Lactulose - for BF baby?

[TakeLovingChances]

My 8 week old DS is BF (except for one FF at nighttime) and so far he's growing well and is happy.

He has lots of wet nappies but only poos around once a week, sometimes twice.

I've posted on here once before about his lack of poos and had good advice from more experienced mums.

Today he was at the GP for his 8 week check and injections. I said to the GP that he only poos once a week and GP suggested that giving him lactulose would be a good idea.

I took the script and picked it up from the chemist, but now the more I think about it I'm not sure if it's a good idea.

I haven't given DS any yet, but if it'd help him then I'd be happy with that.

Has anyone else given this to their DC? What do you think I should do?

It is normal for a bfed baby to only poo once a week after the 6 week mark. There's little waste with bmilk.

Is your baby actually constipated ie are there problems or just a normal bfed baby? What are his poos like when he does go?

Your baby's pattern is normal.It is not causing him distress. There is nothing wrong from what you say.

I am very surprised the doctor thought he needed medication for this normal pattern....perhaps get a second medical opinion in case there is something more to it?

showofhands his poos are runny, quite a dark yellow type colour, is hard to describe. They look normal to me.
He does strain a bit and cry, plus he's very windy. But I'm not sure if it's actually causing him any problems.

tiktok I've had two GPs say this to me. The GP today and also my DH who is a GP in another clinic. I queried it with my DH and he agreed with the first GP. When DS was very young (2 weeks old) and not pooing much my community midwife wanted to give him a supository (spelling?), but the on-call doctor refused to prescribe that for such a young baby.

All these HCPs just seem to want him to be pooing daily, but from what I've read that isn't the way BF babies do things.

Is hard to know what is the best thing to do.

It is hard....but honestly, giving lactulose to a healthy, thriving bf baby who is pooing normally is, well, bizarre, sorry. I am a breastfeeding counsellor, not a medic, and I know little about medicine but I do know about normal breastfeeding and normal breastfeeding babies, and yours is normal.

Any text book you care to read will confirm that infrequent stooling in a bf baby is very, very normal.

The GPs you have spoken to can check this.

I agree with tiktok. And as his poos when they come are normal then there's absolutely nothing to indicate that there's a problem. Assuming all else is well then infrequent dirty nappies is not only normal, but also quite a bonus for you!

Congrats on your DS, As I ff fed my dd I cannot comment on the regularity of poo for a bf Baby with certainty but remember being jealous of my sis who bf and only had a poo once a week wet nappies were the important thing but her baba used to strain bit and her hv advised to cycles the babies legs and rub her tummy to help [she also advised sis to sing a poo song to baba to help her associate the movement with pooing which they learned in baby massage class]My 2 yr old niece now sings the song when on the potty

My DD (now 6 mo) is an infrequent pooer and has been since day 1. Around week 3 she was clearly uncomfortable and straining a lot and the GP prescribed lactulose which I gave her for a couple of days until she'd done a poo and was more relaxed again and then I gave it to her again a couple of days later when she was straining again. It definitely helped her. We also did a lot of bicycling of legs, rubbing of the tummy etc to help her and I made sure I was drinking lots of water. By about 6 weeks, DD settled down to doing a poo every 5 days or so but was comfortable between poos and when doing them so we stopped doing anything to help her.
If you do decide to use it, I suggest using a syringe (the one which you get with infant nurofen is the best as its got a flat end) and make sure they're in a bib and you've got a muslin and some wipes to hand!

Murtette I have a syringe, it is a handy thing to have when there's a baby in the house! I gave his some Lactulose this morning and he spat it everywhere - all down his chin, over my arm and top and some even got in his hair. That Lactulose stuff is so sticky!