Constipation advice?

Hi there! My twins are 1 week adjusted age. One of my girls hasn't had a stool in six days. She's had a few smears, but that's all. She used to stool in every single diaper! She doesn't seem to be in any pain. I talked to her ped on Wednesday. He suggested we try 1 oz apple juice : 1 oz water. We did, and we still haven't seen any stool. She consumes breast milk for all feeds except 1 (one bottle of nutramigen per day). Has anyone been in a similar situation? Did anything help? Thank you!

 

Meara used to get constipated when she was that little. We had to 'stimulate' her to get her to go. Ug I shutter thinking about it today. You could use a rectal thermometer with lots of vaseline on it or your little finger. I hated to do it, but it did get things moving along.

If I were you, I'd probably call the pedi back and tell them you tried the juice and see what they recommend. GL!

 

Our girls have had some issues with constipation as well ... especially once we introduced some formula. We noticed that sometimes if we put a warm wet cloth on their bare bottoms, that sometimes helped along with moving their legs in a bicycle motion. Also, my MIL has done the rectal thermometer trick a few times but I'm not very comfortable with that one. When I asked my Pedi, they suggested putting a tablespoon of corn syrup in the morning bottle and evening bottle. The corn syrup has worked wonders for us but I don't know if your babies are using bottles. I agree with the PP to call your Pedi again. Six days seems like a long time. Good luck ... I know it's hard to watch them feeling uncomfortable.

 

My little girl did this a couple weeks ago. They say breastfed babies can go awhile without a stool, but it was not like her. She went 4 days without a poopy and I wouldnt have been worried except she was acting very fussy and uncomfortable. I did the rectal thermometer (just barely) and she had a poop the size of Mount McKinley and proceeded to follow it up with more massive diapers for the rest of the day!

 

My DS only poops once a week. He is strictly breastfed. The first month of his life he would poop 8-10 times a day. He is just now pooping sometimes more than once a week since I have started adding 2 solids a day. My DD is formula fed and when she used to get constipated a lot I would just give her a couple of ounces a water a day. I make her formula in batches so instead of 32 ounces of water and 16 scoops formula powder I would put 34 ounces water and 16 scoops formula powder. It always got her poop moving. Breastmilk has hardly no waste though so it is normal for them to not poop a lot.

 

AFter the few weeks, mine stopped pooping several times a day and then started pooping every 3-5 days. We had a stint of 7 days with Jonas and 10 days with Lucas (for which we were advised by our ped, after trying juice, to use a glycerin suppository). It's not that uncommon in breastfed babies...they use up all that goodness.

 

Don't worry if she isn't uncomfortable. We had the same situation with one girl and I determined she just metabolizes it all. My other daughter gets constipated because of thickener we use in EBM for reflux. 5 ml of prune juice in some EBM (up to twice a day) works wonders.

 

Thanks for your help! I'm hoping it's all because she's using the breast milk efficiently. I'll see if we get any results with the rectal thermometer.

Beth-What thickener do you use? My girls have reflux too. We don't thicken feeds right now, but we're considering it (though I don't want to exacerbate her constipation!).

 

We use Simply Thick. www.simplythick.com. I was desperate the other day because we hadn't gotten our order yet, so I used THick It from Walmart. We definitely didn't like it. It didn't seem to work as well. Plus it has extra calories and carbs in it, which I don't think she needs. Plus, I think it actually made her stools kind of green and runny. Ewwww.

 

Sorry that I can't read your other responses right now, and I hope I'm not repeating.

Have you tried warming the juice? Warm bath? Holding knees bent, gently pushed up against the belly? Rectal thermometer?

Good luck!

 

I'm not sure how old your babies are, actual age... for babies 6 weeks and older and BF'd, they are not considered constipated unless they have hard stools (like tootsie rolls). Infrequent stooling is not constipation, not like it is in adults.

