How often should a 5 week old poo?

[moominmaiden]

Apologies for the subject heading :)

Posting here for traffic. My DS is 5 weeks tomorrow and hasn't pooed in about 36 hours. He's EBF, feeding well (I express into a bottle 2 to 3 times a day so know he's having at least 120 ml at each feed - usually more as he snacks on the breast afterwards) and everytime I change his nappy he's done a wee, but no poo.

He seems to strain and exert quite a lot. If I was to guess I'd say he was getting tummy cramps as he doesn't bring any wind up when it happens but after a few minutes they pass and he settles down. I don't think he's constipated as he went for a while without doing a poo last week and when he finally went it was a normal colour / consistency. They seem to be worse first thing in the morning, starting around 4am - he wakes up but doesn't feed, just strains, which makes me think he'd actually sleep through a good chunk of the evening if they weren't waking him up.

Otherwise he seems happy out.

Anyone else had this? Anything I can do to help him along?

I've heard that eating probiotic yoghurt helps (for you of course :D)

It's really unusual for an EBF baby to get constipated, and because breast milk is such an efficient way to feed, some babies dont poo more than once a week. His discomfort might just be wind, especially if he's then doing a normal poo. Does he burp well after feeds? I know many peole say you dont need to burp bf babies, but I always had to burp mine so I dont think this is great advice tbh.

Thanks, both - I've been poking around online and have come across lots of references to breastfed babies only pooing once a week.

I've been burping him halfway through and after every feed, whether he's feeding from breast or expressed into a bottle.

Although something did occur to me. We co-sleep, and during the night he only feeds from the breast. I roll onto my side and he rolls towards me so he never fully wakes up, and afterwards we both fall back to sleep without the daytime burping ritual.

Should I be getting up and burping him after his night feeds as well? I've only been refraining so far as I'm trying to slowly encourage him to sleep through and don't want to disturb him. It seems to be working as last night he fed at 1 am and then went until 7.30 am before his next feed (although he was awake on and off from 5ish doing his grunts).

Longest my EBF son went was 10 days :-)

I would try and burp him as thoroughly as you can even after night feeds (though I recall vividly trying to do everything to make sure he went to sleep ASAP after night feeds!) if he is showing windy symptoms though.

Good luck!

Tbh, I did used to have to burp DD after night feeds, pain in the butt though it is. Babies are born with very immature digestive systems and find it hard to get their wind up unless they're upright. I always used to try to sneak DD into her cot without a burp, and then regret it an hour later when she was still honking like an angry wilderbeast. The good news is that by around 9-12 weeks, their core strength improves and they find it much easier to get wind up.

DD was EBF and went 7 to 10 days without pooing. All changed once the solids were introduced!