13 week old straining and grunting all the time

[Starry4321]

Hello, hoping anyone has some advice or help! We have a 13 week old EBF baby boy and he has periods in the day where he arches his back and grunts and cries really loudly. He also is pushing during it too. His face usually goes bright red during it and it’s pretty upsetting to see as nothing seems to help apart from putting him over the shoulder. He has 2-3 dirty nappies in the morning and then another few at night.

Spoke to doctor and he said ‘constipation baby’ and has prescribed lactulose but I’ve held off giving him it as he is actually doing dirty nappies. It’s been going on for about 6 weeks at least now. Does anyone know what this might be?

No advice (sorry!) but interested as my 20 week old is doing the same x

DS had something similar. It lasted until he was 3/4 months old. This is what the GP diagnosed him with. Nothing you can do to help other than comfort them and regular leg bicycles etc. Poor thing 😕

https://www.childrensmn.org/educationmaterials/childrensmn/article/21819/infant-dyschezia/#:~:text=Infant%20dyschezia%2C%20is%20a%20specific,is%20a%20muscle%20coordination%20problem.

Have you heard of infant dyschezia? It’s basically where your baby is trying to figure out how to coordinate his pelvic floor. It’s also known as grunting baby syndrome!

Just to add. DS had plenty of dirty nappies but stools didn't indicate constipation at all. That's when he was diagnosed with this. Some days it would go on all day and night.

Ds had this from when he was born 🫣 literally grunting all night long, not a wink of sleep even when he was 😴

Thanks! I have heard of it and this would make sense. Sounds like it’s something that will hopefully just settle over time

What is the consistency of his poos? Unless they are like rabbit droppings I would struggle to see constipation given the frequency of the soiled nappies you listed.

Back arching is quite a classical silent reflux symptom. Cmpa might be worth reading about too