Hi all,

My beautiful baby girl was born 4 weeks ago. For the last week or so she's really had a VERY hard time pooping. We switched to a lower-iron formula and that still doesn't seem to be helping. She only has a BM once every other day...and screams everytime she passes gas/tries to have a BM.

Any suggestions on how to help this? I am going to call the doctor back tomorrow since there has been no change in over a week.

Thanks,
Sarah

My dd was like this also and the way my doctor explained it was this. Her little belly is feeling like she has to poop but she doesn't know what to do or how to push. So he told us to either give her a childrens suppository(it's like a little wax candle) and just hold it there for a few seconds(don't put it the whole way in) and she will push it out, or put a little bit of vaseline on her thermometer and move it around a bit. It ALWAYS worked for us and eventually she learned to poop on her own.;) We had to do this for a while though I do remember that, but you might not have to. Hope this helps, if not maybe it's the formula! Good luck!

My little girl was the same way on one of her formulas. Memorial Day weekend was a lonnnnnnnnng weekend because she was so uncomfortable with the gas and the pains. The doctors had us try a few things - some pear juice (1 oz of juice to 1 oz of water twice a day); told us to try Little Tummies or Milk of Magnesia too but that didn't give her relief either. I ended up using a suppository, but that was only a temporary fix and the doctor didn't want us to do this on a regular basis because the baby may become dependent on them. By the end of the long weekend, my little one had an x-ray and it showed that she was completely backed up - her little bowels were completely full, so her formula was finally switched again and we've had no issues since. Since she is so little, it may be time to try a different formula.

Good luck - I feel for you both right now because it's so hard to see your little one in such discomfort.

My son had this problem also. Unfortunately, it's pretty common so many dr's aren't too concerned.... although for a mom, this is NOT normal and we want answers! I love my son's dr. but I was SO upset that she didn't do anything for my boy. We took matters into our own hands. We tried pear juice and that worked pretty good for a few weeks then stopped. Then my ob/gyn said to try karo syrup in his bottle which worked for a little while also. We switched his formula to nestle good start which is gentler on baby's tummy then regular formula (it's more like breast milk). The switch helped tremendously! We did the thermometer trick when we needed to but were afraid he would become dependant so we only did this when he was pretty upset. But in the end... what did the trick was we started him on oatmeal at 12 weeks. Thank God he was actually ready to start 'cause I don't know what we would have done if he wasn't. Once he started on solids at 4 months he became regular and has been great ever since. I'm so sorry you have to watch your little one go through this. I know how much it hurts your heart to see your angel in pain.

Our ped. always said 1/2 - 1 oz of prune juice either mixed with 1 oz of water or added to formula was ok. Works like a charm for both of my kids, but be prepared for a possible explosion :D

Babies aren't quite coordinated enough to figure out how to tighten their abdominal muscles at the same time they need to relax their anus... plus their abdominal muscles are pretty weak (which is why their tummies stick out). So, all babies struggle to have a BM. Some will struggle more than others, but it's pretty normal.

When our baby was pretty little she struggled a couple of times with constipation (before solids) and we did the Karo Syrup and fruit juice solutions and they worked pretty good.