Worried Mom Needs Assurance About Infant Bowel Movements

Hello H.,
My son had problems pooping and we thought it was constipation but he just didnt know how to. He kept his legs straight so we moved them in a bicycle motion and whenever he was trying to poop we tried holding his legs close to his body so his but was opened and that did the trick. Now he knows to pull his legs up when hes going to poop. Hope that works!

M.

Hi H.,
Have you tried laying him on his back and exercising his legs like he is riding a bicycle?
It worked for my son! :-)

hi H.! i have a 9-week-old so i'm only just half a step ahead of you!! i had the same problem. my normally cheery baby suddenly started crying uncolntrollably, grunting & straining while trying to poop around 3 weeks old. he didn't have those days every day but when he did it lasted all day!!! everyone i talked to said it's natural, they just do that, some people said just wait it out, others suggested karo syrup or suppositories or juice... but all those things were really treatments for constipation & my baby wasn't constipated! when he did manage a poop it was a perfectly normal healthy mustard yellow soupy poop!(it's like pellets when it's really constipation) i decided i didn't want to medicate him when nothing was really wrong. in the end i found that if i fed him up till he was nice & full, then laid him on his back on my lap & rubbed his tummy, that seemed to work as well as anything else to "get things moving". just hang in there, everything will "come out okay"! nick's 9 wks now & only in the last week & 1/2 or so has he resolved himself to one big healthy & (relatively) untroubled poop a day. (usually while he's eating lunch!!!) good luck!

My daughter had a similar issue for a long time. She was breastfed so there wasn't much we could do to feed her differently, but we rubbed her belly and sometimes used the thermometer to stimulate some activity. The doctor kept reassuring us that as long as the poop isn't hard, she's not constipated. She did get consipated a lot when she got older (5mo+) and prunes usually did the trick.

H.:

You are getting lots of wonderful advice!!! Suppositories and enemas can be very damaging to a child so young, and he can become dependent on them and won't be able to have a BM without their aid.
Stimulating him with a rectal thermometer once in a while will help him "push" and 2 oz of pear juice mixed with 2 oz water will act like a laxative and it's easy and natural. If you're breastfeeding and his BM's are loose and seedy as they should be then it's okay to skip some time. If he's formula fed then maybe you should switch formulas. Look at his BM's and judge their texture, that can tell you a lot.
A little massage on the right side of his tummy can help too.
Trust your pediatrician unless your "mommy sense" tells you somthing is wrong and then maybe you need to look into a new pedi if you don't feel yours is meeting your needs.
BEst of Luck!

Hi H.,

My older child has had some constipation problems. I think that it is somewhat common for infants too. I don't know what tests were done, but you may want to ask your doctor about lactose intolerance. I think it can cause constipation. If that is the problem, there may be special formulas your pediatrician can recommend to address the problem.

Try not to worry too much; I'm sure it will be ok.

Becky

I was breastfeeding my daughter for about 5 months then switched to formula. I noticed that when she was on Emfamil Lipil she could not poop. She would strain and eventually a large hard bowel movement would come out. I felt so bad for her. I switched to Similac Advance and she dosent have those problems anymore.

Hi, my name is Mandi, when my daughter was a baby she had trouble pooping sometimes. I tried to stay away from the suppositories because they can become reliant on them and not be able to go on their own. Sometimes a couple of ounces of apple juice helps and since he is so young you would probably want to dilute it with water. One ounce of water to one ounce of apple juice. Also just giving a couple of ounces of water two to three times a day may help. Dehydration also plays a part in constipation be sure that your son has six to eight wet diapers every day. If you have any questions about my advice just ask. Good luck!!

Not that young, but my daughter had serious problems going when she started eating table food and snacks at about 4-months. My doctor gave a perscription powder that goes in her juice/water and it worked. she was on it for a month twice a day then i started just once a day and now she's off it completely and has no problems. She's 18 months old now. If you doctors won't do anything you should get a second opionion. If you want my doctors name send me an e-mail,she's really good. ____@____.com

my daughter had the same problem....i diluted her formula w/ a little bit of extra water and gave her a little bit of water in between. i would get a second opinion if you want.

My son had this same problem until he was about 10-12 weeks old. If you're worried about giving him suppositories, what we used to do is lie him on his back and push his knees up to his tummy-basically teaching him how he needs to pull his legs up and squeeze down on his tummy muscles to force the poop out. It will take a while and requires a lot of patience, but if your a SAHM it shouldn't be a problem. Good luck!

If your son is breastfeeding, he may not need to have bowel movement every day. Absolutely every part of breastmilk is digestable so there is very little left over. My son is over 2 and constipation is something we have battled from birth. If you give him any formula, you can mix any 100% fruit juice in. I would suggest starting with a small amount of juice and the rest water until you see how it works. As far as which kind, you will have to experiment, all kids are different. My son will get diarrhea from apple juice now but didn't as an infant. He does better with fruit punches or white grape juice. He still has to have about 4 oz of fruit juice every day to go. As he gets older he can have juice to drink or you make cereal with juice. Giving him extra water is good suggestion, just be careful no to fill him up on empty calories. A few ounces wont hurt, he needs to have something with nutrition it for most all his daily fluid intake for now. Try not to stress or get hung up on it. All of the other suggestion here are great-exercise, belly massage, stimulation with a thermometer and trust your instincts.

