7mo DS is always constipated :(

[owltrousers]

DS is 7 months, he was weaned at 5.5 months and we do a mixture of baby led and purees, he's recently really got into his food and eats well.

He's on SMA anti-reflux milk, which is thickened - but its the only milk that'll stay down. He has either baby porridge, rice pudding, toast or fruit puree for breakfast and then slices of fresh fruit. Dinner he has all sorts of finger food and a veg puree.

He's ALWAYS constipated at the moment, his poops are like little rocks and it hurts his poor bum. We feed him prune puree regularly to try and combat the constipation and he also has orange juice diluted with water once a day. He drinks a fair amount of water, but we're still working on increasing his intake.

Is there anything else I can do?

Up the Ella prune pouches. Maybe try cutting out baby rice and porridge and just giving fruit and veg for a while

Peach and pear pouches have worked here. And raisins seem to help.

Is it possible he could have a dairy or soya intolerance? That would make sense given the reflux and could easily mean he is constipated?

Is it possible he could have a dairy or soya intolerance? That would make sense given the reflux and could easily mean he is constipated?

I was just going to say the same thing Grump . There’s some information in CMPA here OP.

In the meantime, try to avoid bread, eggs, banana and sweet potato as they can all make baby constipated and try to offer some high water foods like brocolli, cauliflower, jelly, soup and melon. I’m sure you already are but try to offer foods roughly an hour after milk and offercwater with food.

My DD suffered badly at that age too. I even noticed blood in her stools. I took her to the doctor who prescribed movicol which works after a few days. Maybe worth a try.

baby porridge and rice etc would make DD’s problem worse. Weetabix also made her constipated.

If he is struggling a warm bath may help. If DD was in pain I would put her in the bath for a long soak, sometimes this meant having two baths a day but it really helped her. Even if I did have to scoop poop out the bath 🤔

My DD is also on SMA Anti Reflux and we have the same problem. I give her water between bottles and a puréed prune pouch once a week and that seems to keep her regular. 💩

Thanks everyone.

I don't think its a cows milk protein allergy as he has other foods with cows milk in and doesn't always have a problem with constipation. It just seems like a bad bout.

We've just given him fruit and veg today and no bananas or porridge or potato and he's had a fair bit of water and even some fruit juice (wouldn't usually give it, but thought it might help) and he's been twice but again - little slightly less hard rocks. Poor boy, he was crying out in pain I took his temp because he felt hot after - 37.9 do you think it warrants a doctor visit?

If they’re like rocks and he has a raised temperature, I’d take him to the GP in the morning or call 111 if his tempurature increases

Have you tried probiotics? My DS was really struggling (screaming and crying as he poo's etc) and someone suggested this (he'd been on lactolose 2-3 times a day and still struggled) - within a week it was helping and after one course we stopped the lactolose and 3.5 years on he's never had any more issues.

We had the bio gacia baby drops, You just add drops to milk once a day.

Part of the issue for our DS was he'd been on antibiotics a couple of times.

Might be worth a try?

My DD always struggled with her bowels and it got so much worse with weaning - like rocks, as you say. She even got an anal fissure. She started Movicol at 7 months, and although it took a while to get the maintenance dose right, it was such a relief (literally!) to have her going once a day.

She was checked by a paed who ruled out any serious bowel issues, just sluggish bowels, which is really common.

She’s nearly 7 and still on Movicol, which might sound scary, but honestly, I’d rather her be mediated long term than have to suffer the pain and misery of chronic constipation.

I took DS to the doctor yesterday and all we got was lactulose. Going to give that a go for a while.

Cutting out porridge / biscuits / bread and upping water doesn't seem to have helped yet so fingers crossed this might.

and thank you @boopdoop I will certainly look into that!