Constipated 1 week old. what can i do?

[drago]

Hi all

my LO is now 8 days old and seems to have trouble passing stools. She was born last monday morning and had 2 poops on the tuesday. She then went 3 days through to saturday without any more bowel movments. On saturday she had 2 small poops but since then there has been nothing (it is now tuesday). She seems to be in discomfort from this and is doing alot of straining and crying. She is bottle fed on sma and i have tried massaging her tummy and "cycling" her legs, is there anything else i can do? or am i worrying about nothing?

 

[cocosianelle]

They say SMA is quite a rich formula so maybe it doesn't agree with her or her body is still getting used to it. Our LO started on aptimal but we ended up putting her on C&G comfort due to her only going every two days. Now she goes probably 5 times a day!

How much is she taking?

I'd have a chat with your midwife or HV too.

 

[drago]

Thanks for the reply. She is on 6 feeds a day, she gets 3 scoops in 90ml (4 fl oz(?)) of water, she doesnt always take the full amount however. Im starting to get a bit worried about her as she seems in more and more discomfort from this

 

[Rachel_C]

When she does poo, is it hard pellet-like poo? If not, it's unlikely she's actually constipated. New babies and even older babies can make a big fuss over pooing - lots of grunting, straining, wind, crying etc - it is something new to get used to, and when you think about it doing a poo is pretty strange! If her poo is normal poo (if you want you can google what newborn FF poo should look like ) it's much more likely to be normal than constipation and therefore nothing to worry about, although it can be sad to watch so keep up with tummy massage etc to try and help.

 

[MindUtopia]

I wouldn't worry too much. You might consider changing to a different formula (SMA can be constipating and I know it made my daughter constipated when we had to use it while trying to get my milk to come in in week 1). But also babies just take a while to get their digestive systems up and going. My daughter often went 4 days between poos in the early weeks (actually sometimes she still does). But as long as it's soft when it comes out (not pellet like), she's fine.

 

[drago]

Thanks for the replies. She done 2 poos in quick succession this morning (day 9) i had to cycle her legs to get it to keep coming out and she seemed in a bit of discomfort getting it out but im just relieved shes done it now, i'll keep an eye on it for the next few days, hopefully this will have kicked her bowels into action and she'll start being more regular now.

thanks again for the help

 

[felix555]

That sounds normal for a 1 week old baby to me? Although I have heard SMA causes constipation