Constipated Baby. - Round Rock,TX

Here is a link to a lot of good advice for "treating" this at home:
http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/constip.htm
I would certainly try the tummy massage, and other "exercises" before moving on to more "invasive" treatments. BTW, I used the rectal thermometer successfully, and it only took one or at most two times before the baby was back on schedule.
Good luck! and certainly try not to stress over this, she will sense it and it MAY contribute to the constipation.

Good grief! I cannot believe all the crazy responses you have gotten. Your baby is too young for fruit and juices, etc. I assume you have only fed her up to this point the cereal (which is fine to start at four months BTW)... you can wait until 6 months as others have suggested but the general guidelines are to start with cereal somewhere between 4-6 months.

I will tell you what our pediatrician told us when this subject came up. Babies at this age can be inconsistent with their BM's. Some days they may poop 7 times a day or they could go 7 days without pooping. Generally, it is not because they are constipated, but more likely that they are hitting a growth spurt. I took my daughter in to the doctor because she had not pooped in 3 days and I was terribly worried. He checked her abdomen to make sure she wasn't distended or that there wasn't any kind of blockage. He told me to call them back if she had still not gone after 5 days. At 5 days, she finally went. She was not constipated. It just looked like any other breast milk poop.

If you are concerned, yes, please do consult your pediatrician, but I am pretty confident they will tell you what I just told you. I am highly confident they would not tell you to introduce new foods or juices that your baby's system is not able to tolerate yet.

Give her a bottle with about 3 oz water and 1 oz white Karo syrup. Try that to see if it works first before calling the pedi. My mom suggested it for my son when he was a baby. The few times he got constipated, it worked like a charm within a few hours.

First, why cereal so early? Most babies, particularly breast fed, don't need anything else until at least 6 months. Cereal may be just a little too much for her little system. I would suggest taking the cereal away for another 2 months. I know it is fun to reach milestones, but this may be a little soon.

I would stop the cereal til she's older. She will do great on just your milk til 5 or even 6 months old.

To help her poop now, try some apples or pears. Or steep some prunes in boiling water, strain and cool and have her drink that.

But really there's no reason you have to start solids at 4 months. My pedi said to start baby on veggies St 6 months.

Good luck!

Dear Christina:

Usually a probiotic will resolve this issue. If you would like to give this a try I would go to www.anatomystery.com and ask for a recommendation.

Kim

There are three things I can think of that will help, and each one has its own "joys". First, you can use a rectal thermometer to help her get things started. My friend's son needed this almost every day for a while, and he eventually was fine by himself. Second, you can add pear sauce, pureed prunes, raisins, etc to the cereal to help her get things going. Third, there is a product called Miralax that can help with occasional irregularity. I've found that probiotics are great, but they can take a bit of time to regulate the system. If you use Miralax (a powder that dissolves in liquid), then use probiotics afterwards, you will take care of the constipation for both the short-term and the long-term

Good luck!

Put a drop (about the size of the tip of your little finger...pinkie finger)...of Dark Kayro Syrup into her bottle & let her drink it...usually wks like a charm! (dark is better b/c it has molasses in it & it's usually a great bowel mover!).

i took my daughter to the emergency room twice for constipation before, the dr told me that she wasnt constipated (thought she was cause of the cry) she had colic. Its normal for babies to sometimes go up to 5 days without a BM even if they were routine every other day. Try giving her 2 oz of warm water with a pinch of sugar, sounds weird i know but my mom told me to do that for my daughter and she had a BM within 2 hours.

What I used on my children when they were babies was tri glycerin suppositories over the counter. I was told they are safe and they worked. My youngest is 5 yrs old. Ask your Pediatrician first though.

Good luck to you and your baby.

As long as she's not hurting, and the consistancy is "scrambled egg" or looser she should be okay. It's okay if she goes a day or two between BM as long as those things are true. You can mix the cereal with either pear or white grape juice too if you are still worried about it. These suggestions all came from my pediatrician when my DD was small. Good luck!

My daughter will be 4 months on Saturday. Today was her first BM in a week. She's exclusively breastfed and I don't plan on starting cereal for another couple of months... I agree with the majority of the other answers. Stop the cereal for a couple days to see if it helps, try a little bit of prune juice, or the rectal thermometer. Those are the tricks that helped with my first born when he was a little bit older...

Good luck!

My daughter is almost 18 months and we've had issues with this off and on her whole life. Here's what has worked best for us starting from when she was younger:

100% prune joice diluted with water (1 oz prune, 2 oz water) given with the bottle
glycerine suppositories
baby prunes
now she will eat whole pitter prunes as well as the baby prunes which I still give her
100% tart cherry juice works also
good luck and feel free to email me with more detained questions.
____@____.com

I am using babies magic tea for my constipated baby and it is working great. My baby is now poops timely and with good thickness. Try it.

The dr. told me to feed my son the Ps -- Peaches, Pears, and Plums. They have PECTIN in them which help move things along. My son had similar issues and so I stopped feeding him rice cereal. Skipped the cereal and went on to the fruit. Used the cereal only as a thickener when I cooked him zuchinni or squash that was too runny when I blended it in the blender.

Are her stools hard or soft? If they're not hard, you're probably ok. It takes little bodies awhile to get used to new foods. Their system has to learn how to digest them. I would stop giving her cereal for a few days and see what happens. At 4 months, she doesn't need cereal at all. It might also be that her digestive system is just too immature for cereal right now. Most pediatricians don't recommend starting any type of solids until at least 6 months of age.
If her stools are hard, then definitely stop the cereal immediately. Go back to exclusively breastfeeding. Try cereal again in a few months when her system is more mature.