Another constipation thread....

[Celestine]

Okay, I need some new ideas about what to do about DS's constipation. We switched him up to a transition formula last week. The one with the extra calcium for bones, teeth ect. Doctor had no problem with that. Unfortunatly DS has been having some major problems with constipation now. We tried prune juice, as well as brown sugar in his formula. He's also been taken off of solids except for prunes which he's been eating almost every day much to his displeasure since I don't think prunes are up there on his fave list. Finally after nothing happened we had to go in for a suppository. It worked and things seemed to be getting back to normal but now they are starting to get hard again. Is there anything else we can try? We have not reintroduced solids but I'm really getting sick of having to put sugar in his formula. That can't be good to do for too long. Do you think it's just the formula or something else?

One more thing, we've been using the baby apple/prune juice. Should we try the adult stuff instead. The baby one doesn't seem to work very well.

[MellyMel]

Celestine:

My son went through that for MONTHS!! It was the formula. So many formulas constipate children because they are high in iron or their little bellys cannot digest the protein in the formula very good. Once we put him on Carnation Good Start - never had that problem again. It might be something to think about. I swear it is the best stuff for them!!

Melly

[babygirl224]

How old is your baby? My daughter went through constipation no matter what formula we tried. I can tell you that once she started solids (4 months) she goes at least twice a day. She has not constipation since.

The one thing that did work for me every time was a warm thermometer with Vaseline.

[Altson]

Our daughter was actually holding her poo. Yes, a tiny baby can do that and it results in extra constipation. We had to keep it as soft as possible. She still to this day does not like to go poop, though it's better now that she is a year and can stand and go. She just stands, looks at me like "I hate this whole pooping thing Mommy".

Anyway, I agree w/the other poster on Carnation Good Start, it worked well for us. She gets a prune juice bottle daily, even now. When it was really really bad, she also had a dose of Citrucel mixed in with her morning cereal/fruit whatever. You can also add it to the prune juice bottle. It's a natural fiber and alright for kids. We gave half the kids' dose per the Dr. We've been able to stop the daily Citrucel, but like I said, she does still get the prune juice and probably will until she's old enough to understand that poops a part of life and she has to go.

She's a fantastic eater too and gets a huge variety of foods, so it wasn't food issues at all with us. I had honestly never heard of a baby holding their poo and frankly wasn't believing it, but sure enough, that's what she was doing.

Hang in there.

[Kiedy]

If he is not crying during pooping, then it's not a problem. My son's poop has been hard ever since we started solids. He did cry initially, but not anymore. So don't worry about it, at least that's what our doc said.