Has anyone had a baby constipated while solely breastfeeding? My little 2 month old has had some hard pellets and thick pasty poos over the last few days? He has been somewhat unsettled as well.
Whenever I have raised his thick poos with a health professional, I just get told "breastfed babies don't get constipated". I was also told that the umbilical cord can't be snapped during delivery but Tigger did it.
Any ideas on what could be causing it? If it doesn't get better, I'll see a doctor but wanted to see if someone had experienced this as well.
Wow, I've never heard of the cord snapping during delivery! That's pretty scary! What happened?
Sorry to hear that your tigger has been constipated. Breastfed babies can definitely get constipated. I haven't had personal experience, but friends of mine have. It is usually a food intolerance such as gluten or dairy. Do you have any way you can check for intolerances?
My fully BF little guy was constipated. He would go a week to 10 days between each time and was beside himself by the end of this, each time. And like you, I was told it wasn't an issue.
Turned out he was dairy intolerant. After 6 weeks off dairy for me, (he needed time for his gut to fully heal from all the inflammation that was caused) and some probiotics for us both, things went back to normal and I had a much happier, more settled little baby.
Turtledove - I had a three minute phase 2 so I guess it was just the force at which he sprung out. The cord wasn't around the neck or anything thankfully so not sure how it happened. Don't know about the intolerances. How do you test for this?
Santosha - apart from the last couple of times, he hasn't been distressed and hasn't had any obvious signs of pooping except for the sound. He hasn't been grunting or straining. Our first little girl only pooped once a week and it was all normal, just plentiful on the day she did so I don't think I'm overreacting.
The child health nurse said it might have been a reaction to the vavcination goop they give them to drink at the two month appointments.
Good news is that, while there is still a little thick paste, the majority is back to normal. It still doesn't seem normal to me but it is back to where we started.
Would love to know how to work out intolerances without eliminating foods for set periods. Is there a way.
As far as I know, that's the only way to do it. There are tests available from naturopaths etc but I understand most of these are not evidence based or have actually been discredited by research. I went off dairy for 4 or 5 days with no benefit and concluded that it wasn't the culprit. Then I was told that it takes quite a few weeks before it's completely out of Mum's system and bub's gut has a chance to heal. So I gave it another shot and sure enough, a few weeks later I started to see real improvement. I still wasn't entirely convinced - maybe he was just maturing and getting better on his own. Then one night I was out to dinner and decided that I would indulge in a dairy-heavy meal as my test. 48 hours later, my poor bub was beside himself. No more cheese for me until he weaned at 18 months!
Oh. Might need to find some soy milk and rice milk for a few weeks if it doesn't clear up soon. Luckily he didn't seem to have any pain before the vaccine so fingers crossed everything sorts itself out in the next week.
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Constipation for breastfed baby
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