How to avoid weaning constipation?

[Hangin_On_AGS]

We started Mia on some solids and than she had issues getting constipated sorta.. She would go little bits all day long and it made her butt really raw. She only was getting a little bit of homemade puree made with breastmilk. So is this just something we are going to have to go through? I stopped her for a week to let her get back to normal stools. I always breastfed her before giving her the solids so she was first full of breast milk. I did make the mistake of giving her mostly banana's at first and know they can be binding. So should I be able to go back and just stick with the roughage and away from the binders?

Yes I know she's not exactly 6 months yet, but She is very developmentally ahead and I've held her off as long as I can. She has started even trying to chew her purees. And she very much understands that we are eating and she is not. She has even started to work on her pincher development and picking up small items.

 

[lozzy21]

Give water during meals

 

[laodicean]

Same thing happened with my little guy, so I've stuck now with foods that they advise for constipation (pears, apples, plums, etc) and avoided the ones that cause it in the first place (baby rice, bananas, carrots, etc).

We're having to do slow weaning with prolonged food trials due to allergies though so what works for us may not work for you...

 

[MindUtopia]

Obviously every baby is different, but I'd try more of the apple, pear, broccoli, etc. and see what happens. We've actually had the opposite! My daughter has always been sorta constipated, but since we started weaning, she's much more regular and sometimes it's 3x a day. It used to be about once every 3 days! But we feed her lots of fruit and veg and fairly fibrous foods. I'd say give it a try and see what happens. Constipation is fairly normal though and it might just be a matter of riding it out until it improves.

 

[Rachel_C]

Is it definitely constipation (hard poos, when she does them, sometimes little pellet-like ones) rather than just changes? You mention waiting until her poos go back to normal but they won't if she's eating solids because the normal you're used to is EBF poo, it won't be the same once you introduce solids. It can take a while for LOs to get used to the new poo so they can go back to almost newborn style grunting while they go, but if it's not hard it should be fine.

You can offer water alongside solids if you like but I would be very baby led about it and only let her do it herself. I would also make sure that the water is very different to breastfeeding so maybe keep it pretty cold in a cup, not warm like milk. You don't want her replacing milk feeds with water. Another option is to let her feed on demand because the start of a feed is more thirst-quenching than a bit later, so she may want some short snacky feeds to have a drink rather than a meal - if you let her tell you what she needs, she should be getting enough 'drink' so you won't need water.

However, all that said, if she does get constipated with normal foods it might just be a sign that her gut isn't ready. An option could be BLW which is fine from 24 weeks - if you let her feed herself and she can, the theory goes that her gut is ready. If she can't or only manages a very little, that's because her gut isn't ready or isn't ready for much. Either way, she's able to at least play with the food so it shouldn't be an issue of not being able to hold her off. It's only a few weeks until 26 weeks anyway, so if she can't feed herself she can practise

ETA - I don't really agree that constipation is normal if you mean hard poo. Changes are normal with the associated grunting, wriggling and leg kicking, but painful difficult poo is not normal.

 

[Hangin_On_AGS]

What happened was it got harder and she was going multiple times a day but she was acting like it was hard to pass and sorta painful. We added water and a little bit of prune juice in her water. She is also only getting fibrous fruits and veggies and this are going much better this time. She has harder stools but she doe not act like they are hard to pass.

 

[lily28]

Bringing this up again!

We just started tasting foods this week, I 'm giving him 1-2 teaspoons of puree baby food that I prepared to freeze for future meals. I only give him this little at noon, after a booby feed, with water in a sippy cup. So far it was butternut squash that produced normal human stinky poos that were soft, courgette/zucchini with very little carrot (poo was again stinky),
-this is where he started not pooing-
pear (hated it, didn't eat much), apple (hated it), and again courgette (loves it, but didn't eat much)... At some point I was outside with my mom and the baby, and I gave him some yogurt (hated it) and later some banana (not pureed) and I think it made him constipated, he hasn't done any poos for 2 days. He is grumpy, I can hear him grunting but nothing comes out.
Today is day 3, how long should I wait till I get really concerned? Do I continue giving him small amounts of solids, or go back to EBF?

 

[Hangin_On_AGS]

when I had just started feeding I would go back to EBF until she went.. As much as I hated the idea of it because it's not natural.. Corn syrup a tablespoon in a bottle and it works within ours... And I noticed that when we stopped purees and went straight to blw mia really stopped having issues with constipation and she drank much more water during her meals. I also offered her water in a sippy cup whenever.. You can go to the sink whenever and get a glass of water when you want.. Why shouldn't they be able to. The last thing we resort to if she does have an issue is probiotic yogurt.. Works like a charm and she doesn't get upset from her tummy hurting.

 

[lily28]

^ thanks!
He pooed yesterday, soft and not stinky poo too. I was very used to him going 3-4 times a day that 2 days without a bowel movement seemed weird!
I'd love to try BLW, and I do give him pieces of my food to hold and play with, but I have excruciating pain in my wrists and the cleaning up afterwards just kills me.

 

[Hangin_On_AGS]

that is where having puppies comes in handy!

 

[lily28]

^ yep those w/ puppies are very fortunate, and the puppies are even more getting all kinds of treats lol!

 

[Meg26]

I used pure pumpkin puree mixed with a little milk and cinnamon. As well as introducing lentils and avocado as a first food. Helped alot. I now give pumpkin twice a week as a preventative.