3 1/2 months old exclusively breastfed baby without stool for 4 days

[Trixy3]

Has anyone any experience with breastfed babies who have very rare bowel movements?

My 3.5 months old baby MM has not had any stool in her nappies for 4 days and I start getting really worried being scared of birth defects such as malrotation or so. Her stool has become less and less frequent, but was always soft or liquid without any hard pellets. She passes lots of urine though and is not dehydrated.
She is on breastmilk only and I read that only with infant formula babies have real constipation. MM currently seems to be well and happy most of the time, and does not have pain if I press on her tummy, but sometimes she suddenly screams and seems to be in much pain when passing winds. So far I have only tried giving her boiled and cooled down water from time to time.

I am not sure how many days without stool is still normal and at what point I need to go to a doctor?

10 times a day or once every 10 days, it's all normal in a breastfed baby!

Agree with Arabella. So long as the poo is soft when it comes, BF babies can go many days between poos. It is because breast milk is so perfect and easy to digest there is very little waste left over.

My DS once went 8 days without doing a poo when he was around that age - he was also EBF. When it finally came it was epic! If she seems uncomfortable passing wind have you tried moving her legs like she's riding a bicycle? I found it used to help if my DS was in a bit of discomfort.

My DS was very regular - once a week! It was huge when it came so be prepared

Once a week when mine was that age too, I miss those days!

Thanks so much to all of you for your very helpful comments and advice! I feel already much better, but will keep on watching MM and will keep you posted.

Dear all, thanks again for your advice. This is just to share with you the good news that MM finally managed to poo after 6 days. As you predicted, it was HUGE! (Who would have thought that one day we would be so happy about poo...)

We hope that she will now not always have this pattern. In your cases, was this a one-time incident, or if not, for how many weeks/months did this pattern last?

Dd ebf, now 6 and a half months so on solids, but before that she'd go over a week between poos most of the time. Sometimes every few days, on occasion every day but mostly less often.

Ds once went 10 days without a movement, but when he did go, it was a total poonami!

He was one yesterday and now poos daily, in fact, he's just done it in the bath!

Thanks a lot to all of you! It is reassuring to hear this, especially since today I have been worried again, as MM has not had any poonami for 9 days and often has painful cramps.
I would love to start introducing solids to end this pattern, but in the weaning course yesterday they strongly advised to only start solids at 6 months no matter what...or what would you advise?

Have you tried a bit of tummy massage for the cramps? Warm a bit of olive oil (or baby massage oil) on your fingers and rub her tummy in a clockwise motion, then cycle her legs. Might help the poo move along too!

I certainly wouldn't wean early just to attempt to get her to poo! (my DS got terrible constipation on weaning which took 2 years to solve!)

Thanks noblegiraffe - yes, I have been doing lots of tummy massage and cycling of legs during the past days, but so far only obtained the noxious f... that PolterGoose described above.

Thanks also for the advice regarding weaning - I hope once MM is 6 months old she will not experience the same problem as DS...

DD's pattern for months was once a week/every 10 days. Lord were those poonamis explosive! It did firm up, and get more frequent at 6 mths when we weaned her. I wouldn't be in any hurry to wean, it's really not long til she's 6 mths.

we had once a fortnight and at most 21 days without pooing when exclusively BF until we moved to ff at about 4 months. Saw a consultant at the hospital and was told 2/3 weeks even is perfectly normal for bf baby as virtually no waste is produced. Problem disappeared immediately went onto ff!

Yup, my DS was every 10-14 days. It's because breastmilk has very little "residue". The transition from ebf to solids poos can be entertaining - blueberries, sweet corn, raisins etc :)

Thanks a lot to all of you!
Here just another update: When last week MM had no bowel movements for 11 days, and had more pain and started eating less, I got really worried and went to the GP who referred us to the child unit of the local NHS hospital. Here, they examined her and found that all seemed to be ok, but gave her a glycerine suppository, which within 5 min released an enormous poohnami. They also prescribed us Lactulose syrup which we have given her twice a day for more than a week now, without any success so far.
Given that some of you spoke about intervals of two weeks, I will probably wait for a few more days, but if she starts feeling worse again, will probably ask the GP if he could prescribe us a glycerin suppository. I am scared of laxative dependency though.
Has anyone of you any experience with giving your baby lactulose and/or glycerin suppositories?