Baby not making bowel movements!?

Question

Hi all,my little one is just over 5 weeks&since wednesday he nas made no bowel movements,i breast feed him&since last night i have fed him every 2 hours,he is not crying&does not seem to be in pain&he is making little f**t noises but nothing comes out!should i be concerned or is this normal?any help or advice would be great thxs joanna

Answer 1

I had the same with my little boy, i was breastfeeding. i took him to the heath visitor after 1 week of no poo... they suggested i tried diluted fruit juice. it didnt work. it was 2 weeks in total when he finally exploded down there! i took him to the doc 3 days before and they perscribed lactulose. it was great stuff! you will find the constipation gets better as time goes on but a lot of breast fed babies suffer with it.

Answer 2

I had the same thing with DS now and then.  The health visitor said that as long as he is still farting, it's not a problem.

pretty normal I think.  we were generally rewarded with the mother of all poos after a day or two.  Sometimes it was as long as five days early on.  HV wasn't at all concerned.

remember that he isn't actually taking on that much milk at the moment, his stomach is only the size of his fist so not much in, not much out y'know?

Answer 3

My little sister had this problem when she was a baby. It was a case of her sphincter muscle in her a**s was not relaxing allowing her to defecate. Mum had to put her little finger into my sister's a**s and manually relax the muscle. This was advice given by a medical professional though, so I suggest you take your baby to the doctor first.  

Answer 4

that is like really common in babies feed him pears if he's still sick i guess i would either take him to his doctor or give him stool softeners

good luck!

Answer 5

Don't worry.  They can skip a day or two without any problem.  Don't try giving him extra water or feeding him pears like someone suggested...just let nature take its course.  

One thing we used to do when our kids got constipated was to put a little bit of vaseline on a cotton swab and stick it up there maybe half an inch.  That almost always resulted in a bowel movement.  My younger daughter was on soy formula and sometimes she had to have a suppository, but it's too soon to try something like that and you wouldn't want to do it without the doctor's advice.

Answer 6

don't stress too much, breast fed babies can go for days without using their bowels. Breast milk is readily absorbed by babies and it just means he is using everything he is talking in. If it was a week since his last bm i would get him checked but other than that all i can say is, enjoy the p**p free nappies while they last.

Answer 7

My baby was like this when she was really young. I found the best thing was to feed them boiled water in between feeds. This helps prevent constipation. Speak to your health visitor if you are worried x

Answer 8

Breastfed babies will stool less after the first few weeks. Even going once every two weeks can be normal! Breastmilk is absorbed so well by the baby's body that often there are very little waste products left over. As long as he is having plenty of wet nappies then there is nothing to worry about! You don't need to feed him pears or any other foods, in fact you don't need to do anything. Just be prepared for a big blowout when it comes!

Answer 9

I remember my first baby held on for nine days once! I had contacted the health visitor before that and she said they can hold a poo for up to two weeks!

My 16 week old has taken to holding onto his poo for 2-3 days at a time and then exploding with the build up and pooing all day-delightful!

So don't worry sounds normal to me.