Constipation

[madridista]

Hi ladies.. My baby is 2 weeks old. She's constipated and she has gas. I wanted to know if I could have passed that to her since I'm constipated and gassy as well?

 

[azure girl]

Is it hard poo? If not it may be normal. My boy farts and poops with lots of grunts, but he is definitely not constipated. Breastfed babies can go days without pooping and be just fine.

 

[TCK_Runner]

I think there must be something intrinsic that happens right around two weeks old. Emma had diarrhea something bad almost exactly two weeks after she was born (I think she was 2w 3-4 days -- weekend from hell for us!!!). She is now 5w2d and although she still has gas pains, I swear something happened right around 4 weeks where suddenly she's able to pass it more easily! So hang in there, could be rough for another week or two...

With that said, my midwife did tell me that my diet does and will affect her. I am pretty sure the extreme gas and diarrhea episodes (which seemed to happen like every other day at that point) were after days in which I consumed things like chickpeas, spinach, loads of dairy, etc. Apparently all of those exasperate the issue for tiny tummies. I'm on a pretty boring diet now, but I can say that these days I can now eat ice cream and cheese and she seems to handle it well. I have not tried chickpeas again as those really gave her severe bouts of gas!!!

 

[joanna3240]

It's almost unheard of for EBF babies to be constipated, since breast milk is so easily digested. In a few days or so she will probably have an explosion . But I remember when my LO was around that age he struggled horribly with passing gas, its just a phase they go through and I remember it getting a lot better at 9-10 weeks. I used to bicycle his legs for a few mins when he was relaxed and lift his legs higher than his tummy (like on a little pillow) and that would usually get everything out.

 

[Rachel_C]

It's normal for babies to seem to struggle to pass wind and poo - as long as the poo is soft when it arrives, it's not constipation and usually nothing to worry about. You can keep winding LO after feeds really well to try to limit the amount of wind that needs to come out, but other than that it's just a waiting game as LO gets used to doing something that is really pretty weird if you've never pooed before!

It's not actually that likely that foods causing you wind would cause wind in your baby. Wind is caused by undigested food in the gut causing a build up of gas but what's in your gut is not what's in your blood, and only things in your blood can get into milk. So, neither the gas itself (from you) or the undigested foods (in your gut) get into your blood so they don't get into milk. To make baby windy, baby would have to have an actual sensitivity to the food - whether it's a 'windy' food has nothing to do with that. Something that is likely to cause you wind is no more likely to cause your baby wind than any other food.

https://kellymom.com/nutrition/mothers-diet/mom-foods/#gassyfood