5 month old baby constipated - won't drink water?

[weeblueberry]

Is there anything other than medication that can encourage her to go? She's absolutely not interested in the water at all but the move to 2 bottles of formula a day has made her very uncomfortable and constipated but there seems to be little I can do to help her.

Any suggestions?

Make the formula up with another ounce of water. Bicycle her legs. Rub her tummy. Maybe make the formula a comfort type rather than the standard as it is easier to digest. Hope that helps. It might just take time for her to get used to formula if you are switching from ebf.

Google reflexology for constipated babies. I so did not believe in this when my midwife showed me, but it worked a treat for permanently-constipated DD1. And if it doesn't work, your baby's had a nice foot massage

1 oz prune juice, 5 oz water. Agree with watered down formula too!

Thanks so much! Mum did suggest watering down the formula more but I wasn't sure if that was okay. I've been trying to bicycle her legs too (she seems to have a bit of gas too...) and have used the scooping technique we learned in baby massage. :) Will give anything a go at this point as I know how uncomfortable she must feel. If nothing else works I'll give the prune juice a go!

To be honest, while the extra ounce of water and the prune juice are not unreasonable suggestions for alleviating short-term constipation, medication is better for their digestive system if the problem is more chronic. The medical guidelines now say not to use dietary methods for constipation, but to use medication to help kick-start a sluggish digestive system. It can cause problems if lo's are having to strain all the time and associate pooing with pain, but also once you start giving watered down formula it can be hard to stop doing so, if that just about gets them going - and then they are effectively getting less iron and nutrients from the watered down milk. And may then get even more constipated when you stop adding extra milk and the formula becomes more concentrated again. Or refuse to drink the more concentrated milk after getting used to it being more watered down. I'm a GP and have had 2 children with constipation. Ds1 has a long history of feeding and bowels problems and has been on extremely high doses of laxatives since he was 3mo. Over time his bowels have naturally improved by themselves and we have been weaning him off his meds - he is now only on a low dose of one medication (he was on three). Dd2 became very constipated at 6mo when she dropped a milk feed and started weaning, and this didn't improve over a couple of months despite drinking water. She was started on movicol and this got things going for a few weeks, now she is off the medication and is fine going by herself. Sometimes they just need a 'kick-start' and there isn't any evidence to show that giving laxatives causes a sluggish bowel and dependence on the meds, the opposite is actually the case. I had a good read of the current literature to make sure my knowledge was up to date when my dc's had constipation issues. If your lo won't drink water you won't be able to give movicol, but there are alternatives which you can give via syringe. Hope that helps. By all means give the other suggestions a go, if you want to, but don't use them as a long-term method of treating constipation - go and see your GP.

Thank you so much for the advice. She's going to the docs tomorrow for something unrelated so will ask their advice :)

My ds has 2-4 sachets of movicol a day and we put it in his milk as they can taste it in water. He has severe constipation and is going for a biopsy in couple of weeks for hirschsprungs disease. I just try and get as much fluid in as I can to relieve the constipation, and once they are weaned you can give them more fibrous foods. Hope you get on ok at doctors tomorrow

My dd had terrible constipation. At 5 months half a fruit pot each day really won't hurt her.