Help! FF 5-week-old can't poo and is straining/crying every waking minute

[BotBotticelli]

What can I do to help him poo??

He has not done a poo for over 24h now and he obviously really needs to go - his tummy is rock hard and he is straining and crying loads.

Have tried a bit of cooled boiled water after his feed. Have tried a tummy massage and cycling his legs. To no avail.

Have read some stuff online suggesting a bit of brown sugar in his bottle might help but not sure how much to give.

Has anyone got any suggestions??

Aw it's awful seeing them in discomfort. When I had one like this the hv suggested holding his bum in warm water, or a warm bath and then soaping his bum. Basically they mean lubricating it with soap or Vaseline to allow smooth passage of the poo. Holding his legs up when he strains.

Failing that, getting some lactulose from the gp.

Ok, sorry if this seems irrelevant nut hoe was he before this?

I ask because dd as a baby used to strain and grunt constantly and her stomach was bloated. but when she went it wasn't hard. she was actually milk intolerant.

so how was the poo last time your baby went and how is he In general

Pure orange juice (not squash) diluted 1:5 approx with cooled boiled water worked when my ds was hugely constipated at about the same age.
Try moving his legs like he's pedaling a bike, that helped too.

24 hours isn't a long time to be in such discomfort. His tummy shouldn't be be rock hard after such a short time either, so it might not be constipation that's the problem. Maybe you should take him to the GP?

What I do with mine is take a cotton bud lubricanted with some baby bottom cream, and gently insert it a little bit inside their bottom. It works a little like a suppository but gentler and less invasive.

Mine had severe constipation as a small baby. In the end it was "anal stenosis" buit could have been a symptom of some quite serious things. If it persists get it checked out.

In the short term:

1. orange juice.
2. boiled water.
3. a warm bath, really designed to soften the hard stuff at the end. Straining will mean warm water is going into the end of the bowel.
4. massage. Lots of oil, and two fingers. Lie your baby on its back. Start two inches above the naval and two inches to the right. Gently move your fingers down to the next corner of the square (ie two inches below the naval and to the right.) Repeat 10 times, looking the baby in the eyes and smiling. Then do the bottom of the square, eg two inches below the naval from right to left. Then up on the left, and accross the top left to right. Repeating each one ten times. I even used to do this with a baby in the bath as the massage would set off spasms and the warm water would help.
5. avoid constipating food. This includes bananas and anything sugary.
6. let the baby lie on their stomach or swaddle. It is more comfortable.

If it does not resolve itself quickly, see a doctor. Our baby ended up with all sorts of psycological problems as she worked out eating caused her to be bunged up and thus in pain. There is also scope for permanant damage. The doctor should prescribe laxative, but also be ready to test for various things.

Warm bath, if doesn't work, gp. I'm really not sure about Orange juice & sugar - surely at that age should just be milk & boiled water?!

Realise bananas are a few months down the line, but we fought this for two years. HV advised diluted orange juice quite early. It worked wonders.

DD was given lactulose to keep things soft and senna to push things through plus a bulking agent to bulk things up as she was not feeding. However the first needs quite a lot of extra fluid so I would wait for the doctor to suggest.

I used half a teaspoon of brown sugar in an ounce of water, obviously not reccomended by health visitor but it did the trick.

Lactulose is basically sugar syrup anyway

I was told freshly squeezed orange juice diluted by HV as well.
Or lukewarm water (obviously previously boiled)

Gripe water helps my dd. Often it appears she's constipated but it's trapped wind . The massage helps too. As does a warm bath

How is he fed? Breastfed babies can go days or even weeks without pooing.

Give him some water.

Put him across your lap (face down - but supported) and gently move your legs from side to side...

bicycle his legs again gently

I breastfed but this is all stuff that I had to do for my DD and I know my ff friends did it as well... Also I agree with giles he may be intolerant of the milk you're using (have you switched at all x)

Title says FF so formula Jeni

Orange juice straight out of the orange and diluted 1:5 with water is absolutely fine for a newborn, sadly we had the same with DD1 from birth and we were instructed to do this by the midwife and subsequently the HV when she took over.
Don't use bottled/supermarket juice though and strain for bits of pulp. I used to use tights to strain it

I used to put half teaspoon of brown sugar in 3oz of water. It always produced a poo within hours of giving him under half an oz.
nothing else used to work for us, we tried everything. Me and my husband even sat up all night with him when he was in agony, we were desperate and was willing to try anything. I know sugar is not advised but neither is water or orange juice but try it once, if it doesn't work first time it's not going to work second time around.