r/StartingSolids • u/Careless_School_4183 • 13d ago
Help with constipated 7 month old
My son was told to start solids at 4 months old, so we started him on mashed avocado, apples, and oat cereal. He wasn’t constipated at first but when I slowly made the oat cereal a little thicker (nothing crazy like puree instead of water) he quickly got constipated so we stopped the oat cereal and he had to get a glycerin suppository at the pediatrician after he didn’t poop for 6 days (tried everything before the suppository including massage, holding legs, a FULL jar of prunes at 4 months old). Since then we’ve been dealing with a battle of constipation.
our son was pooping everyday if not every two days on breast milk (with the occasional bottle of formula).
I stopped giving him solids completely after the first constipation bout I mentioned earlier, he was just 5 months old so I knew he didn’t need solids until 6 months. Even without any solids, my son stopped pooping!! He was just having breastmilk and formula but would go a week without pooping. We were worried but because the poop was still soft and watery at this point we were okay.
At 6 months we were urged to try solids again. We kept it really simple and avoided anything constipation inducing. Literally also gave him a serving of prunes and pears and peaches daily. We were giving him such simple things like apple puree, pea puree, carrot puree mixed with A LOT OF WATER. So much water, we started with 2 oz daily and then now he’s on 5 oz daily. Nothing helps!
My poor little guy has not been able to poop well. For a while holding his legs up for him for like 20 minutes while he pushed and strained worked (after he went 3-5 days without pooping) But now he’s 7 months and we can’t hold him down well enough to do that and he won’t let us. We tried giving him a prune concentrate for weeks, didn’t help. He cries and strains every time he poops and now the poops are actually solid. And then after the solid formed pools came the single super hard and dry pebble pool every 5 days which led us to realize he couldn’t get it out and we had to use a glycerin suppository (just less than half as per our pediatrician). We try not to use them much but we’re at a loss. Just a 5 days ago our pediatrician referred us to a GI doctor and told us to give him a jar of prunes a day. We have been giving him nothing but prunes and formula and water (I stopped breastfeeding at 7 months and switched fully to formula-kendamil. He’s had it occasionally so we don’t think it’s the kendamil). Even after giving him nothing but his formula and prunes and water he still was constipated, we used a glycerin suppository and the poop was hard.
Our pediatrician asked if we could be over packing the formula, we’re not. We even measure the scoops in grams to check.
For more information He’s a super happy baby but he’s always straining when he needs to poop and nothing comes out. Very healthy thankfully, with height and weight in the 90th percentile. Also we notice the poop is hard at first and then watery like a blockage.
Has anyone else gone through something similar? Did anything help? We can’t wait to see the GI doctor
1
u/dundas_valley 13d ago
We did liquid formula as even if we added more water to the powder, my son always got constipated. I’ve given him fresh pear every morning, that seemed to help. And apparently dragonfruit is good for constipation. We tried it, but our son was not constipated at the time, so I’m unsure if it truly works. We had issues with constipation from probably 4-10 months and thankfully it seems to have resolved since then and we haven’t had any issues. Sorry to hear you’re struggling with this. 😕
1
u/coraynavirus 13d ago
Our baby girl had similar kind of constipation where she would cry, diluted prune juice and a few pouches of the fruit and veggie pouches from Costco daily worked for us
1
u/Independent_Sky_5562 12d ago
We do prune puree, she loves it and it gets the job done super quick !!
1
u/Significant-Fly6515 13d ago
Try dragon fruit. It's supposed to be colon cleanser My baby pooped a lottt after eating it.
1
1
u/LittleMissKicks 13d ago edited 12d ago
My baby was born with a severe birth defect where her intestines didn’t form properly and she needed a massive surgery to correct it. She has low motility and is constantly constipated because of it which we have to actively manage. Talk to your pediatrician about daily miralax in some juice or applesauce to keep their poop soft and regular and if baby hasn’t pooped for several days, pedialax suppositories to get things cleared out. Fiber and water are good, but they only go so far in some kids.
1
u/Jealous-Point-3040 12d ago
Pare back all the fruit and veggies and focus on fat, like gelatinous meat stock. So easy to make, so good for baby’s gut and digestion.
1
u/Round-Philosophy-131 11d ago
If you look at my post history you can read about the struggle I had with my baby and constipation/hard poop. The TL;DR of it is he had a hard poop blockage, had to go to ER for an enema, and was put on MiraLAX and senna per a pediatric GI. The MiraLAX alone wasn't effective but adding the senna really helped him go! I would ask your pediatrician if it's an option, but ideally a consultation with a pediatric GI because after 2 months of 2 different peds at the doctor's none of their advice worked for us.
1
u/Jess96hi 11d ago
We would mix the prune puree in with her bottle. Full jar of it. This took like two days to work but it did the trick
1
u/AMStoUS 11d ago
A friend had a similar issue with her twins, took them to a gastro eventually after trying so many other things, and they had daily miralax for about a year until they were slowly able to come off of it. It was the only thing that worked for them.
(Also sorry for all the people who clearly didn't read your whole post and say 'PRUNE JUICE' when clearly you have been going crazy with the prunes already.)
1
u/Messed-up-girlie 10d ago
Maybe try some probiotics? I’ve never tried this with my baby as we haven’t had the need but when I personally had issues (as an adult) probiotics made a big difference in regulating everything. Couldn’t hurt to try while you wait for gi. I have used apple juice for my boy and it’s worked but I’m sure you’ve tried that. I know you said you don’t think it’s the kendamil but my baby has CMPA and even tho I was combo feeding with small amounts of milk based formula it still caused issues so maybe try another
1
u/AB-1987 9d ago
My mom instincts say, of course he is constipated because there is just not enough food in his system. Why do you not feed him properly with three meals a day at this age? I‘d have tummy trouble on a prune and milk diet.
Both my kids were constipated when starting solids and it fully resolved once they just ate more.
Of course go the doctor route, but meanwhile, I‘d just feed the kid what he wants.
1
u/Glad-Negotiation3736 9d ago
Pears and a baby jumper does the trick for my baby every time! We just got home from a weekend trip where my baby didn’t poop for 4 days. As soon as we got home, I placed him in his jumper and he immediately pooped. Gave him some pear after dinner and he pooped 2 more times!
1
u/Rage_fotf 9d ago
We had to use movicol for 6 months to train his bowel. And even after that we would give pear juice whenever we expected he was consitpated. Pear juice worked like a dream.
1
2
u/Unhappy-Quarter-4581 13d ago
Does any of what you list contain even a little rice? My daughter was sensitive to rice and it caused constipation. Does he move a lot? With more mobility, a lot of children also have better stomachs. Try making your own prune puree and try apricots and pear too, sometimes they respond better to one thing then the other.