My daughter delivered last week and her baby has been constipated for 5 days now...it has gotten worse and worse and the baby hasn't had a bowel movement in a day and a half and even then it wasn't like baby poop, more like grown-up poop...we talked to the dr. everyday and he has us trying different things, exercising legs, heating pad, water in bottle, and thermometer thing. Has anyone heard of such a thing..I wonder if we should try a different pediatrician and get a second opinion.

Is the baby breastfed or formula fed? If she's bottle feeding, maybe a low iron formula would help. My son also got constipated when I switched him to soy formula (soy is worse for this) and my pediatrician had me putting white karo syrup in his bottles. He also told me if that didn't work I could give him 4 ozs apple juice (half diluted with water) once a day. Of course, he was older then, about 2 or 3 months. I don't know if a newborn needs apple juice or not. But the karo syrup is okay for a newborn.

My son (while he was breastfed) would sometimes go up to 5 days without a BM, then have a MASSIVE poop, and I was told this was normal for some breastfed babies. However, it should still come out looking like normal bf'd poop. Yellow, soft, and seedy. Grown up poop doesn't seem right at all.

I'd try the Karo if you haven't already. If that doesn't work, I think I'd be asking about low iron formula and suppositories. It can be dangerous to be so backed up. Good luck.

I would say yes to the second opinion if it keeps up. I don't think this ped sounds concerned enough.

She is bottle feeding already..long story...but anyway, I was wondering about the iron in it too...ped said to try prune juice..I hope he knows what he is talking about..I agree with you, he doesn't sound concerned enough..maybe because he has dealt with it before..but we haven't and we are the ones trying to get this poor baby to poop.

My daughter is 10 now and dealt with constipation as a baby. I was told all of the same things that siren mentioned. Only recently did I find out that the soy formula actually contributed to the problem. I did the Karo thing, the thermometer thing and
even apple juice, suppositories, etc. I personally would request a second opinion simply because if the situation isn't taken care of it will be a lifelong struggle. When a person is constantly constipated, their colons adjust to the size of the stool. The colon then stretches because it becomes accustomed to the size. My daughter saw a pediatric Gastro-enterologist (sp?) who said that if it had been taken care of as an infant she wouldn't have gone through all of the pain through the years. There are MANY causes of constipation and I wish I had I known about some of them 10 years ago. My 5 year old has chronic UTI's caused by, you guessed it, constipation. Get a second opinion.

My son who is now 6 was very constipated as a new born and still is today. I was told the white karo syrup thing too. no help!!!! I went to the dark karo syrup and worked great. They had originally told me to put about a drop per 4 oz. In order to make him go everyday it was a tablespoon per 4 oz. And if we forgot the syrup in one bottle you would know.

Hope this helps

webs

I have now almost 7-year old boy/girl twins, and my daughter was constipated a lot, we used sopasetories (specially for small children and over the counter)...........worked like charm........hope this message is not too late........

Hi
My daughter suffered with this when she first born. We put 1 teaspoon of brown sugar in her bottle with water. This worked wonders and was advised by our health visitors.
Lianne