my 7 month old screams in pain when trying to poo.

[cafebistro]

My DD is 7 months and usually very content. But over the past couple of weeks she has been in pain when pooing. At first it was just the usual straining and going red in the face but its gradually got worse. Today she has been screaming in pain and passing small soft but very sticky. She doesnt go for days and then spends all of one day trying and doing it in bits. Sorry to be so graphic! She was ex BF untill recently when I started her on solids. She doesnt have lots of solids only 1 or 2 small meals a day on top of her usual bf's. i have started giving her sips of water to see if it would help but she doesnt take much. also i though if baby was bf she shouldnt need extra fluids at this stage? Has anyone any ideas? i give fruit purees etc

have you spoken with your HV or GP?

Speak to your HV or GP - it could be a fisher (sp) which is easily fixed but very painful for small children when they try and poo

We dont have HV's here. Havent been to my GP as I thought it wasnt bad to begin with and I thought it was due to starting solids and that it would calm down. Also to be honest a visit to GP is expensive here. I was just thinking if its diet related someone might know what I should give to her.

If it is a fissure, a small tear inside the bottom, hopefully all that is needed is some cream from your doctor that will lessen the pain as it heals. If it is this your dd will be feeling like she is passing razor blades when trying to poo. Nasty!

They are sometimes caused by constipation so feeding lots of fruit and veg (purees as you are doing) and water will help.

My dd at the same problem at around the same age, well certainly not too long after we started weaning. I saw the doctor, who prescribed lactulose to "soften them up a bit". Did not have much effect. Saw Paediatrician who was very rude to me and told me to give her more to drink. Well it's one thing giving it to them but you can't exactly force a small baby to drink more fluid! I found prune juice/chopped up prunes mixed with baby rice or yoghurt quite effective - but I think she just grew out of it after a short time.

Agree with lactulose and ensure she has plenty of milk, offer milk before meals, as it seems it is often the introdcution of solids which causes probs, my DS2 was just teh same and it was v upsetting.
I also used to put some baby balm/bottom butter type stuff on his bum to make it less painful for him to poo.
We used lactulose and I cut back on solids for a while and this resolved the problem.

when introducing solids, the body does not know what they are at first so produces lots of mucus. mucus gums up the digestive tract and slows down the muscular ''push''of chyme along the gut. this extra time in the gut allows the body to take more fluid out of the poo and so makes it harder in texture and less easy to push out. this is the bodies defence mechanism to defend itself against foreign material as the mucus stops the body digesting the food properly to stop the thid foreign invader getting into the blood. drink plenty of water rather tahn milk (or flavoured water, the non sugar fruit juices are very good) as milk also is a mucus producer and when you start weaning the baby's digestive system will start to run down its lactase production which means milk is even more mucus forming. in white western babies, 90% will start producing lactase again within a month or 2, the other 10% will have diary problems. in black, asian and other non western races, lactase production is less likely to start up again as cows milk is less likely to be a staple food

Thankyou so much for peoples posts. Ive decided to just bf and give one meal of fruit for a few days and see what happens. I'll also offer her water throughout the day. Its difficult to get it in to her though as she refuses bottles and takes tiny bits from cups.