When to contact GP for constipation

[iamverytired]

Just considering the weekend and that if I don't ring the GP today my baby (7m) will not have been for a week if I leave it till Monday. He has been straining for days and passed one or two very small hard pebbles the last few mornings but not crying or distressed yet. Only seems more uncomfortable when feeding at night before bed but that's probably just because he's tired. He is breastfed and I have given him prunes/pears/plums a lot and water with every meal. Just not sure if it'll resolve suddenly or if it's already too hard for him and he needs help before he starts crying in pain? He has various food intolerances so before weaning we were on approx 5 runny nappies a day so this is new for me!

I would go to the pharmacist, you can get lactulose, and/or glycerin suppositories which will get things moving! Not sure if you need a prescription but worth a chat with the pharmacist anyway. I remember doing the same for ds1, he had CMPI and various other allergies as well. Anyway the suppository worked a treat stand well clear

Monday is a bank holiday so decide this morning if you’re going to call

Is not unreasonable to ask for a GP opinion because a pharmacist may be reluctant to make a recommendation or a baby under 1.

@DinosaurDiana good point!

I guess I can try the pharmacy and ring 111 if I need to. I don't feel like 4 days is that long really considering he's not in pain. I've got till 2pm to decide as that's last telephone appointments at my surgery!

If you're worried I'd speak to someone.

Ds2 was bf and did similar when we started weaning. He was ok and I never gave him anything for it but before weaning he would go 2 weeks between poos quite comfortably so a totally different baseline.

I found removing dairy helped but given what you've said about allergies you've probably already tried that

@iamverytired same situation here. May I ask, how did you get on? Did things resolve by themselves? I'm contemplating calling GP if my 6 months old DS won't poop in the next day or so.

I spoke to the HV and she said to call the GP as we are breastfeeding and had pellet poo! Got movicol which did the trick the next day

Thank you for letting me know how you got on. Just as I sent the previous post, mine has done a poop. Will know for the future.