Seeking Help with 5 Month Old

Hi C.,

When you decide to start feeding baby food- give her some sweet potatoes - I give my little guy a few bites and I can bank on fun diapers for the next couple of days. And he loves them. Good Luck!

You might try some baby prune-apple juice every 3 days - if her tummy is not hard, it really is not a problem. If all else fails, infant suppository is the next step. But if she is not uncomfortable (has a soft belly) she will go when she's ready.

My daughter had this problem.I put a little cayro corn syrup in her bottle and it helped her to go. I hope this helps!

Hi C.,

I am a mother of 3 boys, 2 of which have encompresis (sp?) a bowel condition which doesn't allow them to pass freely. Anyway, you NEVER want to give your baby anything to help induce a bm without your doctors consent. However, if it has been a few days since her last one, you can feed her prune juice diluted with an equal part of water. This is a natural remedy that I'm sure your doctor will ask you to try first. Also, over the next couple of weeks or month or so, start making a calendar, and mark off the days that she does have one, and the days she does not. This will be very helpful in your doctor deciding if she is having a problem or not. Also, if she goes more than a week w/o one and she's been on the prune juice, then I highly recommend you request an ultrasound from the doctor (which they will probably do anyway), to determine how impacted she is. I hope this helps. If you need anything else, please don't hesitate to ask me. I completely understand your frustration as I've been dealing with this for 7 years now with both of mine.
Good Luck, and hope everything works out.

Apple juice has always helped for my children. I think the acidity in the juice helps them go. But just don't give her too much... It will cause her to have diarrhea. I always dilute it 50/50 juice and water.

ABOUT ME: mom of a 10yr old, 7 yr old, 2 yr old...With one on the way! Hope this helps your daughter!

I had this problem with my daughter when she was about that age too. My doctor told me to give her just a little bit of prune juice- like 2 ounces, and see if it helped. It did. We just bought the little six pack of cans and kept them in the pantry for when she needed a little extra help. It always did the trick.

Dear C.,
Hi, well I just read your request and well I was the same way when my son was that little. I had to take several times to the doctor because I was afraid something was wrong, and he would always tell me the same thing, "its ok for your baby to not have a bm everyday, its normal because he is not eating solid foods yet." So I pass this on to you...its normal for your baby to not have frequent bm. Now if you notice that she is really trying hard to have one but can't, it always helped my son when I would add a spoonful of karo syrup in his bottle, that helped to keep him regular, plus lots of excise and gentle massages on her belly might help. Hope this helps! take care and good luck with everything!

I have had some of my children go up to 8 days without a B.M. If when your baby finally has one and it is a normal consistency and not like pebbles (rabbit poop) then your girl is just fine. Her body might be slow with it. If her bm is little hard round balls than she might have some constipation in which case you might talk to your dr. about it.

a few ounces of watered down apple juice should do the trick. but i really wouldn't worry about it too much. going every other day or every two days is well within the range of normal. my daughter went every other day until she was on 100% solid food. enjoy the break from poopies!!

Go with the white Karo corn syrup and water. I did that with my son and he went like a charm.

My dr said it is fine if they do not go everyday as long as it is not over 3 days. if you get to 4 days use a rectal thermometer for stimulation ( sounds sad but never had to go that far). my oldest would go every 2 or 3 days. now he goes reguarly once a day sometimes more, always question your dr about anything that causes you concern though

Before you try meds, try dietary adjustments. At 4-6 months, you can start her on solids.
Then offer fruits and vegetables. You can offer prunes in her rice cereal or oatmeal. That should help her have a bowel movement regularly.

2 ounces warm water with sugar in it. No more than 2 times per day. As long as she seems comfortable she does not have to go everyday. Every few days is fine. Doc always told me not to worry if less than 7 days has passed. Good luck

When my son was around the same age he had the same problem. I noticed he would go once every 2-3 days. I spoke to his Dr. and he said it was perfectly normal and after he started drinking whole milk he started going 2-3 times a day (I think I liked it better when it was once every 2-3 days j/k). My 4 month old also does the same thing but it doesn't worry me anymore. Hope it helps.

Hi C.

I also have a 5 month and he too only "goes" like once every two or three days. I started him on solids last month and he did pretty good at keeping everything down, but its his pain that has me not feeding him solids everyday. So he is also on formula. Anyway, I have these toys for him that kinda help him go; one is an excersaucer and the other is a walker. When he sits in them to play, the position he sits in helps expedite the process. Maybe this may help you too.

