9 Month old-Not drinking enough & constipated

[EmmaKateLouise]

My 9 month old baby girl is not drinking enough and is having very very hard (rabbit-dropping like) poos, which is cries during and after!
She has about 4ozs of formula in a morning, with her breakfast, then maybe another 4ozs (max) during the day and similar on an evening before bed. We try giving her fruit juice, water, even cow's milk, during the day and at mealtimes, out of a spout cup, a non-spill beaker and a bottle, but she won't take anything. She just clamps her lips shut and turns her head away.
I'm at a loss as what to do next. Does anyone have any advice on what is the best way to get a baby to drink, as it's awful to see her in so much pain.

Poor DD. No advice i'm afraid. Maybe you will get a response if you repost in breast and bottle feeding? Best wishes.

My DD was very similar at 9 months. It's awful to see them struggle and not be able to do anything. You could try giving her 'watery' foods like courgette and pear. The only thing that worked for my DD was to give her 2 prunes a day and that keeps her moving.

As for drinks I gave her a very basic beaker with a rubbery teet that she had to bite on to get fluid out. After a few weeks playing with that I moved to a free flowing beaker. She seemed to need from bottle to beaker in stages. She doesn't drink tonnes now but she does have something at each meal.

I can recommend playing around with the beaker too, drink from it yourself, look at her through it etc. Just to make it a bit of fun.

My DD is nearly 7 months and has been constipated since she started on solids. For ages she refused water from any receptacle and I struggled to work out why. Finally, I twigged when I tasted the cooled boiled water from the kettle that I had been offering- it was v metallic tasting (we live in a very hard water area too). Now I boil water once in a pan (so not limescale encrusted) and leave it in the fridge for use the next day. And she gulps it down- hooray!

She has been on prunes and lactulose for weeks and is still crying when she does a poo- once babies get constipated they start withholding poos and the problem remains. Also, tummy massage, bicycling legs, vaseline round the bum -to ease passing- and warm baths help (get ready to fish poos out of the the water though)!

HTH

I always find oranges get my little ones going. DS3 is 9mths and been sucking a segment or two of orange since he started blw and it seems to keep him regular. I sympathise tho, I have been through it all 5yrs ago with ds1, it's horrible to see them suffer.

We also found lying little one down on their back and cycling their legs can help encourage them to go, not sure why.

Can you get more fluids into her through her food? Watery foods like wendyh suggested, soft fruits and soups etc?

When DD went through her no water phase I found that she would happily take her vitamin drops from a syringe, so I gave her water from that as well.

A RL mum I know had to give her DS water on a spoon.

DD gets a little consitpated every now and then still. I give pear, apple and prunes.