6 mo old, very constipated, what to do or give?

[RedOakMomma]

I'm writing this for a friend. Her 6 month-old is really distressed from constipation today, and she's not sure what to give him. He's almost entirely breastfed, but does get 6-8 oz. of (milk-based) formula while at daycare.

What do you give a 6-m.o. for constipation? He's not eating solids yet, so doesn't have the mouth skills to eat pureed prunes or something. What works?

Any BTDT advice would be greatly appreciated...I'll be calling her in a little bit with whatever advice I can gather.

Thanks!

[song_of_the_soule]

My oldest child had very low muscle tone as a baby and some gastrointestional issues as well. What the doctor had me do was to lubricate a thermometer, and take her temp anally. It almost always caused a bowel movement and is the least intrusive thing that can be done at that age. You cannot really give any prune or apple juice at that age. I hope this helps

[dislocator3972]

Can either you or your friend call a ped for advice? Or an advice nurse? I'm sure this is common enough that they would have a standard answer and some suggestions.

What about sitting the baby in waist deep warm water? I've read that Dr. Sears recommended doing this in one of his books (haven't seen it in his books myself, but I haven't looked). I would think a little warm water enema would be pretty harmless too, but you would have to be careful to be extremely gentle and you probably wouldn't want to use much water.

????

[tzs]

i had a friend who did the thermometer thing as well.

i'd double check the prune juice thing. i think you could cup feed some prune juice. i've definately heard it done with even younger babies but whether or not it was "appropriate" and to whose standards i'm not sure.

[tzs]

oh...also the thing where you put them on their back and push their knees up towards their bellies and make cycling motions, alternately pushing the legs up towards the belly and down. it helps with discomfort but also i believe helps them poop by putting their bodies into kind of a "squat" position.

[LiamsMommy]

My dd is having the same problem. She has been straining for the last day and a half Tonight she was crying and grunting while trying to fall asleep. Earlier today passed a small amount of blood streaked mucous. Ugh should have known better pediatrician told me to start cereal. Other then that she is exclusively bf'd. I skipped the solids today. What do you all think?

[ShwarmaQueen]

With DD we used infant's Fleet laxative, inserted for a few seconds, then it came out on it's own and things started moving out shortlythereafter.

[song_of_the_soule]

Originally Posted by LiamsMommy

My dd is having the same problem. She has been straining for the last day and a half Tonight she was crying and grunting while trying to fall asleep. Earlier today passed a small amount of blood streaked mucous. Ugh should have known better pediatrician told me to start cereal. Other then that she is exclusively bf'd. I skipped the solids today. What do you all think?

Do i have this straight? You feed your baby solids, but not cereal and the doc told you to start cereal? I am not sure how old your baby is. Generally babies are fine with BFing until at least 6 months, sometimes even a little longer and being totally healthy. This blood tinged mucus thing, yowch! I would bring your little in right away! That could be something VERY serious, or it could be a crack, either way, you need a doctor.

[annarose999]

my 4mo recently just went two weeks without pooping. we regularly spend time cycling and doing baby massage and taking hot baths - even did the thermometer thing - and nothing was working. at the two week mark i couldn't help it anymore so i gave her a glycerin enema. within minutes lo pooped a LOT of green poop and continued pooping throughout the day, then promptly fell asleep.

the next day i realized that i had stopped giving her baby probiotics about a month prior. don't know why i stopped, i probably just forgot because lo was doing so well. i promptly started them up again and now she's back on track.

[blessedwithboys]

Originally Posted by song_of_the_soule

Do i have this straight? You feed your baby solids, but not cereal and the doc told you to start cereal? I am not sure how old your baby is. Generally babies are fine with BFing until at least 6 months, sometimes even a little longer and being totally healthy. This blood tinged mucus thing, yowch! I would bring your little in right away! That could be something VERY serious, or it could be a crack, either way, you need a doctor.

i read that post to mean she began cereal as the 1st solid per the dr and after seeing that it caused an issue went ahead and skipped it.

OP, all the suggestions given are great, but why cant the mama judt drop the artificial milk? that alone might work. see if maybe she can make time to pump enough to make up for the oz lost. betcha that'll do the trick