HELP! Constipated bubba!

We had exactly the same problem with Heidi from about 1 month onwards. We tried all the things others have discussed - she was only going every 5-6 days and was getting very uncomfortable. Thankfully she got better at around 4 months (went every 2nd day), and since starting solids she is going once or twice a day!

My conclusion is that her bowels just needed a while to strengthen up, but in the mean-time we found that giving 10ml of water at the start of each feed (up to a maximum of 40ml per day)helped - this was the only time she would take water (i.e. when she was really hungry and thirsty). Also she was definatley better on Karicare gold.

But here's the real reliever - This may not sound very pleasant, but for the 2 constipated months we gave her an enema when she had not done poose for 5 or 6 days and was getting very miserable. It is called Microlax and you can get it at the chemist (no prespcription required), it is painless for bubs and gets a result within 15 minutes! I would not recommend using it more than about once a week though, because apparently the bowels can become dependent on it.   It felt it was best to try and let the bowel muscles try to do their thing naturally until it got so bad that the discomfort was stopping Heidi from sleeping.

I assume your bub's poose is mostly squishy (i.e. after the initial hard "plug" part has come out - sorry for the details!) and not hard pebble like? If it is pebbly-like this is serious constipation that needs medical attention.

anyway, hang in there - I know it's difficult to see your baby in so much discomfort!



Edited by HeatherP

Thanks for the tip Heather - This makes me even more angry with my GP! She told me the only things Caitlin could have was Coloxyl and a special formula for babies with constipation ($30 a tin! which did nadda!). Sounds like there is plenty out there that will at least get rid of the nasty hard stuff! I'm not too sure what is going on in there (in Caitlin) as she is taking a whole 200ml of water between her 10am and 2pm feed, peeing HEAPS (she's going through 3 inserts in her Fuzzis!) but still the poo is hard-ish (like cat poo) so I guess she might be peeing out the fluids before it gets a chance to soften the poo?!?!?

Today we tried to let gravity help and I held her in a sitting position over a bucket - she went but I think it was a bit too much pressure and she's got a bit of a graze around the hole

Fingers crossed that the Homeopath sorts her out!

I feel so awful and wish I could go back to BFing as I know that would solve everything! But I have to go back to work in 4 weeks and I could never express enough to feed her one bottle before let alone a whole days worth! Not that I have any milk left anyways... I dunno just feeling a bit over whelmed and helpless, it's awful seeing her so upset and obviously in pain
**sob story over**

I know how you feel - I also had to start forumula feeding against my own will (had latch on problems for first 6 weeks and by then there wasn't much milk left in the tanker)! And I knew that breastfeeding her would have fixed the poose problem! I tried really hard to get my milk supply back up, but could only get up to about 80ml max. I was getting really stressed out about it, but in the end just had to move on and stop feeling responsible for Heidi's consitpation or else I was going to drive myself crazy!

Other mums I have talked to about similar poose issues have found that their babies gradually became more regular, and all were fine once starting on solids. Good luck - I hope the homeopath can help. If nothing else works you could try cranial osteopathy - I have heard that this can fix all sorts of medical problems in babies!

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Edited by HeatherP