6 week old really struggles with bowel movements

[Hodge85]

Hello,

My baby is 7 weeks old tomorrow and he is currently gearing up to have a bowel movement. The last one he had was Tuesday morning, normal consistency, but he really struggles in the run up. For the past 24 hours he has grunted, strained and kicked his legs which I know is his attempt and trying to go. He's still doing it now, I've tried cycling his legs, tummy massage, but nothing works. He gets himself worked up to the point he gets upset. He's FF and is on Aptimal First Infant, powder as well as ready made when we're out and about. What can I do to help him and will it get better? It's like this every time he goes. I've got the health visitor coming to see him today for his check up so I'll be discussing it with her. I was also wondering if it would be worth taking him to a cranial osteopath? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

It's really, really normal for little babies to have trouble with this. Pooing basically requires a combination of relaxing some muscles and pushing with others, and is quite tricky to coordinate! They get really frustrated by it, but do get the hang of it pretty soon.

@Persipan thanks for replying, it's good to know it's normal it's just so awful hearing him struggle with it. I hope he gets the hang of it soon x

I don't like to jump worst case scenario but my DD2 is 9 weeks and had this from birth. Her poo was like toothpaste coming out of tube, not constipated just very dry and pastey. She'd scream and struggle most of the day beforehand. I changed her to hipp constipation milk which helped some but she's ended up being diagnosed with CMPA and is now on neocate which has helped her so much. Might be worth keeping an eye on how he goes and if he's still struggling after a few more weeks see a GP?

@difficulttod he's been like this since birth too! How did you get you LO diagnosed with CMPA? It's something that has crossed my mind

Hi, my little one also had troubles going for a poo and we were advised by the midwife to use just the ready made formulas for a day and it usually flushed them out and makes them go. It worked for my little one x

@Hodge85 I just kept going to the GP and insisted they do something to help her. They prescribed gaviscon at first, which I refused to use because I knew it would make her properly constipated (they insisted gaviscon didn't cause constipation, I gave her one bottle with it in and was proved right).
She gradually ate less and less until one day she refused milk altogether and I could barely wake her, she was just floppy. So they referred us to a paediatric team which apparently they have to do to prescribe anything else, took a week but once it went through I was given neocate straight away along with a very helpful phone appointment with a doctor at my local hospital.
If I was you I'd just keep pushing. If your little one doesn't have an allergy (they can't properly diagnose until one anyway) neocate won't do any harm at all, and it's meant to be helpful with reflux and general digestive issues anyway as it's partially digested in the powder.
Sorry this was so long! Happy to talk via PM if you need any more help