constipated 7 month old - please help!!

[sweetkitty]

DD2 is nearly 7 mo, she hasn't done a proper poo since Thursday. She has been exclusively BF so I am used to the chicken korma explosions, she has always been very regular too. We started weaning about 4 weeks ago she's maybe getting 2 meals a day now, we've not introduced meat and only last week I gave her a bit of cheesy mash and some lentil puree. This is the only thing I can think of thats made her constipated. She's not eating vast quantities yet only a few spoonfuls and some bread/toast as finger food.

Her anus looks red and (sorry if TMI) when it opens you can see poo in it. What can I give her to make her go? Shall I stop all solids for a few days and just give her BFs? She also had bad oral thrush last week and got Nystatin drops from the HV.

I am going crazy as I have had bad stomach spasm pains since Friday, had to see an out of hours GP last night who ruled out appendicitis, UTI, pregnancy!!, tummy bug etc. He just gave me anti spasm tablets but these aren't working. So I'm doubled over in pain trying to look after DD2 and DD1 whos only 2. I just feel like crying and I need to get my baby to poo.

give her cool boiled water with 1 or 2 teaspoons of brown sugar in and i bet you will get the biggest poo ever! that was told to me by my doctor and it works

When this happened to my ds3 also 7 months I mixed half pure orange juice and half cool boiled water and he did a massive poo 2 days later. Give him a small amount of this most days now and since then he has been going every other day.
Btw he was bf but was used to having the occasional bottle of my milk. He did pull a face, but took to it remarkably quickly.

Are you giving her baby rice? It's deadly constipating stuff. Drop it if you are.

Cut down on her solids a little, up her fluids and give her pure OJ as cazboldy suggests. Don't give her apples, carrots or bananas, as they can be constipating. You could also mix a few drops of pure olive oil in her food every day or two. That would be a good way of preventing a recurrence as olive oil increases the movement of the gut (and it's also very good for you).

If she's distressed, put a drop of margarine or butter on your finger and rub it gently on her anus. You can do this when she strains or at other times. It will help her to relax and lubricate the poo making it easier to slip out. In very young babies just doing this will often trigger a poo (but I don't know at what age this reflex fades).

Thanks for all your advice. I have tried her with the orange juice but she only took about 1/2 oz before starting to cry. She will take EBM from a bottle so knows what a bottle is for.

No baby rice

She is still having loads of BFs a day so it's worrying all that milk has to go somewhere. Never had a constipated baby before. I'm not giving her dinner tonight just BFs.

Don't know what else I can take today, I'm in agony DD1 is v demanding as 2yo's are and is trying to climb all over me when I'm doubled up in pain. Will have to go back to the doctors tomorrow.

Oh well DP will be in in about an hour.

Try this - boil a few dried apricots until them become nice and plump and soft (5 mins), put through a mouli to remove the skins (not sure if they are a bit too fibrous!), then offer the soft pulp to your baby. We had poo problems with bananas (even though its suppoed to be a first food) so I don't give them to dd at all anymore, but the apricot definitely helped. Good luck.