs to take a little for it to have an effect. Pear juice is, I discovered, even more effective! Good luck

Please please do NOT give him anything that contains orange juice. Oranges and their juice are highly allergenic and should never be given to babies. Try a warm bath and tummy massage going clockwise also you could lie him on his back and 'run' his legs backwards and forwards. BM contains no waste so what ever goes in gets used and what he does not use will be poo-ed out. DD went 10 day without pooing and we were told but the GP anything up to 14 days was 'normal'. He does not need anything laxitive carry on feeding and the poo will come, more than likely as you are dressed in light colours and walking out the door

Pear juice, orange juice....not great ideas, I agree, oops, and at a midwife suggesting this

Many, many days with no poo is normal for a bf baby and needs no treatment in a healthy, normal baby. All babies - yes, all of them - wriggle and squeak and grimace from time to time, in apparent discomfort. I wonder if when a baby who hasn't poo'd in a while does this, the connection is made that he needs to poo, and he doesn't really? Or maybe he is a bit uncomfortable, impossible to tell

Whatever, it doesn't warrant the worry about it, and really, really doesn't need any treatment or interferences. Personally, I wouldn't even bother with the tummy massage and legs bicycling - though fine to do both of these for fun, of course!

Ok, so there's nothing wrong with my baby (my PFB) and I'm not being a terrible mummy?

I'm beating myself up a little about it all, especially as advice from HV, GP and friends is so varied.

I'll keep doing the tummy massage and moving his legs, as it's good bonding and I enjoy it.

I didn't realise that oranges + baby = bad. Does that mean that I should avoid eating oranges/drinking orange juice?

Also, if this trend of not pooing continues, how long should I leave him without seeking medical help? How long without a poo is too long??

I wouldn't avoid oranges/OJ.

I reckon I would see what happens and if you are still awaiting a poo at 14 days just pop him to the GP if only to reassure yourself or sooner if you feel you need ressurance before that.

You can eat as many oranges and drink as much OJ as you want to

It won't 'get in' the milk. It's just not good for your baby to have anything but breastmilk and that includes oj.

my baby was EBF and only pooped once or sometimes twice a week.my health visitor told me unless he seemed in pain or un comfortable then it was normal.of course this all changed when we introduced him to solids .lol

BF babies can only poo once a week which mine did for 2 months then it started to come every 2-3 days.

I agree with alisonbwfc that if your DS doesn't look in pain and the stools look normal in colour and consistancy apart from be a huge poo every time it finally decides to download then all is well.

My DS did a poo! (It's embarrassing how proud I am, lol!)

It's been a full week since his last one, so he seems relieved that he's finally gone.

It's almost like a weeks worth of poo came out all at once.

I was giving his tummy a massage when it happened, so maybe that helped.