BM question....

my 4 week old twins have been constipated these last few days but one of them finally went yesterday afternoon but his brother still hasn't gone and it's been 2 days! should i be concerned? what should i do??

i've tried the bicycle motions with his legs and gently massaging his belly but nothing is helping and he's just trying so hard.

 

this happened to Stella around the same time. she didnt go for three days and finally we took her to the Dr. who told us that 1. breastfed babies tend to go less often, and 2. it's perfectly okay if they go a week without pooping. she said if we were concerned we should do an anal massage with our fingers or with a thermometer. it worked!

 

My girls also did the same thing except they only went one day without going. It was amazing though because they started this at the same time. Two days after coming home they both went from pooping all the time to once a day. My Dr. told me the same thing that some might go a week without pooping. And to massage the area or use a thermomter. My one girl did start to poop regularly again a few weeks later but the other is still a lot of times just once a day. If you are concerned I'd call the Dr. office.

 

I would call your doctor first but I know when my older kids were babies and got constipated that I gave them a couple of ounces of water. We also did prune juice but I don't remember how old they were when we did this.

 

I would call your Ped and see what he or she recommends. We did 1/2 ounce of pear juice to 1/2 ounce of water. That seemed to do the trick.

 

I would also check with the doctor & see what they recommend. Are you sure he's constipated? Mine would sometimes go for a couple of days without having a bm but they were fine. Does he seem to be in pain?

 

The key to constipation is not how often, it's whether they are in pain or not.

Remember babies do an awful lot of pushing and grunting to get that poop out. It's because they haven't learned how hard they have to push to get it out yet. So while it may look like he's struggling, it could be just him learning how to work those muscles.

If he's crying in pain while struggling to poop, then it's probably constipation and you should call your ped for advice. :hug:

 

My boys were very constipated around that age, sometimes it would be 7 or 8 days before anything happened. We tried everything (prune juice, karo syrup, water). I preferred giving them a couple of ounces of water once a day over the other stuff but it can take several hours for it to work. What works best for instant relief is to buy the pediatric glycerin suppositiories and just give a little sliver of a suppository and it will work within minutes. I had to do this occasionally when I knew that they were so uncomfortable and needed relief right away.