Let me know =)

~D. O.

Try a tablespoon of brown Karo syrup in her bottle. It was something passed down the generations to me. I am not crazy about the sugar, but it worked. She's fine on her formula at this age. I also fed our babies some rice cereal in the a.m. and at bedtime and mixed it with some of their formula.

You should not be concerned if it's only 2 days of not having a bm, but 3 days could be a problem. Then, you should try some watered down apple juice.

I've found that warm baths and gently massaging her back in a circular motion has always helped with my daughter.

NM. I jsut read you formula fed. LOL.
I breastfeed my son but breastmilk is natraul so kids dont normally get consitpated.
Formula they usually always do. (My 1st son did)

But apple juice, applesauce things like that should help. Also lay her on her back and lightly pus her knees into her belly sorta like working the poop out. Also massaging her belly may help.
Good Luck

No matter what anyone tells you, formula fed babies need extra water in their diet. I've both breastfed and formula fed, and babysat a lot of formula fed babies that just had horrible times with their bms. Breastfed babies don't need it. But formula fed ones absolutely do or their bms are not regular or soft. When my children started formula, I made sure they also got a 4 oz bottle of water - or I would add an oz of water to the formula. You can also add a tsp of Karo corn syrup to one bottle of formula (or water) when necessary. The sugar draws water into the bowels and helps with a bm naturally. It is not the same as honey as is perfectly safe. (My mom and that generation used to put it in each bottle of formula at each feeding. It helps the digestion.) I wanted my kids to like milk with just the taste, so I didn't do it every feeding. You can also give prune juice when you start introducing juices (If you haven't already). Mix 1/2 amounts of apple juice with 1/2 amounts of prune juice is usually how they can tolerate it. You can also buy it mixed this way in the baby aisle at HEB, you just unscrew the cap and put a bottle cap on. My kids started this young. All 3 can dring the prune juice and love water. One of my sons is now 5 and still needs prune juice a couple of times a week. He no longer drinks with apple juice - just takes it like medicine in a measuring cap. Strawberries, grapes, etc. (juice or food) will help too once you get to that stage.

I have found that my daughter would/will go pretty quickly after consuming juice or fruit like peaches. (She is now 10 months old.) There have been numerous occasions when she will eat peaches and then have a bm approx. 20 minutes later. It seems to work really well. My first child had serious constipation problems for many years. Eating prunes or drinking prune juice was the only thing that would help her go when she would get constipated. She didn't care for straight prune juice but would drink the baby prune apple juice. I'd try something very natural like giving her water (like one mom suggested) and if that didn't help, the juice or fuit before trying any other drastic or less healthy measures. Good luck and God bless!

Baby pear juice is the best fruit juice for this problem as told by our ped. years ago and worked wonders for my daughter at the time. I think it was Gerbers.

Sometimes the type of formula is the cause iron will cause this problem. Check with MD and see if a change is needed. If possible add some water to apple juice this may help also.

I also have a 5 month old little girl, and she will typically go about a week without a BM. My pedi told me that it was OK for breast fed babies to go that long because their body is using all of the food and not leaving mych waste. I know you said your daughter was on formula, but I would assume it would be a similar situation if it is only a few days between BMs. So it could just be that she is growing and using all of that formula and it takes a few days to produce enough waste. For my daughter though, I have had to give her a suppository, since she isn't on food or juice yet, that was my onle option. My pedi also suggested that I give her a little bit of pedialite to help with it. Good luck, I hope this helps.

Try a tsp of light kayro syrup in her formula and maybe a glycerin suppository.

Try infant message. I took a class in it, but you can learn how to do it from many books you can find on amazon or at Barnes and Noble. There are many messages you can do to help them with gas and stomach problems, colic, and growing pains. It did wonders for my son. Here is a link to one.
http://www5.jcpenney.com/jcp/X6.aspx?DeptID=57087&Cat...

Put a drop of dark karo syrup in her formula. If youare using an iron rich formula, you might consider using a reguar formula. The iron will make it hard for them to have a movement. Start with about 1/3 of a teaspoon, if that doesn't help use 1/2. Don't use too much cause it will cause diarrhea. They love the sweet taste too. Good luck! I wnet through this with all my kids on forumula. It will change when you put them on regular milk. Good luck! C.

try putting a little karo syrup in her formula. about a tablespoon should do it. it doesn't have a flavor,but it does the job..

