Starting Solids and Constipation

Hi All,

Hannah's just started solids. She's been eating baby rice for about 2 weeks, and I have slowly introduced potato, sweet potato, and avocado. So far she's eating a couple of teaspoons of babyrice for breakfast, and her dinner is usually two cubes of potato or sweet potato.

Being a breastfed baby, she's never been constipated before, so I'm really not sure how to help her out here! She has passed two small hard poos and is seriously grumpy (who wouldn't be?).

What can I do for her? I tried giving her some pureed pear this morning, but she wasn't really keen on eating (understandably). Can I give her prune juice? Is there some other trick? I'm just trying to breastfed her as much as possible to keep her fluids up...

I just feel so sorry for her!

Diluted prune juice is okay for bubs but it can be a bit harsh on their bellies too. I was told by my ECHN to use 1/2tsp brown sugar in 100mls cooled boiled water and that worked a treat when Matilda had diarrhoea.

Good luck!

The brown sugar in water trick always worked for Aidyn as well, though sometimes it he wasn't all that keen on drinking it...
Otherwise I used to rely on pears.... and thats about it. Sorry for not having any other ideas!

There was a thread somewhere about manual stimulation for constipation,... not that I've ever tried it, but I can find the link if you want?

Thanks everyone! I've just been giving Hannah lots of pureed pears for Brekky and it seems to be doing the trick... If it happens again, I will try the brown sugar trick (CHN also advised this)