My 3 and a Half Month Hasnt Had a Bm in About a Week

Hi, B.:

Get him some Vit. C tabs for infants. Hyland's Vit. C 5mg tabs for the health food store or order them from The Heritage Store in Virginia Beach, VA. Get him some infant probiotices as well that will help with getting him regular. Good luck. D.

I would call the doctor because he is small. At that age, I would be afraid to do give him anything. I would rub his stomach in a counter clockwise motion and I would take his legs and gently bend them and raise them up and down. Sometimes,this helps with gas and I know my sisterinlaw did this when my neice had the bowel movement issue.

My Dr told me to use pear or prune juice with my son at 2 months he had bowel issues from birth. the juice really helped.

If you are feeding him formula with iron this will do it. If this is the case and assuming your baby is completely healthy try the juice. If he's on formula he may need more water. You could also let him lay on his belly to see if it helps. You could excerise his legs and massage pure, cold pressed castor oil on his lower adolmen, but just a tiny bit. This almost always does the trick. If you are breastfeeding this can happen and is quite normal. Call your dr. first thing Mon. a.m. Best of Luck

I would give him a teaspoon full of baby prune food. Just put the baby food on your finger and he will splur it off your finger.
Prunes work like magic.

Hi,

I am not sure if you are breastfeeding or not, but it is normal for babies to not have bowel movements for 4-5 days at a time and even a week. Try a little warm bath, infant massage on his tummy and let him lay on a mat and exercise his legs a bit. Sometimes you can get him to go by the movement. Pear juice w/ water is harmless-- totally safe to do. It may work for you. I wouldn't worry about it unless he seems to be really uncomfortable. Good luck!

Molly

your baby is breast fed he will not get constipated. it is normal for breast fed babies to poo anywhere from several times a day to once every 10 days. As long as his poos are sort of squishy like mustard all is well. If your baby is formula fed or if his poos, when they finally appear, are solid it would be best to talk to your doctor.

Is he acting like he is in pain? My daughter never had consistant bowel movements as a baby, but she never acted like she was in pain so I didnt worry.

Even the most lax Pediatricians consider it a problem if an infant goes 7 days without a bowel movement. Before you try juice, vitamins, ANYTHING, call your Pediatrician for advice. There are 8 million home remedies for constipation (and anything involving children), but not all are good or safe or smart. Talk to your son's doctor and see what they say. Good luck!

Good for you for being hesitant. Call your ped and see what they recommend. It differs depending on whether you are nursing or formula feeding. And some older tricks are no longer recommended (ie, Karo syrup works in our moms' day, but is no longer made the way it used to be).

are you breast feeding? If so a week isn't really that bad. If you're using formula (I had to around 5 months), my pediatrician said I could do an oz of prune juice, and and oz of water. My pediatrician also said small doses of miralax were ok- but you must contact yours for the proper dose.

A couple days after we brought our son home from the hospital, he became constipated and I was really worried about him. When they discharged him from the hospital, they said that we could call them if we had a problem. I called and talked to one of the nurses from there and she told me that they use the dark Karo (my mother used that on her babies, and she had 9 children so she should have known!)--1 tablespoon with a couple ounces of water, but NOT at the regular feeding time. The baby should not miss a feeding. Also she instructed me to not use the Karo with formula, as the baby could develop a desire for his milk sweet all the time. This did the trick! Best wishes on finding something that helps.

When I switched to formula feeding after my daughter just wouldn't breast feed any more, she was consistently constipated. I read somewhere that the added iron can do that to a baby.

For your son's immediate need, I would go to the pharmacy and get children's glycerin suppositories. They are very safe. I've used them frequently for my daughter and sometimes I still do if she needs a little help.

They also have glycerine liquid in a tube which works too. But since he's so blocked up now, you need to be very careful that he has the space for insertion. I'd use the stick kind for now - maybe a half piece at first. If you feel any resistance stop. Then try again 5 to 10 min later. If you can get a whole one in, that would be best. If he's really blocked up it could take up to 2 hours to work and it might hurt coming out. If there's just a little blood, it'll be OK. 1 week really is a long time.

I normally did not let my daughter go more than 2 to 3 days without a bm. I could tell it was time for another suppository if her stomach would harden up and she got cranky like her tummy hurt. Also she would not eat as much if she was all stopped up.

I also started giving my daughter 2 oz. of prune juice daily at 6 mo. then increased it to 4 oz. at 10 mo.

This really helped a lot.

