6.5 month old not pooping, but not technically constipated...

[elenaveronica]

I was hoping that you may be able to share some insight...

I have a 6.5 month old daughter who is breastfed and has been eating solids since 4.5 months (as advised by her physician).  She is currently 20.5 lb and generally content.  However, she does not poop.

We started her on rice cereal at 4.5 months and she was fine, in terms of bowel movements, for the first 2 weeks.  Then she stopped having them on her own.  I switched her to barley cereal, then to oat and then to wheat cereal in hopes that increasing her fibre intake would produce some BMs.  This did not work.  A public health nurse suggested that I sprinkle some ground flaxseed onto her cereal to help with her bowels.  This has also not helped.

I have tried to give her prunes, but she completely rejected them.  I have given her steamed pureed pears for 3 days -- they did nothing.  She has now eaten steamed pureed peas for 2 days and she is farting a lot, but she is not pooping.  She refuses to take water in any form (from a bottle, from a sippy cup, from an oral syringe) other than when she sucks some out of her washcloth at bathtime.

She is currently having about 1 BM per week, and this has been going on since she was 5 months old.  And the only way to get a BM is to force it -- either by using lactulose (as prescribed by her doctor) or a glycerin suppository.  Here is the issue though; when I use lactulose, her BM is explosive and fully liquid.  When I use a suppository, she has a BM within 2-3 minutes, and it is not hard, dry, or pellet-like.  It is soft and squishy but obviously more solid than her BMs were when she was just exclusively breastfed (like peanut butter).  She just does not push it out on her own.  And she is not cranky or uncomfortable, and her stomach is not hard or distended.  I think she probably could go for longer than 7 days without having a BM and still be comfortable enough.  However, I'm quite concerned on the effect this MUST be having on her intestinal tract.

Has anyone else had any similar experiences, and could anyone offer any insight or advice about this??  I appreciate your help.

Thanks.

[Peek-a-boo]

To be honest . . . I'd stop all the grains and just do fruit/veg for several weeks and see what happens.  I've read a lot (granted in some slightly kooky alternative-med type places ) about how LO's don't produce the enzymes needed to digest grains well at this age and so often digestive issues associated with solids are a result of grains.  That's just me and just an unscientific hunch!

Interested to see what others advise.  

[firsttimemummy]

Rice is constipating! Breastfed babies can go for up to a week without a BM.  Breastmilk is a good laxative so make sure she (And you) are drinking lots.  Be careful about using lactulose too often as it makes the bowels lazy longer term.

Have you tried baby massage on her tummy (clockwise direction circles - if you google baby massage techniques, this one is called the sun and the moon).

Take care. If I am out and about and have forgotten DS's cup I give him water from a spoon which he loves.  Also, could someone else try giving her a drink and see if she takes it? At first DS would only take a bottle if he knew I was not around ...

[elenaveronica]

Thank you for the advice.  I think we will discontinue all cereal for now and stick with fruits and vegetables.  I am not giving her lactulose often, just once a week or so to empty out her bowels.  But I'd rather have her doing that on her own.

I have tried to massage her stomach -- it hasn't really done anything for her.  So we'll see what some changes to her diet will do.  Fingers crossed!

[First Time Mom]

With the cereals do you give her the ones where you add bm or water (does the cereal have formula in it?). With my ds if I give him the rice cereal with formula built in he doesn't have a dirty diaper for days but if I give him the rice cereal that has nothing added and I add pumped bm then he is fine with it.

Another thing to watch for is to make sure he's having enough wet diapers. I have read in the past that constipation in los is not usually caused by lack of fibre but caused by not enough liquid in their diet, so either make sure he is bfing enough (that his intake has not decreased from the solids) and maybe keep trying to offer a little water after the solids.

Try to go with the yellow/orange fruits and veggies (with the exception of banana- as banana often constipate los).

