LO is constipated after starting solids

[Anniesmum2]

My little one is 5.5 months old. We started solids at 18 weeks as per health advisor advice as she wasn’t gaining enough weight on formula alone.
Shes been struggling with constipation and hard to pass solid poop since. We have tried prune juice, sugared water, massages, exercises and baths but baby is still struggling.

Does giving a formula bottle with solid meals help? This far we’ve kept the solid feeds with water or prune juice and not her milk. I’m just wondering if the formula liquid helps the food go down more hydrated and might help her poop?

TIA

Constipation is really common when weaning! If you've tried all the home remedies with no success, I would recommend going to your GP for a laxative.

What are u giving her for food?

My DD had similar and we cut right down on solid food and just gave prune purée (better than juice IMO) once a day, went to pharmacist for lactulose, and then added in some pea purée. Cutting down on the solids a little bit definitely helped as did giving only things that encourage pooing like prune/pea/apple/pear. Avoid rice or potato which are often fillers in shop bought baby food.

I was using Ella’s kitchen but changed to making my own as I read they could cause constipation also!
She is having multigrain cereal with blended fruits, for dinners/lunches is blended veg. I gave her broccoli, pea, carrot and pear for her dinner yesterday

Did everything settle after you cut down and used laxatives?

Sounds like a bit too much fibre ---- - while it can help adults go, it can be too much for their little tummies to handle. I'd simplify the solids - no cereal, no wide range of foods for now (she is still so teeny!) - and give plainer single vegetable purées if I were you without starches or cereals. Yes lactulose did help a lot but I carried on with the diet changes too. I'd definitely see a GP though as they might disagree with the HV advice. It sounds like she's having a lot of different types of solid foods for such a young baby to me.

Thank you so much for your help! I’ll cut back on variety and try stick to singular foods and see if it helps!
Her weight is not a concern for me, she’s been tracking on 25th percentile since birth (she suffered a brain bleed which needed surgery so dropped weight in first 2 weeks but has continuously gained since)

I found ready made formula useful for making my baby poop!

The traditional foods used to help the bowels at this weaning stage are the Ps: prunes, peaches, plums, pears. Reduce the multi grain cereal.

Would definitely echo PP advice to see your GP about whether it's right to start early weaning. I am a GP and obviously I don't know all the details of your baby's health and weight concerns but I would expect to be involved in this decision, not just HV, given the long term effects of early weaning on a baby's bowels. And the short term, as you're finding out. Really the amounts of food a baby of this age can realistically take in are not going to hugely add much to her weight. It would be better to discuss alternative formulas or whether there may be some medical need to investigate for poor weight gain.