Constipation Help Please!

[Joshuasmum]

My DS is 11 weeks and predominantly bottle fed since about 8 weeks. He is on Cow and Gate for hungry babies and in the last 2 weeks has been struggling with constipation. Additional water doesn't seem to help and we had to relieve the last bout by giving 5 ml doses of baby fruit juice which I am not so sure about since he is a bit young for them.
Any advice? Is it the formula type?

It could be the formula. The iron in it can affect babies differently. Have you tried changing the formula?

Fennel tea is safe at that age, and may help. Just use it instead of the water (or instead of some of the water) when you make up some of the bottles each day. It's more for wind, but can help with constipation too.

Other things that can help are giving half a teaspoonful of muscovado sugar dissolved in an oz or two of water, or a teaspoonful of freshly-squeezed and strained orange juice, or half a teaspoonful of freshly squeezed tomato juice (obtained by pressing a teaspoon into a halved tomaato, so that the juice is quite clear). They are all contentious remedies though!

Thanks prettycandles - I have had good success using baby fruit juices (2nd time now), was too chicken to try orange juice! I dare not tell my HV!

I was hoping to avoid the 'additional' foodstuffs since he is only 11 weeks, but I think a bit of fruit juice is better than the endless straining!

I have changed him back to C&G Premium on the advice of the C&G helpline and have a more settled baby today - hold thumbs!

DS is quite windy too - feeds have been a bit of a nightmare recently, so if the newly purchased gripe water doesn't work I will try the fennel tea.

I tried to put the remedies in the order which I would try them because oj is a known allergen, and tomatoes come from the deadly nightshade family (they're not actually poisonous themselves of course). I forgot to mention prune juice with no bits in it - that goes after sugar and before oj on the list.

My ds was phenomenally windy, and we found the best way to help him was to wind him before, during and after the feed! He didn't like it at all, but it helped so we persevered.

Interesting comment on teh winding - we were doing exactly that and found that it resulting in our ds winding himself up into a frenzy and crying and seemingly taking on even more air - as a result we stopped and now let him glug through thebottle until he is ready to stop. At the moment (who knows how long it will last!) it seems to be okay!

Thanks for all the suggestions - we up to 2 soft poos now with less straining!

Little individuals!

Hooray for the poos !