Constipation - Houston,TX

Put dark karo syrup in her bottle. I have a 10 week old and I had the same problem. I have a three year old daughter as well and had the same problem with her as an infant. My ped. told me to put it in her bottle and it worked wonders.

J.
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Had the same problem with my first daughter. I tried everything, the karo, prune and apple juice didn't work, finally aganist dr.'s wishes tried baby saposatories. It worked like a charm. I would wait for 2 days w/o a bowel movement and then on the 3rd day I would give her one! I only had to do it for a short time. I don't know if she grew out of it or they just helped regulate her? But it was so bad she was straning and popping blood vessels in her eyes. They are over the counter and they have little ones for little babies, Good Luck!

Hi!I have a 2 month old baby girl.She has constipation problems also.I use the dark Karo syrup in every bottle.If I dont she doesnt stay regular.I did the teaspoon a day only and that did not help so I uped the dose.My Dr. said it was ok and its working!

I would highly recommend seeing your pediatrician ASAP. Your little one will learn that it hurts to have a bowel movement and try to hold it in, which is terrible for her bowels and it could result in a blockage. I had this same problem with my little girl. I tried Fleet baby suppositories and enemas; they worked, but not as well as a prescription. This is something you should seek immediate medical advice for, if you haven't already.

My son had the same problem. His spincter musle was too tight. Talk to your pediatrician about this - we had to go to a specialist.

When the child learns that it hurts to go to the bathroom, he or she will learn to hold it in which will magnify the problem. The stool may become hard and make it even harder to pass.

Strawberry milk of magnesia works wonders, but you should probobaly talk to dr for correct doses and to make sure there is nothing physically wrong with your baby.

Good luck!

I can't believe all the different advice given. You must contact your Pediatrician/Nurse if you are concerned about any health issues for your child. Do not hesitate. My pediatrician has a 24hr line and belive me - I used this and was the better for it. I have 2 boys 17 months apart. Both breast fed. My 1st has "normal" BM's like clockwork. My 2nd scared me for the same reasons you wrote - Constipation. I used Karo syrup as well periodically, but the best and hardest thing I did was watch what I ate. My diet was drastically changed while I nursed him - Bland and high fiber (not my choice). I can also tell you that to this day, my youngest still has harder BM's than what other may deem "nomal" but it's normal for him. He eats lots of fruit and veggies (more than my older child - who prefers meat and bread). Both boys are healthy and have always rcvd great checkups. I hope this helps ease your worries. BEst of luck to you and yours.

did you change her milk sometimes it's the milk that can do it

K.

Go to your local drug store and buy some anise oil. all you need is one or two drops per 4 oz bottle. It works WONDERS for the gas, colic, and constipation. It's an old italian remedy that my dago grandma used on us when we were kids and I used it on my daughter who is now 4 years old. It's just an herb so you can give it to your baby as often as you like without fear of overdosing! :)

Good luck... also massage her tummy... it'll help releave the pain, and promote stimulation to the bowels to help her go.

Hugs,

K. S.

Since you have already tried the Karo syrup I am not sure if my suggestion will help much more, but my daughter went through the same thing and her doctor told me to put a teaspoon or two of brown sugar in a couple of her bottles each day, and it seemed to help. I would just put a teaspoon or so in her mid-morning bottle and her night time bottle.

daluted apple juice. my son wa the same way and i had asked my mom what i should do and the other mothers i was stationed with and they said half apple juice and half water and in no time he pooped, also one of my friends daughter was like yours now what the doctor told her was get a qutip and put vasalin on it and put it in there butt and the take it out. now i know this sounds gross but she said as soon as she took it out the poop followed now i did it once to my son and let me tell you it did work.

At such a young age i would stay away from any herbal teas. While they may be an all natural alternative, they could have some negative side effects.
I would try the water first, then maybe some diluted prune juice, apple or pear. Hopefully that will help get things going. Are you breast feeding? if so you may want to take a look at what you are eating that may be effecting her.
If she is on formula maybe talk to your dr. about switching her formula to one with a bit less iron in it.
The rectal stimulation works for some, but talk to your dr. before you try anything like that, including supposetories. (sp?) they can make the situation worse and give her super loose stools which can be more dangerous (because of the risk of dehydration)

I have a 16 month old with this problem too, and she's had it off and on since your daughters age. Our doc had us try a little (1 tsp) benefiber in her bottle when karo syrup didn't work. Recently, I've used baby suppositories on her (worked like a charm), but I'd check w/ the doc first b/f doing that for a 7 weeker...

Sorry I don't have more advice than this, but I feel for you, mama! We're in the same place, and it's hard to see them in pain like that.

