Baby didn't poop for 3 days

[MissMissy93]

My baby is a month old, and she is formula fed - very greedy, already wants 7oz each time. She used to poop once a day on an evening, but this week it took her almost 3 days to finally pass a stool. I wasn't worried because I'd been told this can happen with formula fed and if she didn't look unwell, she would be fine.

However, when she finally did pass, it took her ten minutes of screaming, bright red face and a rock solid tummy. I had to put a warm flannel on her tummy and do the bicycle thing with her legs to help her. She seemed to be in pain, or at least it was a lot of effort.

I looked up baby constipation but apparently this would result in pellet like poops and hers was still soft and same consistency as it always had been. So why did it take so much effort to pass?

Anyone else's baby experienced this? Or anyone know how I can help her? Thank you in advance.

My baby is 7 weeks old now and since she was around 3 weeks old she passed a stool every other day (she used to go every day at least once) took her to the doctor and he diagnosed constipation even though when she did go it was soft not pellet like. He said the fact she has to really work to pass a stool is constipation regardless of what the stool actually looks like. She now takes 2.5ml of lactulose on the days she can't go to soften the stool even more making it easier to pass. So far there's no problems

I find this quite persuasive in describing this sort of thing, which a lot of babies go through. There isn't loads of research into "normal" infant bowel habits.

www.aboutkidsgi.org/childhood-defecation-disorders/infant-dyschezia.html

Thank you both. She didn't go through this again and although still only passing stool once every other day, it doesn't take her as much effort and in fact I sometimes don't know she's had one until the smell hits me!

All is well