Can someone give me the 411 on infrequent bowel movements?

[lellian]

Hi Mamas,

DD is 10 months old. LOVES her food. She eats mostly what we eat because she likes to feed herself. Food from the jar is a very, very distance second to what she wants to eat on any given day. She loves eggs for breakfast, we nurse at lunch, she has a snack of sorts in the afternoon, and dinner is maybe organic mac and cheese with fish, or maple glazed tofu, or ravioli with prune sauce.

 I know every baby is different but DD has ONE bm once a week! Her doctor didn't seem to concerned about this, but yesterday she grabbed the chair in the kitchen and turned bright red pushing while screaming her head off. SCREAMING. Her bm was very hard. Is this because she isn't going enough? Am I feeding her the wrong things? I tried diluted prune juice last night, and every night she gets a couple of spoon full of prunes because she has a pill she has to take at dinner time and I mash it in with some prunes, but it hasn't affected her at all.

I feel horrible. I must be doing this all wrong for her to be in such pain, and to be so backed up. I'm certain I have no idea what I'm doing.

Thoughts appreciated.

[PatioGardener]

Oh mama, that sounds awful for you both!

How often are you nursing?  It sounds like she may need more fluid (as hard stool is constipation), and breastmilk is perfect to loosen things up and to hydrate (baby and her poop!)

If I were you, I'd back off on the solids a little and try to increase her nursing sessions.  Hope things improve soon!

[Knitting Mama]

It sounds like she needs more fiber to keep regular, and the best way to get more fiber is fresh fruit (except bananas, which can be constipating). Try adding sliced pears to her breakfast or her snack. Pears are great for alleviating constipation.

[twobears]

I added powdered probiotics to my 10 mo's diet and it really helped him.

[lellian]

Thanks mamas. I was up all night worrying about her poops. How pathetic is that? DD nurses about 4-5 times a day, sometimes more and sometimes less. I'm going to head to Whole Foods later to pick up some pears, and to ask about probiotics. I thought her baby yogurt was taking care of that?

[cyclamen]

Soo, we had a similar issue going until my DD was probably 14-15 months old, and I'm not really sure what the problem was, but we took milk and wheat out of her diet (& mine) for a few weeks... there was an immediate improvement.  I'm talking she had totally loose stools with undigested food in them one day, then clay color marble poops, horrific screaming, writhing, and blood another day.  It was worst after she would drink plain milk.  She wouldn't poop for days, then when she did it was awful, like rocks, and obviously really painful for her.

Two or three days after we quit milk and wheat, she was having perfect, easy brown poops, everything completely digested.   I was also feeling better.  (For a while one day I'd have gross diarrhea, then constipation... sorry if that's TMI, but I had no idea what was going on, I'd never had digestion problems before my daughter was born.  Anyhow that's a possible intolerance symptom, I learned.)

With my daughter I think part of the problem is that we needed more good yeasts and bacterias in our diet, otherwise we were having some troubles digesting certain kinds of food.  We both took anti-yeast medicine when she was around 3 months old (I had diflucan, and she got the banana flavored stuff.. nystatin?) because drs thought we had thrush.  It didn't occur to me that these medicine upset the balance as much as antibiotics.

I don't know if we'll totally be able to go back to eating whatever we want, but maybe!  Now that it's been about a month off (I switched to giving her bone broths to drink instead of a milk substitute...plus lots of pears!), I've tried kefir (good) and sourdough (not sure... ).  So now she's trying her first kefir since I had a good reaction to it.  Hopefully it will help her.  If not, we'll back off and give her belly a little more time to grow and heal.

Also have you tried belly massage for her?  That seems to help keep stuff moving.

My doctor also acted like constipation is totally normal, but TBH, I question that.  If I give my daughter a certain kind of food and it constipates her, and then I take it away, and she is fine... that tells me to just stop giving it to her.  So no more plain milk, that's for sure.  We'd only been giving it to her to help her gain weight, but I don't think it was helping that either.

