feeding/pooping?

Melissa - posted on 10/16/2011

you can introduce prune juice/ prune the food or pear juice or water into the baby's diet. From whta it sounds like you could be introducing cereal in every bottle. You shouldn't even be feeding cereal in a bottle, it is usually recommended not to be fed in a bottle. If your baby cannot be taught to spoon feed by age and development then they are not ready for it. Usually babies are ready for cereal at 4-6 months. Babies don't have to sit perfectly, mine didn't but have to sit pretty good and have to have other signs of being ready! However introduce some liquids or prunes to the diet. Remember this as recomended by a doctor: BRAT diet bananas rice apples and toast help constipate a child, and to help loosen a child up prunes, pears, peaches, green bean/ any bean, apricots, peas!

Lorrie - posted on 10/10/2011

How old is your baby? It isn't until 6 months that babies will develop a stronger digestive system to handle the cereal presented into their diet. Perhaps your child's system is not completely developed. Introducing solids too soon can make it more difficult to handle solids and can cause constipation. too many laxitives too soon also can not be good...their body starts to rely on the help to have a bowel movement. Be sure to check with your pediatrician about baby pooping. Good luck.

Becky - posted on 10/08/2011

Abbie will be 6 months on the 12th. I do the bottle just to get used to the cereal. I try to spoon feed her once a day. She's just learning how to sit up. I'll talk to her dr this week, since we have an appt. Thank you, all, for your advice.

Kristy - posted on 10/08/2011

Baby is probably constipated because of the cereal in the bottle. Extra boiled water or baby prunes should help. Just wondering why you are feeding the baby cereal in the bottle? Good luck.

Sharon - posted on 10/07/2011

We give our little man (5.5mths) 20-30ml of water each day. Since having that he goes everyday. If I miss a day or 2 I'll give it to him twice a day for a couple of days to get him going again.

Elizabeth - posted on 10/07/2011

My doctor recommended feeding babyfood prunes daily to my little guy, it keeps him regular. It doesn't take much about two to three tablespoons worth.



Try to get her off the laxatives, because even an adults body can quickly become dependent on them and you want to her to be able to have a bowel movement without being dependent on meds the rest of her life. Laxitives should only be used if she is having true constipation (hard and a lot of straining when she poops) and even then, it should be with physician approval.



You did not mention how old she was. It is possible that her system is not mature enough to handle the solid food and so it's not being moved as fast as it should. On the other hand, her system could be really good at digesting the food and there is not much to be eliminated from the body. How often was she going before she started cereal? It is common for babies bowel movements to decrease in number when they start solids.



Are you feeding her cereal out of a bottle because she is too young to take it off of a spoon? Remember every bit of nutrition that a baby needs for the first year is found within the formula or breastmilk. They don't NEED solids for nutrition. They do however need to learn to eat solids. It is a learned skill. Taking cereal from a bottle offers no nutritional benefits and no benifits in learning a skill. Some will say that cereal increases the amount of sleep the little one has. I have not found that to be true for my own two and I asked others in my family too who didn't find it to change the ammount of sleep for their little ones either. I'm sure it does help some though. I'm not trying to push anything here, just consider what I've said. Doctors don't like babies to have anything but breastmilk or formula before they are 4 months because their system is not ready for it. The exception is babies with bad acid reflux and then they still wait till 3 months. If your babe is younger than 4 months, the cereal (especially the extra iron in it) could be the cause.



Another thing that you could try is patting her butt. Kind of like patting the back. You want to do it right above the crease of her butt as hard as is comfortable for her. It stimulates the nerves that go to the digestive system. Plus most babies enjoy the rythmic heavy patting.



Good luck and enjoy the little one, I'm sure you've heard this so many times already, but they grow so fast.