Poor constipated baby...

I am sure my ds is constipated-is there anything I can give him? He hasnt had a poopy diaper in over 24 hours and he cries like he hurts, his stomach feels kind of hard. He has been on formula with rice added (Enfimil AR)for acid reflux and I think it has made him constipated, his bm's are much more solid then my dd who is fed breast milk.
Thanks!

 

It may be the rice added that makes him constipated, but if you need to have it in there, you need to have it in there. I diluted about 1/2 oz of prune juice w/ 1/2 oz of water and gave it to mine, but they were a little older than yours...I think they were 2 or 3 months. I was going to suggest pears and pear juice, until I saw how old they are. Not sure what to tell you, but maybe some other experienced moms will have an idea.

 

Call your pedi and they will tell you what is safe to give them. When that young my pedi always had me use a thermometer, you insert it about 1/2 inch into the rectum and make small figure of 8 movements, it helps to relax the anal spinchter and get things moving. It worked every time for my DS.

 

You can try giving him a warm bath to relax the rectum which may allow the poop easier passage, don't be surprised if he poops in the tub or right after, or not at all sorry anything can happen with this one. you may also lube up a thermometer, or some mommies have said their Dr. says cotton swab, with aquaphor or vaseline and insert into his rectum like you were taking his temp. gently moving around and usually tho poop just starts coming out, and lots of it. the other thing you can try is feeding him smaller amounts of formula more often.
good luck we still suffer from awful constipation off and on and I remember the early days it was not fun watching them struggle to poop, let alone how uncomfortable they were.

 

My son was like that even earlier ... 3-4 months ... my pedi told me to give him 1-3 oz of water (between bottles) and it always worked like a charm!

Good luck!

 

QUOTE(xavier2001 @ Feb 2 2008, 12:33 PM) [snapback]602271[/snapback]
Call your pedi and they will tell you what is safe to give them. When that young my pedi always had me use a thermometer, you insert it about 1/2 inch into the rectum and make small figure of 8 movements, it helps to relax the anal spinchter and get things moving. It worked every time for my DS.


Rice cereal clogged up my DD as well. You can also use a q-tip rather than a rectal thermometer, and put a little vaseline on it! I works instantaneously!! My pedi also suggested I dilute apple juice (1/2 water 1/2 juice) to keep things moving until her stools are soft again. Theres nothing worse than seeing your little one in pain, I totally know how you feel!

 

Can he have breastmilk? I would give him a few bottles of that, it is a GREAT natural laxative.

HTH

 

When my DS was 1 mo old, he got so plugged that we ended up using 1/2 oz apple juice & 1/2 oz water. You have to be careful on water intake in infants under 6 mos old, so that's why we went with juice. My doc also said the total juice/water mixture should equal the amount in ounces that your baby is old (like 2 oz for a 2 mo old). Being that yours are under a month, I'd talk to your pediatrician to see what they recommend. I'm not sure if juice would be detrimental when that young. We found apple juice didn't really work well, so we ended up switching to pear juice & that worked great. Now that we're older, we just spoon some prunes in his mouth & he 'explodes' within a day . GL! It's awful having your little one plugged up!

 

Our pediatrician recommended clear Karo syrup. Mix 2 teaspoons with an ounce of warm water and stir or shake really well until dissolved. If they won't drink it, feed it by syringe or dropper. It hypes them up a little but it works.

 

Mine were bf and when I had to give them formula it always backed them up. 24 hours isn't too bad, babies can go for up to a week without pooping sometimes. You can try diluted pear or apple juice but mine would never even take more that a couple sips. I would try the thermometer trick I had luck with that a few times. I ALWAYS thought mine were uncomfortable from constipation but actually babies that age can just be fussy, give him a little time to adjust to the formula, he may end up only going every couple days now. As mine got older and started getting more used to formula suppliments they got more regular. Hope your little one gets some relief :hug99: I second the breast milk suggestion, if he can have it that will probably do it.

 

Our pediatrician recommended also putting karo syrup in the formula. We've tried and found it helpful to heat up 4oz of water and put 1tsp of karo syrup in it. Let it cool and give the baby 1oz of it in a bottle. Usually has my DD going within a couple of hours.

 

Thanks for the advise everyone...we did mix some breast milk with his formula and he projectile vomited it immediately however, he also pooped immediately too. I wish that I could feed him breast milk-my dd is exclusively feeding on breast milk but my poor little guy has to have something thicker or else he doesnt keep it down-he was losing weight a week after he was born pretty rapidly. Hopefully soon he will be able to tolerate it as I know it all around better for him and the extra bonus it that it is free!!!
Thanks again for all your help!

 

QUOTE
my poor little guy has to have something thicker or else he doesnt keep it down


Have you asked your pedi if he could have EBM with some rice cereal mixed in? I've heard a lot of cases of reflux babies doing well on thickened EBM. The breastmilk might help counteract the effects of the rice.

 

My poor baby has been constipated for the last three days. Today I gave him three bottles of breast milk for three feedings in a row...and finally it came out watery. They've been taking soy formula with cereal and it backed one up so far.

 

QUOTE(Lesley Anne @ Feb 2 2008, 03:10 PM) [snapback]602235[/snapback]
I am sure my ds is constipated-is there anything I can give him? He hasnt had a poopy diaper in over 24 hours and he cries like he hurts, his stomach feels kind of hard. He has been on formula with rice added (Enfimil AR)for acid reflux and I think it has made him constipated, his bm's are much more solid then my dd who is fed breast milk.
Thanks!


Call your pediatrician about it, but I was concerned about my son at one point and they said to put a little prune juice in with the breastmilk... I actually didn't end up needing to, he pooped about an hour after I called!