Paed suggested early weaning due to reflux and constipation

[CADS]

Hi

Just wanted some feedback.

DD is 4 mnths old. Her Paed suggested I start weaning her because of her silent reflux and constipation. She gets very gassy and constipated if she doesn't have a bowel movement daily and the paed recommended that I use a gylcerin suppostory (spelling?) to encourage her to go. If she goes longer than 1 day, her stools become very hard, dry and make her bottom bleed. I don't know what to do. I'm worried she will become dependant on the gylcerin and am not convinced that weaning her now will help the situation. She is currently having Neocate hypoallergenic formula which is very broken down so should not be making her this constipated.

Has anyone had this problem and did weaning onto fruit and veg help at all.

Thanks

dd's reflux got worse if anything when moving onto solids, but then it also coincided with her becoming more mobile. Others report a benefit. not sure it would help constipation, would have thought a liquid diet was better, and you need to avoid foods like banana and broccoli which can make wind and constipation worse.

I was also advised to wean ds early due to reflux, and after months giving him gaviscon in his bottles we stopped gving it to him within 2 weeks of starting the weaning.

IT WORKED FOR US.

Don't know about the constipation though. Plenty of water?

Early weaning worked for us too re the reflux. I shouldn't think a glycerine suppository would make her dependant as it works on the hardened stool right at the end of her system. I gave ds a little bit of a lactulose when he was constipated at about that age, but only once or twice as I believed this would make him dependent. Could you try giving her more water?

Thanks for replying.

She won't drink water and paed doesn't think it will help to increase her water intake. I didn't want to give her diluted juice because of her reflux and her age.

Weaning definitely seemed to help with ds's reflux when he was a baby.

Re constipation - my mom seems to thinks fruit and veg will help but I'm worried it will increase her gas more, and she is pretty bad now.

Any other suggestions on the constipation and gas?

I was advised this about reflux too but it did not help my son at all. In fact it made it worse as we now had to clean up multi-coloured sick instead of milk.

We have just found that pear puree is good for constipation in our 4 month old. Just a teaspoon does the trick. Pears are quite bland and dont seem to make our little one windy.

After reading your fist post, I thought of diluted prune juice but I have I just read that you aren't keen to give her juice because of the reflux... Our DD1 (now 7) was very constipated as a baby and the weaning made it much worse. We opted to give her prune juice in a bottle everyday and it made a big difference.

I agree that it is not necessarily the fomula that is causing the constipation as DD was exclusively BF and despite the pead's claim that BF babies do not get constipated this was not the case for dd1. (Turns out that she does have a milk protein intolerance so perhaps I consumed too much dairy while BFing her.)

We tried the glycerine suppository route but it didn't soften her stool as much as stimulate her bowels so she would scream the house down as she passed her hard formed stools. I coudn't bear to see her so uncomfortable.

Thanks again.

I'm trying to find out more about the reflux and might give diluted prune juice a go.

Cadmum - how diluted did you make yours. Also, we have the same problem with the suppository if she we don't use them everyday. Obiviously, this isn't a good thing but lactulose and sodium picosulfate (prescribed by paed) give her bad tummy ache and add to her gas problems.

It seems to me that we started with 1 part juice to 3 parts water and eventually (towards 10 months or so) it was 1/2 and 1/2. It really made a significant improvement to the quality of her life; she was miserable when she was constipated.

HTH