6 Month Old Hard Poop

.

I would say slow down on all the solids. 3 months is too young to give solids. In the old days children were kept mostly on the breast for much longer. in fact 6 months was the absolute youngest to give solids and that was considered early.

Cut back on the rice cereal and only small amounts of jarred food.

Also, know that anything that is fortified with IRON will contribute to constipation and hard stool. Those cereals have lots of Iron, I would bet so does your formula, and are you adding any in vitamin supplements too? That is certailny an issue with babies now adays. All the excess Iron in the diet is causing high rates of constipation and also contributing to the high occurence of reflux in babies.

Gosh.
I wonder why you started cereal at such a young age.
Not good.
Similarly jarred food.
Given the current food intake, you need to give him a LOT of water.
Maybe some diluted prune juice.
I would stop the rice cereal and jarred food . . . for a while, anyway.
Maybe start with one of the other cereals . . . oatmeal?
And mix in a little of some jarred fruit.
But in very small amounts.

there might be too much iron in the formula, that happened with my first daughter

A. F.

Review all the salt and sodium content in all the food your child eats. Salt/Sodium evaporates all the fluid in the body and can cause hard poops.

Kim

it should get firmer but not difficult to pass. should still be soft. can be a sign of a food sensitivity. stop the rice as its a constipator. also bananas are a huge constipator.

My oldest son was climbing the walls for food at 3 months old, and I know lots of older moms who said they started their babies on rice at like 2 weeks. I think the thought on when to begin real food changes as often as everything else in raising babies. That being said, my youngest was perfectly content with only breastmilk at 6 months, and I only started food to make sure he wouldn't reject it later. I think it just varies from child to child. Also, when I asked my doctor about the 6 month rule, he said it's a lot of really good theory not backed up by much research.

Anyway, if he's eating solids and formula then he should be having big boy poop. It depends on what you mean by hard though - if it's dry or he's straining too much or in pain then call the doctor and ask the best thing to do for constipation. It could be a passing phase or like others have said you may have to change formulas.

if you think he is constipated (straining, hard round dry pellets, etc) lay off o the rice cereal and bananas and try offering fruits that start with P like prunes, pears, etc

Updated

if you think he is constipated (straining, hard round dry pellets, etc) lay off o the rice cereal and bananas and try offering fruits that start with P like prunes, pears, etc

ive had this too, my baby is breast fed and i started cereal at 3 months. constipation started with intro of meat, ive cut that out, cut down on bananas and switched to oats and barley cereals. I gave suppositories (trimmed down to tiny) and then a very warm and chest high bath which cleared her out. (messy in the bath, but she felt better)now she gets 1 oz of apple/prune juice diluted with 2 oz water, and a tbsp of prunes every day that she loves. drsears online is a great source of info for this stuff.

My B. is 7 1/2 months and she's just now starting to get interested in solid food. But, my nephew was interested in solid food at 4 1/2 months. So, every B. is different.

Solid food = solid poop. I think you're saying that the B. still hasn't had solid poop yet? If poop is still liquid, I'd make an appt with the doctor to see if maybe what B. is eating/drinking is not working well with B.'s stomach. It could be the solid food and/or the formula.