questions about gas and lack of BMs

[babyjamesmommy]

my son was born at 28 weeks and stayed for 10 weeks in the nicu. while in the nicu he very rarely had a bowel movement without the aid of a suppository. if he did not have a bowel movement for 24 hours he would get one and voila, problem solved. upon his discharge i was told to not use suppositories and that it is ok for him to not have a BM for up to 12 days. has anyone heard of this? it seems like a really long time to not go! he also has really bad gas; i mean gas to the point where he is crying and grimacing until he can let one out to get a little relief. he is fed expressed breast milk and supplemented with 2 bottles of enfacare a day. i have felt this entire time that he is lactose intolerant (his daddy is) but his doctors have always disagreed with me and said its just "a preemie thing." any moms out there have problems with their preemies like this? his doctors just dont have a straight answer for us.

[BellaBearsMommy]

Hi!  I am a mom to a 23 weeker.  Well, she is now 43 weeks gestational age and 3 weeks corrected age.  We just came home from the NICU and she had to have bowel surgery to reconnect everything.  She has had some issues with gas and stooling.  The doctors at the University of Minnesota told us that it was ok for her not to have a stool for 3 days but anything longer than 3 days you should call the dr and take them in.  Also with the gas I have found that burping her more often during feedings, massaging her tummy, doing bicycles with her legs, and positioning her differently in her crib has helped.