Hard Poos

I know this isn't the best topic to discuss but I need some help as my little girl seems uncomfortable about it all.

We started solids about 3 weeks ago and slowly increasing the amounts and different foods. She has 2-3 cubes of rice cereal in the mornings and for lunch and dinner she has about 3-4 cubes of potato/carrot/sweet potato (she's also having 4-5 bottles per day of formula - I do one about 1/2 hour before her proper food and the others when she's hungry). Everything was going well until about 4 days ago when I noticed she did a hard little pebble poo. I started to give her more water which she hates but we manage to get approx 100mls of water per day into her but it hasn't seemed to help any. Now they are becoming bigger hard poos and I can see she's having trouble passing them.

I guess what I'm asking is how much water do I give her and should I be doing anything differently? Should I be giving her prune juice to help things along? I just don't know what to do and I can't see my MCHN until Friday as that's what day she's there. If someone could give me some advice, that would be great.

Kelly, your poor bubba! I use Baby Love by Robin Barker as my bible for all things baby. She suggests stopping the rice cereal as the rice can bind the poo and giving her cooked pureed pears instead. Also prune juice is ok as long as its diluted a bit (half/half) and this can be added to the rice cereal once her poos are back to normal. Is she still having a full bottle of formula at each feed? The water you give should be on top of her formula and not as a substitue for it (if that makes sense?). My DD is on formula and she has 5 bottles at 210ml per bottle and hasn't started solids yet. I hope she gets back to pooing normally soon.

I didn't really want to start solids this early but she was going off her milk and really wanting to have a taste of what we were eating and she lost that sucking reflex so my MCHN said to start her on solids. She has her formula bottles plus the 100mls of water per day and she's still having those formula bottles before her food. I think once it's made up she has about the 210ml mark too.

I'll try the pears and see how it goes.

You can also try putting about 1/2 tsp of brown sugar in water, thats another remedy that usually works.

Maybe try cutting out one of the meals of solids as well? As 3 weeks is maybe not enough time for her system to get used to going from no solids, to 3 solids meals per day iykwim?

Also, my GP suggested pear juice if bubs isn't keen on prune juice. Just water it down as the other ladies have suggested.

I agree with Ambah about the three meals a day, 3 weeks after introducing solids perhaps being a bit too much for her digestive system? Perhaps you could cut down to 2 solid meals a day for a few weeks and then slowing introduce the third main meal back again?

We found that rice cereal was very binding for jenna, as was sweet potato.
It also sounds like a lot of food for a littly to be eating - regardless of what your MCHN says. Remember she isn't the one dealing with the grumpy baby with a sore tummy :(
I'd definitly cut back on a bit of the food to see if that works, and cut out some of the rice cereal and sweet potato.

Thanks for all the advice girls. I'm just at my wits end with all the different advice I get from the GPs and the MCHNs and I usually find that I get better answers/results from you guys. Thank you so so so much.

I didn't think (this is going to sound so stupid!) that giving her 3 meals would be a problem. I know when you make up the rice cereal it looks gluggy and binding. I wouldn't think sweet potato would do that but I'm willing to give anything a go. I will cut back on the food - maybe giving her 3 meals but much smaller ones - say only 1-2 cubes instead of 3-4. I know she just love the food so I guess that's why I've done it so quickly. If that doesn't help I'll go back to 2 little meals.

Also I've discovered that I have infant apple juice in the cupboard from a baby show I went to. Would that be OK to put into her water to see if she will drink it then? I was also told that watering a couple of bottles of formula down so instead of making it with 180mls of water you put in 200mls of water for 2 bottles of day. What do you guys think about that? That's what the paed and the MCHN told me ages ago.

WRT apple juice, I'm actually not sure if that will help with her poos... just because I have read before about cooked apple being used to help 'bind' things up? Not sure if anyone else can shed some light?

A little bit of extra water with the formula might be ok, as long as its not being detrimental to the amount of formula being drunk? Ie, if she drinks all of the bottle, then she is getting all of the formula, but if she wont finish the bottle because of the extra water being put in - then she would getting less formula/nutrients in that case.

Cutting back the solids sounds like a good idea, it just may be that her system needs time to mature and adjust to being able to handle solids effectively.

Its hard when you receieve different advice from everyone... I think a lot of the MCHN's actually give outdated advice when it comes to solids, which is a bit scary...

we give Jordan pear Juice to help him go, when he gets constipated.
He has had a terrible time with passing #2 every now and then

We put him on golden circle - vegetable medley which has tomaote base in it and that always makes him poo easier the next day. Maybe try something with a tomatoe base

Is tomato one of those things that you are best to leave off for a little while? Its quite acidic.....
My MCHN gave us a handout that said it was OK to give babies kiwifruit from 4m old. I am here to say it is ABSOLUTELY NOT OK!!!
Jenna had a terrible tummy ache from it, and the most burny acid poos. It was awful.
So I agree with Ambah - sometimes I think some of the MCHN's need a kick in the pants and a good refresher course.
There is really no hurry with the solids Kelly - you can take the next 2-3m to build up to 3meals a day if thats what you want.

I agree with avoiding tomato for a while, I think its recommended to avoid it until 12 months.
There is a good list HERE on which foods are good at certain stages/ages of your bub.

Bugger!! I just went shopping and was going to buy prune juice but I fell over at the price so I didn't buy any - I totally forgot about the pear juice! I'll see how we go over the next day or so and if she's still having trouble I'll invest in some.

Ambah - she's having full bottles even with the added water in the formula so I guess if she's having the whole thing the 2 bottles a day of a tad extra water aren't going to hurt her.

Has anyone done spinach quite early? One of the handouts I've been given has it as one of the first foods and I've got a feeling it might help in the poo department but I don't want to give her anymore problems. Or should I try green beans instead? She eats sweet potato, normal potato and carrot quite easily now so I want to give her a bit of something else - something less starchy which Mum seems to think may be a cause of her hard poos too.

Once again thank you all so so so much - you are all angels!!