Constipation in a 6 month old baby

[Reshcas]

Hi All,

My 6 & half month old baby was recently constipated & had to be admitted to the hospital for 3 days . She had been on BM only till then  & I had started solids which didnt go too well with her . Things seem to be slowly coming back to normal , she is back on solids now but im going very slow , just a few tsps once a day . She has been fine with pumpkin, peas, pears but i offered her spinach last few days & she has not passed her regular stools . she still passes it but its not as soft , today there were some pellet like formations & it was the consistency of a thick paste. does this mean she is constipated ? i have given her a little prune juice today .hopefully things should be better soon .can someone advise what are safe foods to give her . is it ok to give beetroot, carrot , sweet potato. Should I stop solids till her stools are regular again ?

Edited by Reshcas - 12/20/11 at 5:27pm

[Dot-to-Dot]

She does seem constipated and I would highly recommend using some high quality probiotics.  If not high quality, then don't waste your money.  Klaire Labs makes an infant powdered probiotic and you can buy it on Amazon.  I would slow down on the solids and what you do give her, really thin it out with breastmilk (or formula).  Maybe only one food per week to see how she reacts.  You might start with pears.  Then something like avocado.  If constipation persists I'd add sweet potatoes. 

[RStelle]

My DD got constipated around that time unless she ate high fiber foods and drank plenty of water while she was eating. When she did start to get constipated I would stop all food except for a little prunes until she had 2 days of regular poop. They really only need milk at that point, so better safe than sorry.

[Asiago]

You may wish to go back to exclusively breastfeeding until her gastrointestinal tract function normalizes.

[Peony]

I had a mom (I work with new moms) that had severe constipation problems in her EBF baby when she started solids. She ended up delaying solids until closer to age 1 when he could safely eat without getting constipated. She tried several times and every time time he would get constipated until he was older. 

[cristeen]

She doesn't really need solids at this point - they're just for practice.  I'd take this as a sign that she's just not physically ready for them and wait another month or so, try again.  Rinse, repeat.  If you get to about a year and she's still having problems, I'd start thinking about allergy testing. 

When you do intro foods to her, give her only 1 food, give her that same food several days in a row, and watch for a reaction.  Don't introduce another food until you're reasonably certain she's tolerating the first one well. 

I would also stay away from purchased baby foods - many of them have hidden ingredients, and you won't know if a reaction is due to the food you're trying to test or other stuff.  If you want to do purees, you can usually get a small food mill at baby stores for about $10 so you can puree your own, but purees really aren't necessary.  If you're not familiar with it, you can look into Baby Led Weaning or Baby Led Solids, which is basically giving them small pieces of food that they learn to feed themselves.  There are lots of moms around here who do that, and it's way easier than spoon feeding purees. 

[Reshcas]

Thanks everyone , I will delay solids for the time being . She seems to be refusing it anyway. She is also fussing a lot about having milk now which is a concern for me . hopefully its just a phase & should pass . She seems to have her feeds fine in the night & early morning but her day feeds are really getting very difficult. I have tried singing, relaxing her ,playing etc & all is fine till its time to feed which is when all goes pear shaped ! but sometimes , just persisting helps ..sometimes she will have 150mls after ive tried for about 40 mins ..sometimes she will just skip her feed ( 1 or 2 in a row ) altogether & nothing works  . tried getting my sis, husband to feed, changing places, music , environment,sippy cup  dosent work either . im ok with her refusing solids at the moment but really cant  have her refusing milk...This has been going on for over a week now .i do enusre its atleast 4 hours in between feeds & she seems hungry but still will not feed at times . any advise please ?

Edited by Reshcas - 12/26/11 at 6:03pm

[carlysimon]

My baby has been doing the same thing. She would guzzle down 200mls of milk every 2.5 to 3 hours, then she just stopped. 5 hours would pass and she would act hungry so i would make a bottle but she would take one sip and arch her back and cry. I would leave it for an hour or so and try again and might get her to drink 50ml if i was lucky. Usually she would refuse her bottle if she had wind and i would walk around with her over my shoulder for 5 or 10 minutes until she got a burp out, then she would guzzle her bottle. I have worked out that she doesnt want her bottle as she is constipated. This may be the same for your baby. After 2-3 days of this she would have a huge nappy explosion and be back to her hungry little self. She is nearly 6 months and i have had her on rice cereal, pear, carrots and rice, sweetcorn and pumpkin foods for the last week. SHe loves them all. I havent had any problems feeding her, but noticed the last couple of days she has had really hard poos and some blood in one, and noticed a small tear. She has been irritable and pushing alot and nothing coming out, or a little skid mark in her nappy. Im going to stop the cereal and just stick with the pears for a while, and also try brown sugar and water and see how that goes. I didnt have any of these issues with my first baby so its definitely a new learning curve!