Constipation Archives

infant constipation

Dr. Stoll,
I have a three and a half month old baby girl who had normal and frequent stools while she was breastfed. She even continued to have normal stools when on half breast milk half formula, but when I returned to work about four weeks ago, we switched entirely to formula. Within two days of that switch, she started to go 3+ days between stools and they became increasingly more firm and difficult for her to pass. We have tried the corn syrup in the bottle, glycerin suppositories, Sinekot etc. but it seems to be a vicious circle. The corn syrup seemed to help at first, but is no longer effective. The glycerin suppositories worked but doing this chonically does not seem prudent. Her last BM was three days ago now and I think she may have developed a small fissure at that time. I'm worried that this will cause her to withhold the stools as she appeared to be doing this morning. I am aware that this can produce a vicious cycle and I want to prevent future problems. Do you have any suggestions for a baby so young? I have not started any solids yet and was hoping to hold off due to her sibling history of food allergies. Please help me head off this problem before it becomes any worse!
Thank you,
Carol

Follow Ups:

• Re: infant constipation Sheena 00:24:56 4/03/01 (0)
• Re: infant constipation (archive in constipation) Walt Stoll 08:07:56 3/23/01 (0)
• Re: infant constipation Monica 01:23:31 3/22/01 (0)

In Reply to: infant constipation posted by Carol on March 21, 2001 at 09:00:17:

Hi!

I am sorry that your baby is going through that. My son is 4 months old now, and I breastfed for about a month and a half. Well, my son was very constipated when he was being fed Similac with Iron and then I swtiched to Similac low Iron and still he was constipated. He was pooping every two days and I did not like that at all. So, I gave him that one day a little bit of the Apple Prune Juice with some water in his bottle. He really liked it and then he pooped. Then, my friend told me about Carnation Good Start and from then on he poops everyday at the same time. It is wonderful. I love that formula. I hope this helps. Things vary from child to child, so I can tell you that the corn syrup stuff did not work for my son. Other people told me about it and it works for others but not for him.

And the Apple-Prune Juice stuff is when you have a 4 ounce bottle, ok? OUr Physician's nurse told me that.

In Reply to: infant constipation posted by Carol on March 21, 2001 at 09:00:17:

Hi, Carol.

Dairy hypersensitivity!

Start a soy based formula and TOTALLY eliminate the cow's milk. Let us know what happens.

You are right! If you do not resolve this you are at serious risk of all the complications it can cause: stool witholding, allergies (including severe eczema), frequent ear infections, fistulae in ano, etc.

Walt

In Reply to: infant constipation posted by Carol on March 21, 2001 at 09:00:17:

Carol,
Anytime you switch your child's formula it can cause reactions in you child bowel movements, my sister's pediatrician insisted she use Infomil w/ Iron and it always constipated him, and made him have extremely bad baby acne, finally she switched to low iron formula and that cleared everything up. Be careful, make sure you give your daughter's system time to adjust to new things introduced to her. Also when (this was few and far between times)my son would get constipated I would buy those No. 1 sized Gerber prunes, a very strict caution the first time I gave him the whole 4 oz and he went everywhere and I do mean everywhere so only feed her half a jar at first. Iron has a tendency to constipate people of all ages. So unless your little girl has an Iron deficiency try to steer away from high Iron products. If you are feeding her cereal you might want to make the consistancy a little more runnier. I am not a doctor, by no means so if it does not get any better you might want to see your pediatrician.