Constipated 9 week old; need advice

[Pemberley]

My bf DS has been constipated for 4 days now and having a tough time with it. He has been straining, crying, farting and generally unsettled. He's not been feeding as usual, more been snacking and taking for comfort. Have tried brown sugar in cool boiled water (doc's recomm), diluted fennel water, gripe water in warm boiled water, massage, bicycling legs, cranial osteopathy, warm bath, soaped his bottom, all to no avail. Resorted to giving him Calpol just to get him some rest.

The only 2 things that stop him crying is either bf or holding him upright and walking around.

He has been producing a lot of saliva (bubbles) at the mouth and we were wondering if the constipation may be a symptom of him teething. It may be linked.

Desperate to get his bowels moving. Can anyone recommend anything we haven't tried e.g. diluted prune juice?

Not pooing for a while is normal at this age, I wouldn't bother doing much for it.

I think cycling his legs might help a bit, but giving him anything other than breastmilk at this age is unwise, imo.

I would post this in Breastfeeding section but it is true that he doesn't need anything but breastmilk.

totally agree with Notquite. My baby only pooed about once a week (always just before weighing at the HVs annoyingly).

give her tummy a massage in a clockwise direction, warm bath, cycle legs. and perhaps a spoon of gripe water. I'd have probably given a dose of Infacol too (but not together)

him, sorry

I know bf babies can go for a while without poo-ing, (read it on MN actually) and it wouldn't bother me if he wasn't trying to strain and crying with it. He is not behaving normally and I just wondered if it was the constipation that was causing it or something else. He used to do between 3-5 poos in 24 hours before this episode and I don;t know why he's stopped all of a sudden.

Am continuing with the massage, cycle legs and gripe water. Thanks

It'll come. Can't stay there forever.

If BF, helps if YOU drink Orange Juice.
HTH

Pemberley, we had this problem occasionally with my little one. when he was about a week old and still hadn't pooed i was panicking and we took him to A+E where they were brilliant and gave him a tiny laxative -the GP prescribed the same thing when it happened again when he was a few weeks older. it's a little pessary and it worked very well. good luck, i know how worrying it is...

Sorry I am replying so late but DS finally did a poo last night after nearly a week of sheer agony. Not sure what did it but we were really relieved. He hasn't done one today so unsure if it's going to be a weekly occurrence...?

I wanted to mention that I took him to see a cranial osteopath at the weekend and he has been expelling a lot more air since then. I am going again as she is trying to help with his general windiness as well and the fact he doesn't like sleeping on his back...

I had heard OJ was a big no-no for colic reasons which is why I stopped drinking it weeks ago.

When he finally went, what consistency was it? If it was normal, liquid bf poo then I don't think he was constipated. Proper constipation usually ends with very hard, pellet like poo. Like lots of others say, it is normal and it may be the straining is wind rather than a need to poo. Infacol could help with that.

He could also be a bit refluxy which is why he doesn't like lying down and wants to be held upright all the time. How sicky is he?

IME teething doesn't usually cause constipation, more the opposite!