Noah is still breastfeeding but has recently been eatting foods. When he was solely breastfed he had 1 dirty diaper everyday to everyother day. Now, since foods, he goes alot longer. I'm a little worried because he hasn't gone in 4-5 days and today he tried to 3 different times and only came up with very small hard amounts. Is this bad, what foods will enduce more flow? lol He eats ALOT so I'm wondering where it all is going!
I don't think its really anything to worry about. Alex used to do that even when he was strickly breastfeeding. He would sometimes go days with out pooping sometimes even a week. Apparently its normal. However if you are worried try giving Noah Gripe water that used to work instantly for Alex. That and Oval(I think) is another thing you should try. A food that will work and juice for that matter is prunes. They work like a charm! What kind of foods is he eating now? Some foods will prevent him from going as well like corn, banana's, I forget what else makes you not beable to go (heehee) If he is a younger boy(which i believe he is under 1 still.....) It probably going to his growth lol Normally when a child goes more than once after a certain age its just waste(usually after 1 years of age....) But yeh Im starting to ramble(tired baby brains at work here lol) I hope I helped a little Jenn Mother of 2
Babies eating foods need to "make a move" every day. Give him a little prune juice, that'll get things moving again! Babies get constipated from eating refined starches, like baby cereal, bread, cookies and crackers. Increase his fluid intake (water!), give him fresh veggies and fruits (not juices) and limit starches.
thanks... I was thinking that might have something to do with it... Most recently hes had bananas, corn, baby cereal, crackers, arrowroot cookies and biters biscuits for his teething... everything starchy! I guess its time to get some prune juice. Hes only tried apple and cranberry so far. Thanks for all the advice!
When my boys were young I did almost all of the things Dr. Greene suggests (of course I didn't know of Dr. Greene at the time *lol*) and it almost always worked (actually I still follow a lot of it now that they're older). As the others have said prune juice really does do the trick!
When I had my babes in Jamaica, I always kept an arrowroot plant in the yard. Arrowroot is an excellent remedy for diarrhea! Binds them right up. If anyone wants to know, arrowroot diarrhea recipe; Dig up one fresh arrowroot, wash and peel. Grate with a fine grater, add a bit of water, and squeeze to release the starch. Allow the starch to settle, and carefully pour off the extra water. Allow to dry into a flour-like powder. Bring one cup of water to boil, add a 1/4 tsp salt. add a bit of cold water to the arrowroot and mix, add to the boiling water to make a porridge. Cook until thickened (like cream of wheat). You can add a bit of brown raw sugar to taste and feed to baby by spoon. Works like a charm!
Always make sure he is totally full on breastmilk before you offer any solids. Only one of my kids ever got consitpated, and it was from a combination of Motrin with red dye in it (which we realized she was allergic to) and bananans. Some babies do NOT poop every day, but even if they go days without pooping, it should be soft, easy to pass and not too smelly, if they are still on breastmilk. My dd Moon and Sage used to regularly go 3-5 days without pooping, and were NOT constipated at the time, we would just have a nice soft LOUD diaper blow out when they did go. Sage and Moon would get bad cramps from prune juice (family history if irritable bowel maybe) so I would soak a half a dozen raisins in water for a few hours, then process them in the baby food mill and give them along with some pears or peaches. They liked this and it helped them go if they had had a hard stool and pain passing it. How old is Noah? One small meal a day (usually in the afternoon) and grazing from your plate should be enough solids for a healthy breastfed baby under a year. There is no need to give him three meals a day. Milk is still his main source of nurtrition at this point, and he should be nursing quite a bit.
Maggie, babies who are exclusively breastfed are fine without pooping daily. (Lordy, I remember those blow-outs! All up the neck and down to the feet! The joys of motherhood are untold!) But babies eating solids need to eliminate at least every other day, there's too much bulk they can't digest in solid food, they end up dehydrated and make matters worse. 5 days is way too long for a food eating baby to not poop.
Maybe it depends on the amounts of solids as well as the amounts of breastmilk. Both myself and two of my kids tend to have very irratic digestive systems, and they regularly went 2-5 days between poops (with some days where they pooped four times.) Now these were babies who were still nursings a good 12 times or more in 24 hours, getting a good quart or more of my milk a day, at solid time, so I think if that baby was down to only a couple of nursings it would be a different story. It also depends on what the stool looks like when it comes out. A soft, seedy breastfed looking stool won't be a problem, a hard dry stool which looks like rabbit poop needs more hydration. I think the problem comes in when people are nursing less when they start solids, this should not be the case. In babies under a year or so, solids are in addition to human milk and should not be taking it's place.
my problem is Noah LOVES to eat... he is 7 months old and wants to eat all the time. His doctor said his weight is perfect so hes not overweight. He wants to breastfeed every 1 to 2 hours still. I've tried to wean him down but he'll get really upset. He is always grabbing at Croix's snacks and Croix always shares with him so he eats then too. He is always fussy. He seems to throw tantrums alot. He screams, he'll get red and hold his breath and shake too. Hes always wanting to be held. I can hardly put him down and I guess I've been giving him more solids so I can eat and have time to put him down. It seems to be the only thing that keeps him happy. I'm hoping all this is a stage. I'm going to stop letting him have so much food.
