1 Month Old Pooping Advice Needed

[SweetPea3200]

Hi All,

My boy is five weeks old, adjusted 39+2. For the last couple of weeks he's had a lot of trouble pooping. He's not constipated at all, the poop is very watery, but he struggles, grunts, cries, and takes forever to get it out. I can spend a solid 30 minutes pressing his legs up to his chest and he still won't be done. Not only does it make me so sad for him, it's also impossible to sleep through his struggle and he tries to poop after every feeding. Even now when he's supposed to be napping, I can hear him grunting in his playpen

I'm not sure if it has anything to do with him being a preemie or possibly with the iron I give him? Again, he's not constipated, poop looks totally normal for a breastfed baby.

After many nights of not much sleep, ANY advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance

 

[hlynne]

I had this same issue, well I thought it was an issue with my son. He was born 40+4 and totally healthy and happy. Since he was born basically until about 2 weeks ago he grunted from about 2am until he woke up off and on. I thought he was in so much pain. He was grunting in his sleep, and making all of these really weird noises. He stopped doing it once he was awake, or when I woke him up because I thought he was in so much pain. My son was not constipated and was not crying about it. I read a lot about it and it seems that it was just his immature digestive (I think) system. Once he got a little bit older and figured out how his body worked, he has stopped all the grunting. I will say that my son is also pretty gassy. I have to make sure that I really get the burps out before he goes to bed or else he will grunt a bit (couple minutes), until he works the gas out.

I am a first time mom so I am not a pro to say the least, but I just wanted to let you know what I figured out about my son.

 

[SweetPea3200]

Thank you! That is basically what the pediatrician said I just feel like it's getting worse rather than better for us. Mind you, mine is only 5 weeks like I said. How old was your LO when he grew out of it? I definitely worry about him being in pain with the gas. Did anything help you while you waited it out?

 

[tulip1975]

Newborns basically have to learn how to poop. It just takes a little time. You'd think it would be as natural as breathing, but apparently not.

 

[SweetPea3200]

How long do you think it takes? Do you think him being a preemie will make it take longer?

 

[hlynne]

Thank you! That is basically what the pediatrician said I just feel like it's getting worse rather than better for us. Mind you, mine is only 5 weeks like I said. How old was your LO when he grew out of it? I definitely worry about him being in pain with the gas. Did anything help you while you waited it out?

I want to say that it stopped between 6-7 weeks. So, hopefully you don't have much longer to deal with it. I did use Colic calm before his 1:30/2am feeding so that once he went to bed he wouldn't just start the grunting. I only read about that towards the end. I do think it helped. My son doesn't have colic, but this stuff helped for the gas. I still have to burp him for a while to make sure he gets all the burps out. I can't wait until he can work all his bodily functions by himself

https://www.coliccalm.com

 

[SweetPea3200]

Thank you! I'd cry with happiness if it got better at 7 weeks. I have tried gripe water but I don't like the kind I have so I might go out and get something else. I don't think we have colic calm in Canada but we have something called Ovol which I think is similar.

I know what you mean about the bodily functions. It's so sad and right now I just feel like it keeps getting worse, it's hard to remember that one day he'll be able to handle this all on his own!

 

[k4th]

We have the grunting too. I'm using infacol along with really thorough winding, plus baby massage. When ds has less wind he grunts less