Newborn

[Bmarie]

Hi everyone,

I feel like I'm posting daily for advise at the moment!

I have a 10 day old newborn, I am currently breastfeeding but give her a aptamil formula before bed (usually around 10) as breast doesn't seem to fill her & helps her settle.

She tends to poo at 2am feed but then typically doesn't all morning and day until about 6pm, she then has numerous poo's through the evening and around 9 screams inconsolably (we have realised this is due to her stomach) once she poos she will settle, feed and then sleep... she rarely cries at all, all night and day until evening

We have tried her with some infacol tonight which seems to have helped settle her and relieve some of the discomfort but still no poo

Is it normal for her to not poo all day until evening? And does anyone have any tips for helping with any constipation and tummy aches?

Thank you

I think when it comes to pooing all babies are different. From what I understand formula is harder to digest so it will take longer. Breast milk is very easy for them to digest.

It's your choice to give formula but if you feed feed feed then you will produce enough milk for baby. Keep giving formula and your body will never know it needs to make more.

10 days old you should have seen midwife? Whst did she say about poos?

I doubt infacol would have helped as takes a few days of constant use to have any affect.

Who said the screaming was to do with her stomach?

She screams and then poos once she poos she will stop and settle we try everything in the screaming process i.e. Winding feeding cuddling etc nothing helps until she poops which is why I think it's her stomach

The pooing was on and off when I last saw the midwife and thought it would pass I'm there on Wednesday so I will be checking then... I was just looking for a bit of advise in the mean time

Re feeding I have tried with feeding at night an awful lot but she seems to just not be able to get enough and the one bottle seems to be working for us... she was feeding for hours through the night prior to the formula

sorry, that is just what a newborn does....

i.e. it is cluster feeding to build your supply, and it is really important for the hormone levels for milk production to feed at night

plus a growth spurt about that point

Newborn babies are programmed to cluster feed when breastfed. It absolutely does not mean you aren't producing enough milk. Intact cluster feeding us an important part of building your supply.
As for the screaming until pooping, can you get booked on a baby massage course? Normally run by children's centres, can teach you how to massage stomach as part of it to ease constipation/wind.

If the poo is normal when it comes then it's not constipation. It can be normal for there to be a long gap between poos, which isn't an issue if there's no other symptoms e.g. wet nappies as normal.

New babies do often behave as you describe, they're getting used to their bodies and digestive system developing. Massaging the tummy and leg cycling can help with digestive discomfort.

I found eating/drinking chocolate while feeding helped my supply (notice this while expressing) you can also make biscuits that help with supply

Cluster feeding at night is not because she is not get enough milk it is about building your milk supply. It is only at night that your body produces lots of prolactin hormone hence why babies feed at night. Giving formula before bed is not wrong and it is fine if that is what you want to do.

Babies have to learn to poo. Some people find bicycling baby's leg is helpful. Baby massage courses are generally not recommended until 6 weeks but on YouTube the North East sling library have a good video for anti colic massage

Have a new born is such a worrying and difficult time. It sounds like you are doing an amazing job.

DD was FF and always struggled with poos. You don't need to worry about amount, more consistency and colour (TMI I know!). We found lots of bicycle legs from early evening to bed time (not consistently obviously!) helped a lot. As did some of the techniques I learnt in baby massage. We have gripe water when it got really bad, a lot of people said this constipated their baby but it made DD go more, but we didn't start giving that until she was 6/8 weeks.

But yes unfortunately crying and discomfort is usual in newborns as they get to know their body.

All normal! It's just that their digestive system hasn't matured yet

We used to give a bottle of formula at around 10/11pm from very early on.
It was perfect for us - i could skip a feed and sleep longer, my husband would feed the baby and really liked this "job", our son had no problem switching from bottle to breast, there was no nipple or any kind of confusion that i keep reading here on MN and there was no problem later on when we switched to bottles. And also there was no negative effect on my supply, another thing that i keep reading here.

And the cluster feed was not at nighttime, it was evening for us, also worked out fine.

Basically what works for you is absolutely fine.