constipated baby :(

[lisad123]

My DD is 9 weeks old and BFeed. She hasnt been for a poo since friday last week! She doesnt seem herself, and is very gumpy and im pretty sure she is uncomfertible. I have rubbed her tum, given her a warm bath, feed her when she has wanted it but still no better.

Im planning to call health visitor in the morning. My dd1 suffered very badly with constapition for 4 years

Any ideas?

My DD was BF and I do remember her not doing a poo for a couple of days (I assume you mean the friday just gone - not a week last friday?) and then it all came out in a great big poo that went everywhere! The look of relief on her face was so funny.

Good idea to check with the HV tomorrow though - she'll say to go the GP if she's concerned.

no i mean a week last friday!

bump please

I was told that if you drink orange or grape juice (or wine ) it helps, getting through to dd in your milk and loosening things up! I think a friend asked a pharmasist who told them to give her dd a little bit of sugar in water but check this because I'm not sure how much or anything.

AFAIK (not a doctor) constipation is uncommon in breastfed babies. It is, however, common for babies to poo less frequently once they get to around this age. Breastmilk is such perfect food that there is not much waste: my DD once went in excess of 2 weeks.

You should speak to your HV if you think she is in pain, but do not worry too much.

i drink fresh orange juice everymorning. I have heard water and brown sugar too, but not sure how much either.
I think i will leave the wine for now.

feel better for knowing that scaryhairy. She did go more than once a day, then was put on FF while i was in hospital but kept my milk going. I have been back to BF for 3 weeks nows.
She isnt in pain, but just uncomfertible i think, if that makes sense.
thanks

Lisa, I would make an appointment to see your GP, rather than the HV. It is not normal not to go for that length of time for a BF baby and the longer it takes the harder it gets - The bowel draws moisture out of the stool, so it becomes very hard (harder each day it is left) and then pooing can become extreamly painful and difficult.

DS2 had bowel problems from birth (a very small anus) and in order to poo we needed to use lactelose on a regular basis (lactelose is not a laxative, it is a stool softner) it contains a sugar that the bowel does not absorb, therefore, keeping the stool moist.

I also had to use suppositorys to get him going.

I do not want to worry you, but I think that maybe a little help is needed.

You have tried all the other stuff, ie rubbing tubby clockwise, warm bath, warm flannel and cycling legs. we tried all of the above and baby massage and cranial ospeopthy (sp).

I do hope that your LO goes soon.

hello i do not have advice but my own story
my breastfed daughter was constipated virtually from the week she was born .. would do about a poo a week and become increasingly distressed until by the end of the week she was stiff as a board and screaming all day.. then she would do it and sleep for hours and hours. I couldn't wait to wean her and then we didn't even try baby rice.. straight to beans and carrots etc. In the meantime we took her to a cranial osteopath three times and she got better after every visit. Even when at her worst she would totally relax on the osteopath table and poo for England afterwards. It was v expensive so we didn't go much but it really helped as she had an ongoing problem -- we never found out what it was but the cranial osteopath said she was tense all over.. difficult birth? i mean she did have one but we just didn't didn't know. Maybe a twisted gut or something. Anyway as soon as she started on solids and also moving around on her own it got better and better. My MILs advice (she always thought i was doing something wrong) didn't help at all with my daughter but here it is: she used to put her on her back and work her legs as if walking. Also when we started giving her food we did not give bananas (plug you up) and (one piece of good MIL advice) pureed apple because all the fibre in an apple goes with the cooking and you are left with a lot of pectin which also plugs you up. Hope it's not an ongoing problem as it's tremendously exhausting.

Themadhouse: had very simular issues with dd1 as you had with DS2. Was hoping we would not have this all again. I have plently of lactolose here and movicol too. Will call HV first as GP isnt great, She didnt go for a week last time and it came out like clay, not hard lumps so thats why im not too concerned but now its been 9 days

by the way sorry i'm not a doctor either but i don't believe the new gov guidelines about weaning at six months. I mean my mum weaned us all at ten weeks and we were fine. so I did it at 15-16 weeks and it helped loads. it makes sense to me because if they're only having milk then there's nothing to push it through is there? i think we tried a bit of oj too.

His daddy calls him a tight arse, but thats to be expected coming from a farming family. I have to say he is much better now (17 months), but I had to manually dilate for a year.

I was just concerned about his bowel stretching and muscle tone being lost.

I hope the HV helps, please let me know

My DD1 is nearly 5 and it took 4 years for it to settle down. We tried everything, and would often get overflow, and ended up with enamams (sp?)
She does loads better now but sometimes has a flare up. Strange thing is the best thing to help was yaucult (sp?) every morning.

My Dr told us that there is a difference between a child who exhibits signs of constipation early on (i.e. within a very few weeks of being born) who is likely to have a physical problem which is causing the constipation, and a breastfed baby who starts to poo less frequently around this age.
Seriously, if it has just started now, get it checked but do not stress, because it is actually not uncommon for a breastfed baby to do this. Do a search for threads on this subject on Mumsnet: you will see that a lot of babies behave like this and there is not anything wrong with them. I certainly would not change the baby's diet without seeing a doctor first, especially as your child may be fine without any changes.

Could you eat more fiber?

i eat a lot of fibre as have had my gall bladder removed a few weeks back and causes no end of bowel problems for me since

Thanks scarcy, Im not overly worried as dd1 had simular problems although her's started the moment she went on to FF.
DD2 was fine until she went onto FF while i was in hospital but was hoping being back on BM might have stopped the problems this time.
Im not planning to wean her early or make any changes yet, but might offer her a little water and orange juice in the morning. I would rather the natural way as dd1 was pumped full of meds, but never able to come off them till 4 years

Oh that sucks. I had mine out when I was 21 and recall that the after effects sucked

i don't get the big deal about weaning early

I weaned dd1 just beofre 4 months and she is fine. i think you know yourself when babies are ready for more than just milk.

i agree, when i first heard about the six months advice i could barely believe it

scaryhairy would you really consult your doctor before weaning?

i think she meant i shouldnt make changes to babies diet without seeing doc first. Not that i should see him before weaning

oh well that's ok.. mind you i still don't know what kind of change would warrant a visit to a doctor.. just hope the constipation sorts itself out. It can seem like such a minor issue to some but can be so vv distressing for a baby and therefore mum.

I was very stressed about it with DD1 but i think as i know what it is and likely to happen im not too worried. Hoping it sorts quickly.

woo hoo she poo'd
tummy massage last night must have worked
will still call health visitor so we can sort it out sooner rather than later.

Thanks