formula and constipation

vanessapete · February 17th, 2005, 11:07 AM

Hi all
Just wondering if anyone else who formula feeds has had trouble with constipation?? Hayley is 3 weeks now and does strain with hard poo's. I am giving her s26 gold. The chemist suggested water and gave me some drops to put into her formula but i don't want to become reliant on this. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Vanessa

**christy** · February 17th, 2005, 12:51 PM

Matilda did too at first with formula, it takes a while for their digestive system to cope... I think a few weeks. So I did the warm cooled boiled water trick for a few days until she got regular & then it settled down. HTH

**Ambah** · February 17th, 2005, 04:41 PM

Hi Vanessa,
I think it is pretty common for babies to get a little constipated from formula. Offering the cooled boiled water is something I had been doing since the beginning... I wouldnt worry too much about becoming reliant upon, I guess we just need to do what works.
Aidyns constipation was on and off for many months, and when he was over 4 months I was able to help things along by giving him pureed pear... that works wonders!
But yeah, it is pretty distressing seeing them in pain when trying to poo. I suggest just sticking to what the Dr/chemist told you - I seriously doubt that you would be doing any harm by it.
I hope things settle soon... from memory it does get better after a month or so, but never completely dissappears.

Jackie · February 17th, 2005, 04:52 PM

My son had a bit of trouble with constipation when he went on to formula as well, I guess it takes their little bodies a while to adjust to something new and different..

mooshie · February 21st, 2005, 08:09 PM

hi

don't know how true this is but 4yrs ago my MCHN told me that S26 was known for constipation as this is what my ds was on, so i changed to karicare and that was fine.

i have just started giving lani 1 bottle in the evening as i am still b/feeding but am comping the evening bottle and i am using Nan as this is apparently the easiest to digest.

as for how to clear the constipation i agree with the other suggestions.

hth

vanessapete · March 1st, 2005, 11:40 AM

Hi all thanks for your replies. I was so fed up with watching Hayley struggle that i changed to NAN HA. What a difference no more constipation!!!

**min** · March 1st, 2005, 01:44 PM

vanessa, my sis had this with both her babies, both formula fed. there is some kind of 24 hour hotline number your MCHN should have given you. my sis rang them, and they told her about a brown sugar and water bottle, is just a small amount (i dont know how much) and that was given to the latest bubs in between feeds. also if it gets really severe there is some kind of drops which can be added to the formula milk, again not sure what they are

***Efjay*** · March 12th, 2005, 12:26 PM

they told her about a brown sugar and water bottle, is just a small amount (i dont know how much)

Sugar to a baby? ](*,) :-s

vanessapete · March 15th, 2005, 02:36 PM

Hi all
I thought a update would be good to let you know how hayley is doing.I only lasted about 5 days on the nan she got terrible wind off it, to the point where she would cry while feeding and she did a couple of projectile vomits eerrhh.I then went onto the karicare gold geez that one smells, hayley thought so too she wouldn't drink it after three days i went back to the s26 gold. She drinks it well and now has no more constipation off it.I guess i should have just stuck it out in the first place but its all trial and error i suppose.

mooshie · March 20th, 2005, 07:45 PM

Hin Vanessa

that is great hayley is ok with the formula now - it just goes to show how all babies react differently to different formulas

all my 3 were different s26, karicare and now nan

i also agree with the smell of karicare gold ewwwww lol

**Antheia** · March 20th, 2005, 07:58 PM

My DD has S-26 Gold. She used to get constipation but I gave her the warm cooled boiled water and it did the trick. Only rarely does she get it now. She's been a lot better in the last month. She is 3 months old now. I think it is just that their digestive system is immature and sometimes cannot cope. At first I had my DD on Karicare(yes it does stink doesn it!) and it make her get very bad diarreha(?sp) and that is when i changed to S-26.

**Phteven** · March 20th, 2005, 08:18 PM

The baby books I have reccomend boiled cooled water and if that doesn't work the very weak brown sugar & water mix. Its a non-chemical option and it stimulates thier bowels without irritating them. The other option that most of the books suggest for constipation is very weak prune juice and water solution.

**Ambah** · March 22nd, 2005, 10:26 PM

I was also told about the brown sugar in water... We used it a few times, and it definately did work a treat!
We didn't have so much luck with the diluted prune juice though, Aidyn just wouldnt drink it!

**{sarah}** · March 29th, 2005, 09:00 PM

I'm not sure if we have a constipation problem - gosh that sunds dumb! Zander just doesn't poo much! He has had 3 poos at home & we have been home for 6 days. They weren't hard or anything & he didn't seem to strain doing them, I'm just worried he's not doing it enough. Oh yeah, he's on Karicare...

**Ambah** · March 29th, 2005, 09:14 PM

Oh Sarah, I remember thinking that exact same thing at the beginning! I don't think you should worry too much about it... for many months at the beginning Aidyn was only doing a poo every second day or so...

**Phteven** · March 29th, 2005, 09:22 PM

I think that constipation is more about the consistancy of the the pooh rather than the frequency of the pooh.
If its soft its OK but if its dry and hard it might be constipation.
Some breastfed babies can go for more than a week between poohs (my nephew oncw went 11 days!!!!!!) I wish Yasin was like those babies.