What can you do to ease a seriously constipated 12 week old premie?

Cassandra - posted on 11/08/2010

i had bad problems with my 5 month old daughter who was born 4 weeks early. and her doct. told me to give her 4 oz of water mixed with 1 tsp. of sugar. and i swear it was the best thing invented because 30-1 hour later she used the bathroom as good as ever. they also say it helps with softenin the stool.

Hannah - posted on 11/08/2010

I used gripe water. the simple, natural, sugars in it tend to get thimgs moving. I also did massage, andmoved his legs in a bicycle fashion.

Kaylah - posted on 11/08/2010

our doctor told us to dilute apple juice and give it to her and it usually works really well

Claire - posted on 10/27/2010

my son is lactose intolerant so we tried all sorts of things when we had switch from normal milk to soya formula but we found that gently massaging his tummy in small clockwise circles starting on the left hand side of tummy and working your way over to the right would help get thing going plus it helped with the gas too, but do use a little oil when massaging (olive oil is best for babies skin as it has fewer inpurities). Plus both my mother and mother-in-law swore by dark brown sugar water just 2oz of cooled boiled water and half a teaspoon of dark brown sugar which does also help good luck

Nancy - posted on 10/27/2010

Put a 1-2 Tablespoons of Karo syrup in some milk, or some prune juice. Works every time.

Lucy - posted on 10/25/2010

my daughter was always having trouble pooping i tried some old remidies like half tspoon of sugar in the milk or wiv powder milk add an extra ounce of water so like 7spoons of milk then 8oz of water

Kathy - posted on 10/24/2010

I used prune juice in an eyedropper. for my daughter. the same as SKing posted w/ the suppose cut in half or 1/4.

Chandra - posted on 10/24/2010

My son will be 2 on Nov. 29th and he has had constipation issues for about a year and half. Our doctor gave us several idea--the vaseline on the Qtip, Dark Koral syrup in the milk, Prune juice we added it to his milk, he also said Myralax. We have found that Myralax and prune juice works best for us. People would say that he would be fine up to 10 days without a bm but he doesnt make it past day 3. We also use glycerin suppositories when the prune juice and myralax dont kick in right away. The suppossitories usually start to work within 1 min. The box says a hour but everything time we have used them its right way. With the myralax our doctor said to start with a very small amount and increase as needed until we found a good amount. We used to have to do both the prune juice but now we can use 1 or the other. I hope this helps.

Becky - posted on 10/24/2010

My little guy got some sort of prunes (plain baby prune food, or prune apple sauce) every 3 days and it helped A LOT.

Edna - posted on 10/23/2010

my son alex had that a lot when he was born. we put gripe water in his water bottle when ever we would give him a little water to drink. I know its early but some gripewater(LITTLE TUMMIES) in 2ounces of water, or you can do a dropper of cranberry juice in 2 ounces of water. that helped us with getting alex to have a BM. we also ued the (MYLICON) drops to ease the gas. it worked for us

Amber - posted on 10/23/2010

My son was always constipated when he was about that age. My husband and I read online to put vaseline on the end of a q-tip and put the tip in him and twist it and it worked all the time. My niece was constipated and I told my sister in law to do that but she was scared and took her to the doctor and the doctor shoved her pinky finger in her butt and it made her poop.

S - posted on 10/17/2010

My daughter is a preemie as well and had problems with constipation. Her pediatrician recommended several solutions:
mix water with prune juice (my daughter hated this)

get glycerin suppositories, cut it in half and insert it believe me you will get results within a few hours IF even that long. We gave it to her ever 2-3 days until she became regular. To make insertion easier I would squeeze and mold it into a smaller longer piece and my daughter never had a problem with it. Hope this helps.

Liz - posted on 10/17/2010

My b/g twins had to go on Enfamil AR as well. Because of the Iron suppliment and the Rice ceral in the formula his stools are going to be a lot harder. my daughter had problems with constipation when she was on AR as well. Try talking to your pediatrican and asking if you can use a bit of prune juice or see if he/ she has any ideas that might make you be able to do something like that.

My twins were a bit older though so we used the prune baby food, and lots of raisins. She did have to go into the ER once because she was so backed up and they gave her a suppository to help her there.

I'd recommend going back into your ped or taking him to the er. That kind of back up isn't good, especally with the hernea. Good luck.