T., it may be her formula. In some infants the iron in the formula can cause constipation. Consult with your doctor on maybe switching to a formula with low iron. Also, i do believe they make stool softeners for infants. My middle child when she was an infant, not as young as yours, would become constipated and my husband and myself would use a q-tip and mild soap around the rectum to help ease it out. I hope this info. helps some.

T.~Have you tried giving her a little bit of prune juice in her water. About 2/3 juice and 1/3 water. The doctor may say she is too young for this but thanks to the advice of my mother-in-law my son's bowel movements started being normal and daily. Good luck~S.

Hi T.,

I can help you with that. Give her Prune juice. 1/3 prune Juice and 2/3 water. This will help a lot. I give my son prune juice every other day to help him with bowel movement. I hope this will help.

Since she is so young I would advise going to your pediatrician. If you consult with him/her y'all probably can come up with a game plan that should work for your baby.

You have received some great advice here too though!

Is your daughter eating breast milk or formula? I have 4 children and when they had this problem, (I was breast and bottle) the iron content in formula was just too much for them and we switched to a low iron formula. In one case we put him on SOY. dont do anything without asking your doc first, of course. Also, I think that Nestle Good start has a really nice easy to digest formulation that the others dont have and the babies seem to tollerate it better, at least mine did....hope this helps, B.

No. It is not normal for breastfeed babies to be consitpated. Unless you are eating alot of Iron or still taking your pre-natal. If using formula its more likely the iron in it. I would try to take her temp rectally use a little petrolatum and hold both of her little feet up in the air like you are cleaning her bottom and hold the thermometer steady, insert it no more than an inch into her rectum the pressure there will stimulate her bowels.

MY son is 16 months old and he's always had this problem too..You can try apple juice since your baby is still young just put half of the amount she usually drinks of apple juice and the other half water..This never worked for my son but everyone else i know says it works pretty good..I ended up having to take my son to his doctor and they put him on this stuff called glycolax and he has to take it once a day..

Try pear juice or basically any "p" juice, if that doesn't work, then, you have to resort to suppositories. My daughter had troubles like that too when i first brought her home. suppositories was what worked for me.

Hi-

Are you using DARK Karo? Without knowing if you are breastfeeding or not, I would recommend that you call your pediatrician and see what she/he says. If you are nursing, possibly more fiber in your diet would help?

Good luck-
L.

My grandson was having some problems when he was about the same age. His Pediatrician recommended prune juice diluted by half with water. It certainly worked for him, and it was natural.

I have always heard that you should give a bottle of water if constipated.

I had the same problem with my son, but he was about three months old and i was living in Hawaii at the time but had flown to Texas to see my family. My sister called her doctor and she told me to try a very small amount of Gerber apple juice with some water,and also to try some supositories. im not sure if i spelled that right. I tried the juice first and i never had to try the supositories, he pooped right away. The sugar in the juice makes the kids have bowel movements. i mean like maybe one or two ounces of juice and about two ounces of water. you can accomadate to how much your little girl drinks. i wish you the best and i hope this helps out.

Good morning T.. My son has had constipation since birth and he is almost 3 now. When he was that young the doctor suggested the karo syrup and pear or apple juice and told me not to dilute it. It did not help with my son, but he has other problems he now has to take a laxative daily. It might help you little girl. I hope this helps. I know how fustrating this can be. Have a good day!

I had the same thing happen to my son, and the pediatrician told me not to take him off the iron...because he needed it, but to change him to lactose-free formula (turns out he is lactose sensitive...not intolerant.....just enough that the lactose makes his poppy set up hard). I also gave him the prune juice in his bottle once a day after he got regular....twice a day to get him regular. Also...it sounds weird, but we had to hold our sons legs up to his stomach for him and push on both butt-cheeks ( his trouble was that his poopy was formed and hard, and he would push all his energy out before he got it out, so we had to help him get it past that point)because he would scream while trying to poop. I hope this helps.

I had a simular problem with my daughter. We tried the kyro syrup and also she was perscribed medicine for it. She had to had lactolouse or enulose in each bottle. Yeah that worked but the thing I found that worked best and cheepest is Prune juice. Start off with a TBSP in each bottle. It will help b/c it got my little one finally Regulated a little bit with that. She is now 2 and has a little trouble some still but I feel giving her a little DP to her helps also.

Let her pediatrition know, at seven weeks shes still adjusting to life outside the womb. Also if your using formula that could be the culprit. If she were older I could tell you more.

Good luck and best wishes,

K.

Glucose water. The stuff they gave you in the hospital. OR hopefully they gave you. Glucose Water will help. You should be giving the glucose water every day at that age. One bottle.
If you cant find the already made stuff then just by the Glucose powder and mix it your self with water.

Hope this is of some help.