I think the problem comes in when people are nursing less when they start solids, this should not be the case. In babies under a year or so, solids are in addition to human milk and should not be taking it's place>>>>> Totally agree with ya! Funny story about raisins.... My second son (third baby) Looooooooved raisins, but he didn't chew them up, swallowed them whole. After a trip dwon the GI tract, they would rehydrate and he would leave whole grapes falling out of his nappies all over the house! Gross, but funny! Eryn, maybe it's not so much the amount of food he's eating but the type of food? If he's eating his big brothers snacks, he's probably getting too much dry stuff. Some babies are going to be BIG guys and need a lot of calories to grow, so make sure every calorie counts towards optimal development and doesn't just fill him up. Keep cooked diced veggies and diced fruit in the fridge for his snacks instead of crackers. My second son (third baby) was 10 1/2 pounds at birth, was 16 pounds at 6 weeks, and 23 pounds at 6 months and was already crawling. He's now 14 and almost 6 feet tall. He was grabbing food off everyone's plate at around 4 months and I started him on solids because he was getting hysterical everytime we ate. Now that boy could eat! He also nursed around the clock. I only gave him fresh foods and gave starchy foods very rarely, and boy could he fill his nappies up! My second girl, (4th baby) was the opposite. She had no interest in food until she was over 11 months old, and was always (and still is at 12) very petite. Amount of food depends on the individual baby, quality of the food given is universal.
lol the way your son is sounds like noah... hes a big boy. Hes already crawling and pulling his self up. I think he wants to be big like his brother
Eryn, the tantrums and shaking make it sound like an allergy. You mentioned that he is eating corn. Corn is one of the higher allergy causing foods. Try eliminating it from his diet for a few days and see if the tantrums get better. Kathi
thank you for that advice dakota's mom! UPDATE: Noah LOVED his prune juice... licked every last drop out. I guess it was an hour or two later that the big moment came. He was quite proud of himself and much happier. Thank god he was wearing dark blue *phew*
Dakota has a point. there are alot of foods with allergies, strawberries(any fruit with small seeds in them ei strawberries, blueberries,raspberries) peanuts, im trying to think of what else. What are you manly feeding him???
well, he loves baby cereal, applesauce, pears, bananas, watermelon, strawberries, baby cookie things, cereal like cheerios and life(broken up), and raisins cut in half, and hes tried veggies like broccoli, cauliflower, corn and carrots (all broken and cut into very SMALL pieces of course). Unforetunetly my peditrician hasn't advised me against any foods but peanuty things and honey... maybe its time I switched. I thought what I was feeding him was ok.
We have been dealing with allergies for over a year now. Currently Dakota is sensitive to wheat, rye, barley, oats, dairy, bananas, apples, red beans, ketchup, soy sauce, worchesterhire sauce, and dust. It seems that he can have most of these things in a week. But can't have the same thing two days in a row. Dairy is the worst. He can only tolerate it in very small doses very rarely. Surpriseingly he is not allergic to peanuts or corn. Berries seem to cause problems in children under a year as do some kinds of fish. It's taken a lot of trial and error to come up with this list. We had blood work done but it didn't really tell us anything. In fact, it said he was not allergic to the things we know set him off the most. I wouldn't bother with the testing. Just keep very good records of wht your child eats and any symptoms. You can figure it out. We also had to change pediatricians because our first doctor said he was not allergic to anything. Sh wouldn't allow us to use a chiroprctor and did not want to do any testing. Kathi
my little mama used to get constipated (and also looooved the prune juice). i struggled with bouts of her constipation, then what follows the prune juice. i found mixing a little in with some baby cereal a few times a week kept her regular without any explosions
Believe it or not the best thing I have found for constipation is soy milk.It's very high in dietary fiber , and filling. My 1 year old used to get so constipated that I would have to manually remove the stool for her. I started to give her a cup of soy milk mixed with water (50/50) each day and she has had NO problems since. The nice thing about soy milk is you can use it in smoothies , or it comes sweetened , unsweetened ,flavored , organic- you name it. It's also a good source of calcium and totally avoids lactose intolerance issues before age 1. Hope this helps you !
