My 6 month old won’t poop anywhere but the bath

[Kimmm28]

Help! My 6 month old daughter has not pooped anywhere but her bath for over a month now. She can be noticeably uncomfortable (arching back, crying etc) and as soon as we put her in the bath she poops within a few seconds. We have tried lots of different things to try and encourage her to go in other places but nothing has been successful

• putting her on a potty
• putting water in a potty so her bum is covered
• Nappy free time

It’s got to the point now that it’s only her specific bath she will go in (we have a baby tub in our bath). We’ve just been on a 4 night holiday and she didn’t go the whole time we were there. As soon as we are home and she gets in her bath she pooped immediately.

Has anyone experienced anything similar? Any advice would be hugely appreciated!

At 6 months old I would be worried about constipation. Not that she “won’t” poo anywhere other than the bath but that she can’t poo easily and the warm bath water helps.

Maybe some sort of heat pad or something warm wrapped around her middle while sat on a nappy?

6 months? You’re potty training at this age
id assume constipation
water must feel soothing and relaxing
if be taking her to the GP ASAP
have you started weaning? This can cause issues initially

It sounds like the baby is constipated like pp have said and the warm water is helping her go, see your HV or GP.

When mine were babies the advice was cooled boiled water for constipation,.it did work I.dont know new advice though.

Have you spoken to health visitor about it? My daughter had an issue straining to poo when she was very little which was resolved by an osteopath. I was actually seeing them for a problem feeding but they identified an issue with the bowel and treated it. ( explosive poo before we got home and no more issue) No I could not tell you what they did because it’s dome kind of voodoo but I was very appreciative.

Put the potty in the bath? And sit her on it before the bathwater over flows it?

Thanks all for the advice, we don’t think it’s constipation as the stools are very loose and she isn’t straining when she goes. We’ve sat her in water on a potty and tried a different bath (when we were on holiday) but neither of those worked and she seems to save it for her specific bathtub. We are seeing the GP tomorrow, hoping he can help but it’s definitely an unusual situation!

No we aren’t potty training, I just didn’t know what other topic this would fall under 😂

Loose stool doesn’t necessarily mean she isn't constipated. Look into the Eric website. For babies they do a lovely syrup from the gp that can help and then as they get older movicol/laxido can help.