I know this is dumb, but have you tried to lightly massage your baby's stomach specially while she is straining?

I have the same problem with my 8wks old. I tried Karo in every bottle with no help. He would go several days and cry all the time. The doctor gave me a prescription laxative, given twice daily for a few days. Now he goes every other day but doesn't cry. I still do the occasional Karo to help it. Good luck..

Hallo T.,
put some milk shugar in her unsweetend tee or milk. You can get it in healthstores. Its powder. I honestly think that a 7 week old Baby is to young for jiuce.
A.

There are already several good suggestions for how to solve the problem. (I would try the water if I were you). However, I thought I'd give you a tip on an acute situation of constipation. If your baby girl has gone several days without pooping and seems distressed, put some vaseline on a rectal thermometer and place it up her rectum like you were taking her temp. Usually that will stimulate a BM.

Hope this helps!

M.

Make sure is she drinking water from a bottle. She can sip on it throughout the day. My nephew is 6 weeks old and he is going through the same thing. The doctor told her to give him water and karo syrup. I would talk to her doctor and see what he/she thinks you should do. A baby should have at least one or more bowel movements a day. So I would talk to the docotr about your concerns. Cause she is to young to have to go through this. More little sweety.

I would try a different formula. My daughter did that to I had to try so many different formula till we found the right one for her.

The karo syrup with water usually helps but if not ask your babys doctor about using a suppository.

I know exactly what you are going through. My daughter is now 20 months old but when she was first born we took her to the emergency room b/c she was having trouble w/her formula. The took x-rays and found nothing seriously wrong. The formula she was on was Similac. She was having ALOT of trouble going to the restroom. My husband and I tried everything to help her go to the restroom. We tried prunes, Karo Syrup, suppositories, and the thermometer in the booty to stimulate her booty. When we did the thermometer thing, we would even get shot at (if you know what I mean). That worked for a while but I didn't want to have to do that to her when she was 5. My pediatrician recommended a gastroenterologist doctor. We saw the gastro several times and he gave me a prescription called Enulose Syrup. That really worked. Our gastroenterologist stopped practicing but did refer me to a different doctor. Dr. Deborah Neigut is now her gastroenterologist, we tried Glycolax for a while but that did nothing but we went back on Enulose and that is working great. I would recommend that you try a new formula, the one that worked really well with my daughter was Nestle GoodStart Supreme w/Soy, also if your baby is taking powdered formula you might want to considering switching to concentrate. And if that doesn't work see Dr. Neigut. Let me know what worked for you.

Good Luck,
E.

When my twins were having a simular problem my ped. told me to use a teaspoon of sugar per 2 ounces of water...i guess the sugar helps draw the water to the stool to help soften it up. i hope this helps!
K.

My daughter had the same problem. Try about a teaspoon of food-grade mineral oil in her bottle 1x per day and see if that helps. My daughter still has problems, but we just put Benefiber in her food now that she's old enough.

OHH NO, teas is bad...you should just take her to the pedi..i started giving my kids baby apple juice diluted with water at 2 months. Never had a prob with constipation, apple juice is a sure way to get those bowels moving.

Lots of good suggestions here.
I would suggest making sure that you aren't mixing her formula too strong. Be sure not to pack the formula in the scoop, it should be light and fluffy. Measure it as you would flour, not brown sugar.
I also think the suggestion to switch off of the iron enriched formula every few days was a good one.

When I was worried about my daughter (She's now five monts old, but she was a micropreemie. Only 1lb 9oz) being constipated a couple of weeks after she came home, my docter suggested juice. Either apple or prune, that they sell in the baby food aisle. I didn't need to use it, but it should help. Good Luck.

Do you breast feed? If not try a formula with less iron. Also, I know she is only 7 weeks, but try just a dab of prunes in her bottle. You can get the ones that are strained and basically like pudding. Just a tsp. in each bottle should loosen things up. We had the same problem with my daughter. It got so bad one day we had to get a tongue depresser and some KY to dig it out. It was horrible. This worked for us. And the prunes are a good source of vitamins too.

Our daughter had the same problem. We used the Karo syrup too. Make sure it's the dark Karo not the light. And use a tsp. at a time. Add alittle more if necessary. Or if that doesn't work try using suppositories. They are an over the counter drug. Sooner or later she'll grow out of this. My daughter stopped at about 2 1/2 mths.

Hi,

If you are given your baby Formula with iron, the iron making her constipated. If you are breastfeeding and your diet is high in beef, iron or cheese that will constipate the baby also. If you are using formula with iron, you might have to use formula without iron one week or with iron the next week swith out every three day and pay attention to the baby bowel movements. Water is an excellent stool mover; you water with extra karo syrup. You know today everything is available so go to the nearest drug store and speak with the pharmacist and ask if something is available over the counter for infants that are constipated. Always use are pharmacist to answer questions.

