5 month old with constipation

Katherine - posted on 11/21/2011

Pears helps with constipation and its natural. look it up

Brandi - posted on 04/24/2009

Thanks for the advice. I definitely think it's the rice cereal now. He's only had fruit and oatmeal for the past 3 days, and he's finally having normal BM's. Yay!!! He has his 6 month checkup in a week and the doctor said we'll talk about veggies and meats then. Thanks again for all the advice!

Mel - posted on 04/24/2009

does sound like the rice cereal this causes constipation. try prune juice mixed with water works best for our daughter or lots of water between feeds. you can get stool softeners from the chemist as well.

Stacy - posted on 04/23/2009

I normally give my daughter prunes when she gets constipated and it works

Carrie - posted on 04/23/2009

I would try making your own baby food instead of using the jarred foods. Most brands have a lot of salt in them. I just pureed canned fruits and vegetables for both of my kids. I put the puree in ice cube trays and it keep in the freezer for about three months. I found that jarred baby foods constipated my son quite a bit, but as soon as I put him back on homemade he would start going. Good luck!

Lauran - posted on 04/23/2009

When we first started our daughter on solids we had a really hard time with her being constipated also. I heard that oatmeal cereal is better than rice for constipation. I would also give more juice. At that age, our daughter wouldn’t drink the juice from a bottle or sippy cup, so that's when we started mixing it in with her cereal. Our doctor also told us that if still was a problem that it was o.k. to give her more fruits than vegetables, and see if that would help. Also, for us, it seemed like every time that we upped her to the next stage of foods, it was really hard on her. The doctor said we could add a little Benefiber to her food. There is Pediatric Benefiber. Still to this day I will use the Benefiber if I've noticed she hasn't been able to make a BM.

Brandi - posted on 04/23/2009

Alright he pooped this morning and it was just really thick but not formed. I think it might be the rice cereal because I gave him oatmeal last night. I'm going to just give him oatmeal at night and fruit in the morning. I hope this helps him out. :-)

Christina - posted on 04/22/2009

When you feed him a new food, dont forget to wait 2 weeks before introducing another new food, that way you know if he is allergic to it or not! of course if you notice vomiting or anything offish with him right away, wait a month or so and try it again! Hope everything works out, i had a heck of a time with my son when he started solids too!

Brandi - posted on 04/22/2009

Thank you for letting me know about the water. His poop is formed, kind of like modeling clay. Today it came out formed with mushy poop all around it. He's been going every day for the past couple of days. I've been giving him 1 ounce of baby white grape juice mixed with 2 ounces of water a day for the past 4-5 days. I talked to my husband and he said he thinks it all started when we started him on the baby oatmeal. We started him on rice cereal at 4 months and baby oatmeal a couple of weeks after that. I've been staying away from bananas the past week because I don't want to make the constipation worse. I feel so bad because I can tell he's having a hard time. At least he's getting poop out every day for the past few days. I'm going to cut out cereal for a few days and see if that helps. If it does, I'll try each cereal separately to figure out if it's one of the cereals causing the constipation. He has his 6 month appointment next week so if nothing works I'll talk to the doctor about it. Thank you again!

Christina - posted on 04/22/2009

Also, they say not to start babies on water until they are at least 6 months old and then they can only have 2 oz a day, unless advised by your doctor. Water isnt always the best for babies, it can make them sick if they have too much!!

Christina - posted on 04/22/2009

The nurse told you to give him apple juice??? Apples constipate babies more, if they have too much apples in their diet they get constipated really bad!! Try Prunes and pear juice and if you do give him formula, put a tinch of Kyro Light corn syrup, it helps with the constipation too. Hope this helps, it always worked for my little one!!

Mylene - posted on 04/22/2009

If you are giving him rice cereal it might be the cause of his constipation.... bananas also tend to do that./... Maybe if you switch to oats or add prune juice to his cereal or have him drink it out of a sippy cup (or spoon feed it to him) usually helps. Apricots can help too. Good luck.

Lauren - posted on 04/22/2009

it is normal for their BMs to decrease in number when they start solids. constipation refers to the consistency of the poop, not the number of BMs. if your baby is still passing soft stool (not formed, not hard, no small pellets) then he/she is not constipated. it's ok for them to go like once a day and even once every other day is ok but daily is better. my baby started going longer between poops when i started sweet potatoes but it only took a few days (and adding apple sauce to her diet) and she was back to going 2-3 times a day.

Brandi - posted on 04/22/2009

Now that I think about it, it did start when I started him on cereal. I give him rice cereal one night and then oatmeal the next. Maybe I'll cut the cereal out for now and see if that helps. I tried prunes and it seems to upset his stomach because he spits up about 5-6 times after eating them which is very abnormal for him. I'll try no cereal, only fruit. Thanks for the advice!

Stephanie - posted on 04/22/2009

Our doctor suggested 1 ounce of pear juice twice a day. it works well for Victoria.

Ryann - posted on 04/22/2009

You can try dark karo syrup or some 1st foods prunes only give half at first them the rest if no progess either or should help. my daughter used to get constipated alot when she started foods. I put karo in her formula just a little or i would give her the prunes. Hope this helps.

Ashley - posted on 04/22/2009

Do not give your baby honey until they are over 2 yrs old. Botulism is very dangerous and life threatening to little ones and honey is a main source. Instead just add a little karo syrup (light or dark) to bottles and things will be moving in no time.

Ashlee - posted on 04/22/2009

start adding a little prunes or prune juice to his cereal, this happened to my son as well it worked wonders

Aingel - posted on 04/22/2009

theres a medicine thats all natural by the company brauer called stomach calm i gave one dose to my daughter and within half hour she was all better

Loryn - posted on 04/22/2009

My little one started to get constipated about the same age while only eating cereal... i changed from rice cereal to oatmeal and the problem cleared up. I also started giving her pears or prunes if other foods caused constipation, like the apples or bananas do.

Antonia - posted on 04/22/2009

fruit really shouldn't be binding him up, it should really do the opposite-- prob. why you were told to try him with some apple juice.

You could try giving him water, I started my son with some water as soon as he started solids. It could well be just his little body getting used to the food, as Jessica said perhaps you could try him on something different, maybe some pureed pumpkin or sweet potato.... good luck

Jennifer - posted on 04/22/2009

dark kayro syrup will help wonders!!!! i've had 3 kids and it works like a charm just add about a teaspoon to a bottle or even water.

Jessica - posted on 04/22/2009

The only time my babies got constipated is when I gave them food with Iron. Iron tends to bind. How long does he go w/out a BM? How long has he been eating solid food? Sometimes their little digestive systems just need tim to adjust to processing heavier foods. I don't think water will do much except maybe make him pee more. I'm sorry I haven't been more help. Is the cereal iron fortified, if it is that might be what's backing him up not the fruit. I wish I could help more, if it were me I would take one or the other of the foodsout of the equation and see if there's a difference. I would also get my chiropractor to adjust him, which believe it or not, it does wonders. Hope he feels better.