[roseola]

Does your LO ever grunt/push and nothing comes out? My pediatrician suggested pressing gently with a finger or q-tip around the outside of the anus if you hear your baby making those kind of sounds.

[We Three]

Just keeping my place and will be back tomorrow!!!

[firsttimemummy]

Remember if you are giving her fruit juice to make sure it is well diluted (I think orange juice works really well, but you only need to give her a little bit in lots of water).

[*Ali*]

I have only seen anecdotal evidence of this but apparently if you eat tomato salsa it can have a laxative effect on your LO...worth a try.   

[elenaveronica]

Thanks again for all of the tips!

Well, last night I did not give her cereal, just steamed pureed pears.  And I did give her a dose of lactulose (I was getting worried again because she hadn't pooped since last Saturday).  AND she had a MASSIVE BM at 4 am!  I'm not sure that it was a fully lactulose-induced BM because it was not nearly as liquidy (sorry for the graphics) as it usually is, and normally she needs two doses of lactulose to get her going.  So maybe it was the pears working a bit this time???  I guess we'll see.  She got the same thing for supper tonight.  Not that 4 am is the most ideal time for pooping, but I'll take it!  (I was so happy that I couldn't fall back asleep again until 6 am!)

When I was giving her cereal, it was always mixed with breastmilk only.  She's never received formula, and I always bought the cereals that could be mixed with breastmilk instead of just with water.  But if the cereals are what is slowing her down, I'm willing to discontinue them completely and just have her start eating meats and other iron-rich foods.

I would try to give her a bit of juice, but it seems she doesn't want to take any liquid other than breastmilk.  I even tried giving her water from a spoon after she had finished her supper today and she wouldn't take it... just let it trickle right out of her mouth and onto her shirt.  My sweet daughter... always presenting me with challenges.

Anyways, I'm going to stay away from things like bananas, apples, carrots, etc. for now and stick with non-constipating fruits and veggies for now.  Fingers crossed!

She doesn't grunt or strain at all!!

[First Time Mom]

Glad to hear she had the poop, sorry that it was 4am!

When you start the meats, start out with very small quantities and I would start in the morning. She's young and I think meat is harder on their systems (just my opinion), even though the current info out there these days is that meats can be started at 6 months. We just did turkey this week and ds didn't take to it (though he did eat it). He didn't poop the next day and he always goes every day, instead he went 3 days but then today had 3 poops (one explosion).

There are lots of veggies out there that have iron too that you can offer.

[elenaveronica]

Dear "Peek-a-Boo" and everyone else who replied to this thread,

Thank you all very much!  I'd like to share (and of course, only a mother would be proud to share this) that today my LO pooped... 3 times... BY HERSELF!!  No lactulose since last week, no suppositories!  And also, no cereal!  She's only been getting fruits and veggies since last week and today finally, for the first time in almost 2 months, she pooped on her own!  You have no idea how happy this made me.  Mind you, they weren't huge blowouts or anything, but still!  It's very encouraging!

Now with her solids I'm going to get her eating all of the non-constipating fruits and veggies, along with some meat (like chicken and turkey), and then I'll start her very slowly on some of the foods that tend to be a bit more troublesome.

As for the cereals, I'm saying goodbyeeeee to them (at least for now).

Thank you all again!

[Peek-a-boo]

Hurrah!  Love the mommy-poop-pride!  I've so been there.  Hope things stay moving.

[firsttimemummy]

Great news - bet you never thought you would get so excited about poo!!

[wardy]

Good news.  I know the feeling... My LO stopped pooping for a while too when we first started solids, he would go for 10-13 days at a time.  I was also b/fing so I increased the amount of water I was drinking and that seemed to help.  Once he got going with solids it kind of resolved itself (I was totally amazed at just how much he ate), and he poos a couple of times a day now.  I gave him lots of fruit and veges too and still haven't introduced meat - am using lots of beans and lentils for his protien at the moment, and will get to meat in the next month or so.