When does the constipation go away?

[fififrog]

hi all,

Just started DD on fruit and veg two weeks ago when she reached 5 months. So far she's had two bouts of seriously bad constipation, today's made me cry :-(

Not so much after advice on how to cure it (have read all the old threads and with interest the current one about apple as hv told me to give her apple but I'd also read about the pectin). DD happily guzzles water and seems to quite like prunes.

What I want to know is, if your dc had constipation issues when roughly did they go away? Was it with time or move to more varied diet?

Also interested to know at what age LO's stop being bothered by wind.

Thanks!

fifi how many meals a day does she have? If it is more than one I would reduce the meals or stop weaning altogher for a couple of weeks.

Are you bf or ff and do you offer water with the meals?

Also, do you do purees, blw or a combination?

Hi Jilted,

I was worried that I might be feeding her too much, so I did cut down to one smaller meal a day for week 2 but two HVs independently told me i shouldn't worry about the amount of food and just to keep going, so she's on two now. The first episode was associated with banana, not sure what caused this latest one.

She is bf, and drinks a fair bit of water with her solids. And currently mostly purée but am giving her sticks of melon cucumber etc also.

Anyway, as I said, I will work to reduce the chances of it reoccurring but wondered from parents who have suffered similar whether it just got gradually easier with time or does it suddenly improve when they are ready to get more nutrition from solids than milk, for example. and in particular, for how long will I have to be careful with her meals.

Thanks

Giving a bf an hour before solids is recommended. This will not only make sure that she gets most of her nutrition from your milk, but also help with the constipation.

If I were you, I'd avoid foods like banana at the moment, cut down to one meal per day until the constipation eases and only offer finger food for the one meal.

Its a great time to wean though as there are some lovely fruits and veg about. Why not try her with slices of pear or nectarine, let her feed herself and see if they help her situation.

Other things you can try for constipation are baby massage, a bath, feeding when she's uncomfortable and no nappy time.

Is she crying in pain or just uncomfortable when she's pooing?

Hope it gets better soon.

Thanks jilted!

Can anyone answer my question though about how long this phase lasts? Loads of people have said to me "yeah my dc had that to begin with" but nobody seems to be able to tell me when or why it stopped.

Cheers

Hi Fififrog, DS is 30 weeks, I started weaning at 23 weeks and he was constipated on and off for about 3 weeks. He was not crying, but was clearly uncomfortable. Dried apricots soaked in water seem to help him. Also, I would avoid rice in any form until it gets better, rice and banana are very binding.

HTH

Would add eggs to that too.

Many babies simply don't get constipated when weaning so its hard for people to say how long it will last with your LO.

Thanks bankholiday!