Here is an article about it, hope this helps:
http://medelabreastfeedingus.com/tips-and-...-breastfed-baby

 

If she is on mainly breastmilk, babies can go up to a good week without a poopy diaper. That is completely normal! I had one like that and one who would have 2-3 messy diapers a day. If she isn't uncomfortable, then there shouldn't be an issue.

 

We had that problem and our doc. told us to use a tsp. of prune juice. It worked very quickly!

 

QUOTE(shamrocklily @ Mar 21 2008, 10:59 AM) [snapback]680772[/snapback]
Hi there! My twins are 1 week adjusted age. One of my girls hasn't had a stool in six days. She's had a few smears, but that's all. She used to stool in every single diaper! She doesn't seem to be in any pain. I talked to her ped on Wednesday. He suggested we try 1 oz apple juice : 1 oz water. We did, and we still haven't seen any stool. She consumes breast milk for all feeds except 1 (one bottle of nutramigen per day). Has anyone been in a similar situation? Did anything help? Thank you!

my pedi rec karo syrup 1/2 tsp each feed...worked for my premie

 

my DS was constipated also and my pedi said to give an ounce of prune juice to a 4 oz bottle. also i tried using a rectal thermometer with vaseline to stimulate him first. he also said to move his legs like he was riding a bycycle. also hold the legs up against the belly for a few seconds then put them down then up then down. gentle rubs on lower tummy area too. if its hard baby is constipated if not dont worry too much. the caro syrup i heard works too but never used it. he was so constipated once and nothing worked so doc told me to go to store and buy pediatric suppositories and give him one said it will take an hour and he will go

well as soon as i put it in he went so i fished through poop got it again and put it back in and he went more i kept doing this until he was all pooped out(LOL) man was that gross but i would do anything for them lol

 

My Pedi said breast fed babies can go up to two weeks (if they are breast feed exclusively) without a stool. It is because they are using up every part of the breastmilk and there is no waste. I'm a nurse and I'm cringing at the thought of using a rectal thermometer on an infant. Yes the moving the legs like on a bike, making clockwise circles on the tummy and lastly corn syrup (or sugar) dissolved in 30 ml of water. Don't sweat it though. Constipation is like someone mentioned tootsie rolls or rabbit turds -- anything else is not constipation.

Heather

 

Thanks for your replies! My worry is that my daughter isn't exclusively breastfed. She receives 1 bottle of formula per day (nutramigen). She receives breast milk the rest of the time. It's now been 7 days, and she's only had a few smears. I've tried the rectal thermometer and prune juice (1 oz prune juice : 1 oz water). Her smears have gotten a little larger, but I wouldn't call it a real stool. Still, my ped is unconcerned. My daughter is acting fine (not fussy at all). I'll be back in the ped office on Monday for their synagis shot. I'll discuss the constipation problem more then.

 

I wouldn't worry. We had what our Ped called a "slow pooper." One of my girls went about every 2 days and the other would go a week and even went 10 days once. She seemed really uncomfortable that time so we gave her a suppository and she filled up 3 diapers in a matter of minutes. I think with BF babies, they just digest so much of the BM that it is not all too uncommon for this to happen. We only had to give suppositories to her twice ... once she went 10 days and once 9 days. We never gave her juice or anything like that. When we started solids, she started pooping much more regularly ... I guess she just had more calories therefore more "waste."

 

One more thing ... I wouldn't count one bottle a day as the baby not being exclusively breastfed ... I think it is close enough =) Also, we used Fleet Pediatric suppositories. They are for 2+ years and it is a liquid. We would just squeeze in about half of it instead of using the whole tube.

 

Ditto pps - since she's getting mostly breastmilk, I wouldn't worry, even if it is a change from her usual pattern. BF babies can go a looong time without a poop, and that's normal. (But watch out when it comes! TSUNAMI!)

 

It's not constipation if there's no discomfort and the stools are normal (vs. hard and formed) when they come out, and it's totally normal for bf babies to go up to ~10 days without a stool. Just watch out when it does come. One of my boys is a 10 day pooper, and my DD was, too. You don't need to intervene at all, unless, like i said, there is discomfort or the stools are hard and formed.