How do you know if your bub is constipated..

[Stevie]

i probably sound like an aweful mummy not knowing this but im not sure how to tell?
DD doesnt poo every day anyway (sometimes she does sometimes its every second day) but in a thread yesterday i posted about going to s26gold step 2 and someone warned me she might get constipated form it.. she's been a bit sooky today and on 2 different nappy changes she's had the smallest little nugget (after ive seen her grunting and carrying on like she does when she's pooing) this was today too.
Is she constipated and re there any other signs i can look for next time?
and what do i do? do i switch back to s26 gold step 1.. and can i stay on that forever? someone said it just has extra iron in it, so do i give her extra iron another way?

my poor lil bubba.. i feel so bad..

[LimeSlice]

She may be pulling her legs up like she has wind...

But if you lay her on her back on the floor flat, gently press her lower belly - if she is constipated it will be quite firm, you will be able to feel it.

If you think she may be but aren't sure, gently press and rub her belly at the same time in clockwise direction with your fingertips - this will help get things moving. Also the moving of her legs in circles will help as it does with wind etc.

I didn't FF but from what I know there is no need to move from Step 1 of S26. The other thing is most bubs I know that were FF on S26 couldnt have the "Gold" - there was too much whey protein in it and they all got constipated etc.
A little brown sugar in some warm water may also help if she is blocked up

HTH And you aren't a bad mummy for not knowing

[MantaRay]

Stevie, it's actually something that confuses a lot of people, so don't feel bad for needing to ask Babies don't always poo every day so that is not a sign of constipation. Constipation is when the poo is hard when it comes out. If her poos are hard, the first step is to try and give her more to drink. If the formula is the problem then giving her more might not help, so maybe give her some water to drink a couple of times a day. It might also be an idea to try a different formula to see if that helps. GL!

[ss_storm]

The little nuggets sound to me like she may be a little constipated. Are they quite firm?
And no, you don't necessarily have to use Step 2, as I said in your other thread I changed DD back to Step 1 after her being constipated for a couple of weeks on Step 2 and nothing else was working. They can get 'extra' iron from food, I think broccoli is fairly rich in iron, and apparently there isn't a huge difference in the amounts of iron in the two different formulas.

You could probably try some prune juice diluted in water to help move things along a bit, or stewed pears if you didn't mind starting her on solids a little bit early.

It may just take her a little bit of time for her body to process the new formula though, so you can still try giving it to her and see if she gets better over the next week or so as she gets used to it, but some, like DD, just can't get used to it so as a last resort I swapped back.

Hope your little one is feeling better soon

[*Infinity*]

Stevie, my DS couldn't tolerate the Step 2 either so we are sticking to the Step 1 (not Gold either) until he's weaned onto cows milk at 12 months. Its really not necessary to go to Step 2 if you feel its not right.

[Fleur]

I FFed DD1 & DS1 on S26, and back then there was no Step 2 - they were fine without it

If she is constipated (hard nuggety poos) you can try offering a bit of extra water, if that's not enough on it's own then try some brown sugar or or diluted fruit juice as the others have suggested.

Also, as Lime Slice suggested massage, I found massages really good too even when DD2 wasn't constipated but if she was taking a while (ie hadn't been for a few days) she would get uncomfortable, and it really helped.
I did