Yogurt is good but I guess the bacteria don't colonize your stomach.  Supposedly the bacteria and yeasts in homemade kefir do.  I imagine probiotic capsules are similar?

Anyhow, good luck!  It totally sucks to see them in so much pain doing something that should be easy and normal.

[PatioGardener]

Originally Posted by lellian  DD nurses about 4-5 times a day, sometimes more and sometimes less.

kellymom says "Watch baby's cues - this is particularly easy if baby nurses beforehand and most/all of the solids are offered to baby to self-feed. Increase solids gradually if baby is interested. Aim for baby getting no more than 25% of her calories from solids by the age of 12 months (some babies eat less than this at 12 months and that's also normal)."http://www.kellymom.com/nutrition/solids/solids-how.html

At 10 months old, I would nurse before all meals, and try to get in at least 6 nursings in 24 h.  that should help with the poops.  hope she feels better soon!  

nak

[Shanesmom]

Probiotics, probiotics, probiotics. Not only will they increase her BMs but will give her immune system a healthy boost. All children should be on some kind of probiotic supplement; yogurt is not enough. Speaking of yogurt, if possible think of switching to organic Greek yogurt as opposed to cows yogurt. It contains more protein and natural probiotics.

Pears and avacados are great foods, as well as any and all veggies she will eat.

The suggestion to remove wheat is also a good one. Dairy, meat and wheat are not best friends with your digestive tract.

[lellian]

Thanks mamas. Going to implement a little of everyone's advice.

[Snapdragon]

I am dealing with this too- and I have considered probiotics- some other things we try work a little whle and then dont-

but I am skeptical about probiotics for a baby- might it be harmful? I am skeptical only because it seems like a new kind of thing- maybe there isn't tons of research, and also very powerful- so how can I know that it is safe to give to a abby and also how do I learn how much to give him? Just whenI think his lack of pooping is resolved, it comes back and makes the whole family miserable! Babay who can't poop equals baby with a stomach ache equals stressed out baby equals stressed out mom and dad! I am willing to try probiotics but I feel nervous that it could be harmful and I dont want to be too aggressive.

[Knitting Mama]

I use Udo's Choice Infant's Probiotic. It is made specifically for babies, and it's very easy to use. You just mix 1/2 teaspoon of the powder with some liquid (in my case we use donated breastmilk in an SNS, so I mix it in there). I don't see any reason why it could be harmful. All it does is balance gut flora.

[Snapdragon]

Thanks for the link on the infant probiotics- I am going to look into those.

[Snapdragon]

I want to  bump this thread up and go back to the OP's question to see if there are any more ideas out there!

And to OP- that thing I pm'ed you about worked once but not since so I guess I am still looking for the solution to this too. poor little constipated babies :(

It is hard to know what to do someitmes and it is easy to blame ourselves with chalenges with our little ones! I have tired a few different things and then smetimes when they don't work I look back  at it like- wow, that wasn't the best thing to try, maybe that made things worse or whatever. But then I relaize that a lot of figuring this out is just trial and error. try one remedy and hope it works, and if it doesn't then stop and try something else, that is where we are w- this right now- still looking. I feel badly for ds though- he is such a happoer baby on the days when he has recently pooped. We are going on 4 days again and he is starting to get fussier.

but- I haven't tried the probiotics yet (but I did order them today!) so maybe that is the solution, I hope so.

[P.J.]

I don't know if anyone suggested this already, but you could try giving her water with her meals. Water is important for clearing up constipation. Although, I would also make sure to BF before food meals so she's getting enough breastmilk, which also gets her more water.

[tanyalynn]

The only things I'd add to the other suggestions are chiropractic and/or cranial-sacral visits and maybe a bit of supplemental magnesium.  And I'd second the probiotics, when poop isn't moving through on a regular basis, it's easy for a bad bacterial balance to develop in the gut and that has other digestive and immune implications. 

For my kids, removing foods they're intolerant of has been helpful for their digestion, though neither is prone to constipation (they tend toward loose stools).