Speaking of Baby Poop ~

[ClassiclyAmber]

~ Gianna has been constipated. This is the second time or phase that we've gone through this since she was born. She is exclusively BF - always has been - and I've heard that it's extremely rare for a baby like that to become constipated.

A lil history:
When she was first born, she pooped great! She had regular newborn stools. Then a week or two later, she was having trouble pooping. At my midwife's recommendation, I did the whole sphincter-muscle-stretching-thing a couple of times. The first times, it helped her poop. After two times of that, it did no good and plus, I didn't want to keep doing that anymore. THEN one of my good friends recommended us trying a natural soap suppository...(just a teeny sliver of soap up in there). Well, it totally worked. We did that a couple of times, and then she was totally pooping fine for almost 2 MONTHS.

NOW...we are back to square 1, it seems. I've been doing the soap suppositories again in order to help her get the poop out. However, I don't want to keep doing this. I'd like to find out what the source of the problem is, ya know?

Other symptoms she has surrounding her constipation woes:
*Fussiness
*Gassiness
*Spitting up/THROWING up
*Not sleeping as well
*When she finally poops again, it STIIIIINKS!!

If you have any advice for me, then please offer!

[rachelagain]

what do you consider constipated? As bf babies can go a week between bms and that is considered normal.
I used to use glycerine suppositories w/ my first son, would break the childsize ones in half and that would work. It didn't turn into a dependancy, but I remember doing it regularly for a while.
The other babies I know that are constipated are formula fed, one was told by the dr. to give 4 oz of pear juice every day, the other was told to water down the formula a bit as increased water would help-- both are working to keep their babies regular.
But I would xpost in lactating or call your local La Leche League

[ClassiclyAmber]

Well, true...under normal circumstances, I would pay no attention to it if she were only pooping once a week. But she's literally constipated. She acts different when she gets this way (symptoms above). At this stage of the game, if she doesn't poop at LEAST once a week, then she starts having all of those symptoms listed. Not only that, but even when I *do* give her the soap suppository, when she tries to poop, she still has a hard time getting it out. There is usually between 1-3 more firm pieces of poop at the beginning of it all coming out. As she is pooping it out, it stinks less and is more runny - more like new baby poop.

I am just getting so upset over this... It really makes me sad to have to HELP her get the poop out, and then watch her struggle so bad with it. And then it also irritates me that she is even getting constipated in the first place when she is only BF. I don't understand that. How can my milk mess up her system like this?