Now that she's 2 1/2, I make sure she gets lots of fiber and she tends to eat lots of fruit. Sometimes she eats so much fruit that she tends to have the opposite problem.

Good luck.

You could also try to take a rectal temperature. That often does the trick.

Yes some kind of juice like pear or prune mixed with water will help get things moving , as he has not been for so long it may take a couple of doses over a day or so to work , I would use 2oz of juice to 4oz water first off so that it get's to work asap , if him going so long between BM's becomes regular I would talk to the ped about it.

yea i had! i asked this same question earlier and some mom's gave me the same response. after i went to the doc with my son she requested me to have a glass of water while am breast feeding. she asked a very important question that am gonna ask you..... Are u feeding him enough? and yes u can try the diluted pear or apple juice.

Check with your doc also

All doctors have their own pet solutions for this problem; my friends and I have been told everything from fruit juice, to corn syrup, to taking their rectal temperature! Give your pediatrician a call. My office lets you ask the nurses these questions so you don't even have to come in for an appointment or pay a copay. Listen to the options when you call your doc- maybe there's a Nurse Call Line. I usually talk to the nurses first with any issue, and then they'll tell me if it's serious enough to make an appointment. Even if I don't end up going in, they record the info in my son's file so that if I call back in three days with the same problem they know where to go from there. They are used to these questions from us first-timers so don't be embarrassed! Good luck!

If you are breastfeeding, this is NORMAL! Don't introduce anything that he shouldn't have like glycerine or juice, etc. Keep nursing and prepare for a total blowout whne he does poop. My oldest pooped every time he nursed, but my youngest would often go 5-10 days before blowing out, and it started around 3mos and ended around 6mos, when he started pooping daily.

Relax, and prepare for a blowout, he's fine!

Hi B.! Do NOT use mineral oil. If your baby choked while you were giving it, it's possible that your baby could aspirate (breathe it into the lungs). Same goes for if baby would spit it up later. It can be very dangerous.
Ask your doctor about a glycerine suppository. We had to do that when our daughter was a few weeks old. It worked beautifully! Absolutely follow your doctor's recommendation on dosage.
Good luck!

Not sure if you're nursing, but I had problems producing the fatty hind milk that causes babies to poop. At the time I was nursing 1side for 10mins then the other. With advice from lactation consultant, I let him nurse on one side until he was done. This helped get more hind milk.

At the time he hadn't pooped in 12 days, and after 2 days of changing how I nursed, the poop gates opened!!

After that I started doing a yoga move with him thru the day (tucking his knees up to his chest, then rotating his whole lower body clockwise a few times). This helps even at 2yo.

Good luck!

First of all, I think you need to talk to his doc. They should have no problems in advising you on your baby's health. When we began introducing solids (specifically, rice cereal), our son didn't poop for 6 days. The doctor's office said it was normal with his change in diet, and advised, no lie, "rectal stimulation." I was a bit taken aback, but, what they recommended I do was to put vaseline on a thermometer, stick it in a bit, and twirl it around. I did it, gingerly! Nothing happened. But, a few hours later, after a nap, WOW! He exploded. He had a thick paste 2/3 of the way up his back. I had to cut his onesie off. Good luck! But, call your doctor too! (-:

For starters, have you recently stopped nursing and switched to a bottle. I am asking this because the majority of mothers who stop nursing before a year stop at 3 months. Breast milk and Formula effect babies bowel movements differently.

Second, have you switched formulas recently (or weaned to a bottle). Milk based formula can cause constipation in some babies.

Thirdly, babies bowel habits change as they grow older without any changes between nursing and formula or formula changes. Their little bodies learn over time to process the food better and in result the bowel habits change. They have less bowel movements and they become for consistent and less loose.

If your baby is straining and smells gassy, he may be be suffering with constipation. If not, I wouldn't worry about it.

It is not recommended to give juice to a baby under 4 months of age and preferable 6 months.

I would try apple juice (use the infant version) but I assure you that as long as your doctor hasn't specifically said he can not have it (due to a medical condition that we may not be aware of) it will be perfectly fine. Another option is some mineral oil (teaspoon in 1-2 oz of water) would do the trick.

Prune juice has worked a lot better for my son. I just mix it into his formula. Try a table spoon at a time and work your way up. When my son is REALLY backed up (we are now having to eliminate a lot of things out of his diet to figure out what is going on with his tummy) in the morning I mix a full bottle with prune juice instead of water. Works with in 6 hours. Just be prepared for a blow out from H. E. double hocky sticks! Or if you are BFing dilute it and spoon it to him or give it to him via a syringe.