dyschezia Reassurance

[Rooandtwo]

My DD (8 weeks) seems to have been suffering since about 3 weeks with infant dyschezia. My sense of my daughter is that she is a brave determined little thing but this week she seems more distressed, or else just more vocal about this. It’s HEARTBREAKING. I’m looking for reassurance that this is the height of crying and not that this is actually getting worse for her. I am praying every day for it to pass as many people say it will by about 12 weeks. Somewhere online I think it says the babies are not in pain just crying to move the muscles or build pressure. From looking at my daughters face and hearing her cries this is blatantly untrue. I feel certain it is dyschezia, and we try everything we can to help but nothing is really working quite well enough to save her the discomfort and frustration. As I said, I’m just hoping someone can tell me it similarly seemed to be getting worse but still got better. I know weeks 6-8 are peaks for crying.

I didn’t know the word - but do you mean she’s constipated? That must be really tough. Have the Guys GP/ midwife been involved? Hopefully they can give you some support. My dd had a very tearful time at that age, but not for any real reason. I remember how tough it was. Fingers crossed she’ll come out the other side of this soon.

Thank you for replying. No not constipated. It’s a different problem and she will always go eventually and actually really pretty regularly at the moment and with normal consistency. It’s just a developmental issue that lots of babies have apparently, but it’s obviously upsetting for her. The advice is just to wait it out really.

Bump

In our case it was CMPA…our health visitor was also adamant that dischezia only lasts a day or so and it’s serious stuff for the doctors to worry about but I was certain she was wrong as Google told me otherwise.
Try approaching your infant feeding team or equivalent and explain this as a mild constipation that causes lots of discomfort and that it is not going better and see what formal referral you can have. In the meantime time try a different formula plus bit of water if formula feeding, or cut out dairy and soya if breastfeeding x it is so tough to watch them suffer! x

Just a Comfort formula could do for some babies, or Aptamil Pepti for others. As the symptoms of so mild there should be no need for the prescription formulas that many babies don’t like anyway x

My DD had this and it was awful seeing her struggle. She literally had no idea how to poo - she'd be desperate to go, but I would feel her clench her bum tight, so she was actually holding it in instead. Poor thing just couldn't figure it out and it led to a daily bout of tears. The good news is that she did just grow out of it. The slight bad news is that it did take longer than 12 weeks (I remember reading like you OP, that 12 weeks seemed to be the common age they figured it out, and clinging on to that). Unfortunately it took my little one more like 20 weeks, but she did get there in the end. So you have lots of sympathy from me as it was horrible. I remember just feeling so sorry for her as she had to learn how to poo, something that seems so natural, but it was such a struggle for her.

She's just over 2 now and ever since 20 weeks has never had any other bowel problems at all. She's perfect in every way (biased mum of course!). I'm currently 38 weeks pregnant with number 2 and absolutely dreading the idea that this baby might have it too (although as I understand it there's no reason to believe it has a genetic element).

Stick with it - there's nothing 'wrong' with your gorgeous baby. It's just they need a little more time to learn

@sexnotgenders Thank you. It’s not what I want to hear and yet I can’t hear enough that it passes at least. Do you remember your baby getting more upset at certain times? This last week she has been crying out as well as straining and I’m hoping it’s just a fussy period rather than an indication it might be worsening.

@Stuffofdreams im aware there is a small chance of CMPA but this is much rarer than dyschezia and cutting out dairy unnecessarily poses it’s own challenges. Do you know of any distinguishing features that would mean it’s more likely CMPA than dyschezia?

Bump

Also coming by to say that it's highly likely to be allergy related, and most probably CMPA at that. Dyschezia doesn't start sometime after birth.

CMPA isn't rare at all, it's prevalence in some degree or another is up to 50% of babies, and it's a complete myth that breastfed babies are less likely to be affected. Cutting out dairy for a few weeks as a trial poses no comparable issues compared to your baby continuing to struggle.

Yes I understand that and would be willing to cut dairy if I suspected that was the cause. However DD has no rash, is not very refluxy, sleeps well. She just gets upset and strains for some time before she is able to poo. So currently, I only see an indication of dyschezia.

@redroseroo can I ask where your 50% statistic comes from? In some degree or other perhaps but not to the degree that an elimination diet would be recommended I wouldn’t think. When adults cut dairy they actually create and intolerance over time which they then can right when they start eating it again, so I wouldn’t have thought eliminating dairy for the diets of 50% of babies is recommended.

I've been part of a breastfeeding support group run by a lactation consultant for some time and have assisted in collating data to establish the true prevalence of CMPA.

CMPA doesn't have to come with a rash, reflux or poor sleep. On the more extreme end of an allergy it can do but it can present just as difficulty/distress passing bowel motions.

An elimination diet is the gold standard and is the only thing that would be suggested as a first port of call by the GP/HV, etc. Allergy testing would not be considered for CMPA and there is therefore no other determining way.

You're not going to develop an intolerance to dairy after not eating it for 3 weeks. Please don't convince yourself that's a valid justification OP. If you're that adverse to cutting out dairy yourself then speak to the GP and obtain some dairy free formula, but you'd be being very unreasonable to not consider trialling dairy elimination for baby (be that by cutting it out yourself or switching to an appropriate formula) if there's a possibility it's causing such distress.

If a child has CMPA, then of course the recommendation is not to give dairy. If a mother wants to continue breastfeeding then an elimination diet is the only way. You can't have your cake and eat it.

I have seen the gp and health visitor and they’ve both said it’s dyschezia.

There is only two things here - wait and do nothing, or do something. There is no other miracle cure here..! Most people do feel better to try doing something to fix any problems in life, even if it is only a placebo to cut out pure dairy you may eventually feel a bit more relaxed so the baby will be a bit more relaxed and so on. Just a thought x

Oh my sympathies, OP. My now 11.5 month old DD had this. She was EBF, yet still had all manner of digestive troubles, with dyschezia being among the most difficult because of how distressed it made her and how badly it affected her (and our) sleep. Unfortunately, like PP, it did go on much longer than 12 weeks. DD was about 6 weeks when it started and it literally went on until she was a little over five months old. I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news on that front. But it passed, and honestly now it's just a vague memory!

We suspected CMPA, so after waiting a while, I did a strict elimination diet for 9 weeks. That actually did help her gut, but we now think she had secondary lactose intolerance after a bout of covid, which probably didn't help her overall discomfort or the dyschezia. The elimination diet just gave her gut chance to repair itself and for her digestive system to calm down. I think this perhaps helped her relax enough to learn what she needed to do with pooping. She was a breech baby so we also did a couple of months of weekly osteopath appointments.

Good luck!

Hello!

Ive found this while searching for reassurance for my own daughter who is 9.5 weeks at the moment!

how did this end up? I hope it passed quickly!

Hi, it passed ☺️ I don’t really remember exactly when but I think it was around 12 weeks that it became much less bothersome though obviously the progression was gradual. No allergies ever found and baby is now 11 months and weaning well.

Our baby had this, it lasted for ages and then just disappeared.

What helped us was getting her into a squat position which helped her go regularly. So you want to hold baby so her back is to your tummy, and put your hands under her knees and lift them higher than her bum - so sort if like a squating position. I think it's called the frog position.

Thank you so much @Rooandtwo , I’m so glad to hear it went for your sake!