T.

you shopuldnt try to give her anything but breast milk or formula. giving hr "food" already can cause her chances for diabetes later in life. if she is breast fed she will not poop every day. my baby is 4 months old and i am breastfeeding the first time and i thought he was constipated when he was smaller. i then found out since he was breast fed he wont poop daily. he has gone 4 days with out pooping and that freaked me out! i even gave him laxatives. they sell them at heb. in a white and blue box. i forget the name...babysomething....if you do decide to go with the laxatives, be prepared to change him immediately. the nurse at 22nurse told me to try that. as soon as you squeeze the meds up there they will turn around and come out. also, if you breast feed, try drinking LOTS of apple juice. this may make you have to go too. one more thing, get some vasaline and put it on the tip of the thermometer and gently rub the rectom with it. do it as if you were to take her temperature. it may trigger a movement. the nurse at the hospital showed us that one when my son was born. if she has to poop then she will do it then. if not then she just doesnt have to poop. good luck!

I agree that you should consult with the pediatrition. From birth, ours told us to dilute prune juice 50/50 with bottled water and substitute this as a feeding. I always got results within 6 hours if not earlier. One feeding should do it.

u may need to speak to the doctor about changing her formula she may be lactos intolerant i think it is called prosoybe i had that problem with my first

My daughter went through the very same thing. NOTHING seemed to work. There were times where we had to help her because it would get half way out and then get stuck. Pushing their knees up to their belly will help to get them past it. Is she on formula? Does she have a lot of spit up or seem colicky? It ended up that my daughter was having a reaction to the formula. She ended up on a hypo-allergenic formula, Alimentum, and things were much better. She actually ended up with hemmorhoids. She was seven months before we ended up discovering all of this. The formula and the dark karo seemed to help. She still had issues, just not near as bad. Good luck, I hope you get through it.

apple juice worked wonders with my sons constipation! Even at a young age he did fine with it.

If she is breastfed, it is normal. Brandina is mistaken. But call the dr if you are that concerned.

i had the same problem w/ my daughter....try lactose free milk. some babies are lactose intolerant and tend to outgrow that as they get older. and my pediatrician suggested pear juice, he said it worked better than apple juice and definently tasted better than prune juice. unless there is an allergy in the family to pears, i'd try just a little of it. and tummy massages are good too. i'm a nurse and mom of a 3 y/o and we have had lots of bouts w/ constipation...don't worry you'll find what works best for you baby.

good luck....
M.

i know doctors say water is a no no but everyone kept telling me to give my son water, i gave in at about 3 wks and it didn't change anythign really, but when i said enough is enough NO MORE water he became very constipated, so i asked the pedi. and he said if he was constipated to give him some water in the morning and some in the evening. no more than 3 oz of water a day. also if you are formula feeding you might want to make sure you are mixing the formula exactly to specifications if our daughter is not too thin you might want to put a LITTLE less powder in the mix to make the milk a little thinner. HTH

Maybe you need to change her formula, I had the same thing happen with my daughter

You should call your doctor to see what's best for your baby. My daughter wasn't pooping daily so I called the doctor and she told me not to worry unless when she did have a movement and it came out hard and looked like bunny poo poo (little balls). She said also that prune juice would help. Do you breast feed at all? My daughter was on both and id just give her extra breast milk and that would loosen it.

My daughter was the same way, and that is unusual for a breastfed baby. He pediatrician said not to woory about it as long as she is passing gas, as long as her bowels are moving something. I don't know if you are nursing, if you are try adding fiber to your diet. One other thing is use a suppository. I used (and still have in my fridge) Fleet glycerin suppositories, get the childrens version. My pediatrician told me to break one into thirds and put it where it goes. You will have to hold it in place for a little bit. But it only takes a few minutes. I always just broke my daughters in half, it was easier for me that way.

Our doctor suggested we give our daughter diluted prune juice. One ounce prune juice, one ounce water and warm it. This helped for us. Our doctor said she could have it once a day, everyday if needed. My sister in law used the chamomille tea, that worked for them. Good luck!

I noticed you have received quite a few responses....I wasn't very familiar on what to do with my son at that age when he would strain to have a bowel movement. His precious little face would turn almost red from the strain. My mother-in-law would make him chamomile tea with a little karo syrup and it worked really well. She (being a nurse) said to give it to him daily for a while so it could regulate his bowel movements. It really did help and he didn't have to strain to have a BM ever since. If you try this, make sure the tea is warm when you give it to her....hope this or any other advice you may take helps. I know how much your heart breaks when you see your precious baby having any kind of pain or strain. Good luck.