Wow, the things we mums have to go through with our babies! You indicated that some tests were done, but not what type or by what type of Dr. There are handy old tricks that do the job, as many have outlined. I would only recommend that you make sure everything is working correctly, and that your child doesn't have any allergies to anything, or any gastrointestinal problems. For that, I would see a pediatric gastroenterologist, ask them to test to make sure no food allergies, or environmental allergies, and that all is working the right way. If so, than rely on all the suggestions so many wonderful mums have made.

My child had severe food allergies....soy, cows milk, environmental allergies too (mountain cedar, mold, dust mites, we live in Texas...pretty much, the entire state). So, there we were using an incredibly expensive formula because I could not produce any milk, my child had acid refulx, was in pain from the allergies irritating his intestinal tract...we had so much fun...he never slept. Once we got the things he was allergic to out of his diet (fruit juice, etc too), and let him detox for a while, and slowly added things one at a time with careful monitoring, well, live has gotten a lot better. When we fed him rice cereal for the first time, he had a solid BM that was bloody. Off we ran to the drs office, no blood in the stool, no blood in the intestine, no one could figure anything out...but no more rice cereal for a while. Our babies systems are so sensitive, making sure the plumbing works right and the input is not irritating are the first steps. Good luck getting sleep and try not to worry. As so many have said, your instincts are valid, don't ignore them.

My daughter is almost 7 months and had this problem too. She is formula fed and what we started doing was giving her some diluted infant apple juice. She still gets about 4 oz. of apple juice (not diluted anymore) per day. You also might want to try not giving any enimas and just stimulating the anal muscles. This is something that my doctor told us to do also. I just took a Q-tip and inserted it just a small way in and moved it around...this will help stimulate the muscles...this also worked for us. Good luck...I know that it is frustrating especially with a little one.

I have heard of this and what your doctor recommended a lot. Even for my own babies. As long as when he does poop it isn't constipated then I would try not to worry too much. If he is straining, seems painful, and has blood, then I would give him 4 oz water with a little drop or two of light corn syrup, just as daily morning snack. (back when my 12 yr old was a baby this was a pretty common practice to keep bowels regular-my pedi did suggest this for my now 8 month old-so it must still be used by some pedis) They can get too reliant on suppositories and then not try on their own so I think you are right to be watchful.

All babies are different...one of my kids poops several times of day while another only once. So keep that in mind too.

Overall though, us mommies have lots of instincts about our babies. Never let any dr or anyone try to downplay that. (That and never say never are my two new mommy advices! Ha!)

Enjoy your baby boy.

I am a SAHM and my oldest son had that same problem. He is now 9yrs old. But when he was born I would say up until he was about 8weeks I would stimulate him to have a bowl movement. Then one day I switched Peds because I had moved and his new doctor told me to stop doing that. He will go when he needs to go. If I kept doing that for him he will eventually depend on me to stimulate him and he would never do it on his own. So I stopped and he did. You should try to stop and give him a chance to do it on his own. But like the other mothers said, if you lay him on his back and moves his legs up and down towards his tummy. That is a good movement for him to help him go on his own. I also did what one of the other moms said and inbetween bottles I would give him a bottle of water. Hope this is of some help to you. Hope everything goes well for your little one. Keep us posted.

H.,
It's completely normal for a 6-week-old baby to poop only rarely -- even only once or twice a week, especially if he's formula fed.

Please, please please stop giving him suppositories and enemas! This can be very damaging to the sensitive tissues, and it also creates more of a problem, because his body begins to depend on your 'help' and he can't 'teach himself how to go' as your pediatrician says.

L.
Parenting Coach and Newborn Specialist

I recommend "THE BABY BOOK" by Dr. Sears. In it there's a suggestion of a particular way to rub the tummy that helps move things along. It worked like a wonder drug on my daughter when she was little. She was breastfed - I don't know if you are breastfeeding, but if you are, remember that breastmilk is much more efficient that formula so they're tends to be less of it (with my daughter it was less frequency but with my niece it was less volume). His little tummy is still learning how to work, give it time and help make him as comfortable as possible in the meantime.

I saw where a mom suggested pushing his legs up. With his legs pushed up, you need to stimulate his anal muscles at that time. Just a qtip and a bit of KY in a bit and move around or if you feel more comfy, take his temp, it will have the same effect. By doing this over and over several times a day he will learn the feeling of the tight abdominal muscles with the anal stim and will learn.

Good luck,
C.

I don't know if you are breastfeeding or formula feeding.

If you are formula feeding, make sure you are diluting the formula with the proper amount of water. Maybe your baby needs a different type of formula (something easier to digest, and therefore easier to get out). Also, don't put any cereal in with the bottle, my baby had harder stools when she started cereal at 4 months.

I know with breastfeeding, what you eat can effect the milk your baby takes in. So what ever "stops you up" may also "stop up" the baby.

Lastly, the only other advice I can give you is to make sure your baby is eating/drinking enough (2.5 ounces for each pound of weight per day is what I read on a website called BabyCenter). So a 10lb baby should eat around 25 ounces total per day.