Think my baby is constipated… help!

[Rosiebun]

Hi everyone,

I have a 3 week old baby who is combi fed - we do formula through the day and breastfeeding on a night, this is what seems to be working for us so far. When she has formula we do responsive paced feeding and she takes around 15/20 mins to have 3oz. Sometimes she doesn’t have the full 3oz, she can have between 1.5 and 3. She feeds around 10 times in a 24 hour period.

she does plenty of wet nappies but sometimes goes over 24 hours without having a poo. I know this can be normal for some babies but she seems really unsettled, is straining, goes red in the face and writhes around, it’s horrible to watch as I wish I could help her, I think she is obviously trying to poo and is having difficulty. We’ve tried doing bicycle legs, all that sort of stuff but it doesn’t seem to help.

does anyone have any advice? Could we be over feeding her, or could it be that the formula we’re using isn’t agreeing with her? Or am I just worrying for no reason?

EDIT: I should have said, when she does eventually go it is soft, not hard. Often explosive when it eventually does come!

Congratulations on your baby, did you discussed this topic with a pediatric doctor by any chance?

If the poo is soft, it's not constipation; this is 100% normal for very young babies.

Thank you. I haven’t had my 6 week check yet nor have I seen the health visitor (I will be seeing them next week) so was going to discuss it with them then. But the more it’s happening the more I’m wondering if it’s something to be concerned about or not. Im a FTM so not fully sure!

Thank you so much. Is it just them getting used to the motions of pooing? Will it get better itself eventually? I’ve been googling a lot so wasn’t sure if I needed to worry or not!

They are really uncoordinated at first, lots of going red and grunting... Though my combi fed baby pooed at every feed until six weeks :/

If you want to, you could try one extra BF instead of a bottle during the day, as BM has a laxative effect for many babies.

Yes, it'll sort itself out - please don't worry! 🥰

My daughter needed lactulose for constipation when she was a baby. She was pooing twice a day but tiny rabbit like pellets of poo that she struggled to pass and we had to help get them out of her bottom.
It's the consistency rather than the frequency that's the key factor.

If the poo is soft then it’s infant dyschazia (I may have spelt that wrong). It’s when they try and poo and close their bum muscles at the same time. It’s normal and they figure it out.

Hello! And congrats! We had this with ours. I know it’s hard not to worry but in another week or two she will be ok with pooping. Our girl was combi fed as she dropped weight on breastfeeding only. I was so distraught I took her to see a paediatrician as the health visitor, GP, midwife didn’t seem concerned. They just said she will get the hang of it! Dr listened to her bowels to ensure nothing was stuck and said as long as she is passing wind it’s a sign things are ok. Also said to come back if no poop is passed after 5 days. I was distraowitt this and it’s awful when they are so uncomfortable but she will be ok once she gets the hang of doing it. Take her to an and e if you need piece of mind!

I've just been through this with my 8 week old.

From about 3 weeks he really started to struggle to poo, would really strain and I could see he was uncomfortable. Midwife said as long as the poo is soft and he goes once a week he is fine and just figuring out how to poo. At about 6 weeks he seemed to have figured it out and now we get a cheeky smile everytime he does a poo!

I read a post the other day by a FTM - saying that she knew babies ate, pooped and slept all of the time, but not that they had to learn how to do all of those things first.

My combi fed DS poops every other day, and occasionally scares himself with all of the straining. As others have said, if it's soft then nothing to worry about!