I have a soon to be 8 month old who only had a BM 1-2 a week. My Dr. allowed me to feed him apple sauce and prunes. Also allowed him to drink apple/prune juice. So that he would not have to be put on meds. He has adjusted very well, of course they say it is normal for babies but painful. He started a regular schedule about 1 1/2 months ago.

Our son had trouble from time to time having a bm. His pediatrician said to give him a small amount of organic prune juice. Start out by trying a 1/2 oz of prune juice mixed with a an ounce of water. We never liked the idea of giving our baby sugar products at that early age, so we went with something a little more healthy, but still a natural way to help him. This was a wonderful solution for us. We always try natural remedies before looking into medication.
Best of luck!

Before I give my kids meds or anything like that I try infant massage, there is one technique in particular called "I Love You" that helps with movement in the large intestine. http://www.babycenter.com/0_a-guide-to-infant-massage_383...

Second to that I would try organic apple juice, but she's still little for that. Good luck!

The iron in the formula is stopping her up. Are you giving her the vitamin drops too? That has iron as well.
You could try giving her bottled baby water periodically. That will "grease the wheels". And, you could rotate in a formula without iron - esp around the time you give her the vitamins. My friends' daughter had this issue, and it's nothing to worry about-it's prob just the iron.
I hope this helps!
C.

Hi C.,
Please don't do meds just yet - only as a last resort. It is better to work on the baby’s diet and get the digestive system going naturally. I used to give our babies pureed baby applesauce, peaches, pears and prunes, but my daughter sprinkles some Udo's Choice 'Infant's Probiotic' on her baby’s cereal and that seems to keep her baby regular. It builds the immune system too. You can find it at Whole Foods. Your baby is old enough for peas, carrots, squash and sweet potato. You can steam these things and blend them in a blender or you can get little jars of them at the store. She should have some fruit with her cereal in the morning and some vegetables with her cereal at night. Infants can eat: Rice, Oats and Barley cereal. That is what we gave our babies. Check with your pediatrician.
Also, make sure baby is getting enough fluids. I used to boil water and cool it in the refrigerator then bring it to room temperature for the baby to drink. I would use bottled water today because most tap water has chemicals in it. Babies don't like water very much but they need some. She could just be a little dehydrated. The apple and pear juice sound good but they could interfere with her appetite if you give her too much. Also, my grandson's baby teeth got cavities from the acid and sugar in the apple juice so don't over do the fruit juices. The excersaucer is the best chair I've seen for strengthen baby's back, stomach and legs. I got one for my granddaughter for $18 at a garage sale.
about me: Mother of 4 grandmother of 3.

I second the Karo tsp...we used that at this stage and it worked fine - this was recommended by our pediatrician.

When my daughter was about 6 months old we started having the same issues. My Doctor said that if she doesn't go after 4 days to give her a little baby suppository. We only had to use these a few times and only if she seemed uncomfortable after 4 days. Once she started baby food we gave her oat meal instead of rice. The rice got her all clogged up but the oat meal seemed to keep her regular. We didn't have to use anything after that.

They sell little baby jars of prunes that help a lot with that. Go easy at first tho. They can work a little too well! LOL!

When mine would get like that I would add 1 tablespoon of Karo Syrup to their bottles. It helped. My mom used to do it to ours also.

You have some great advice here but I'll throw in my two cents to reiterate some of your comments. Juices of fruits that start with P are supposed to be the real movers: Pear, Pineapple, Prune, aPple (ha ha). My son was disgusted by prune and when I tried it I had to agree. Pear juice is very, very effective and with less of the cramping associated with prune juice.

The bicycle motions with her legs is also very effective so a little juice and some leg exercises and she should be well on her way to a poop.

Since she is still growing just fine you probably don't need to worry that she isn't getting enough to eat. Most formula has iron added which is constipating.

Good luck!

Dear C.,

Try giving your baby some pear juice. I had some problems with my first and second baby having bms. The pear juice helped them to naturally get in the groove. Another juice you could try is prune juice. Gerber has many different baby juices. Pear worked the best for my boys. The other thing we did was to do baby exercises. Lay baby on the floor or in your lap and gently do walking motions and bicycle motions. This really got my babies moving. Plus they had fun.

M. K

Add 1/2teaspoon flax seed oil to her bottle twice a day. If nothing happens increase one bottle at a time until your little one is regular.

try a little 1'2 teaspoon of benifiber in her bottle at night ,,my granddaughter had the same problem if that does'nt help use a little more benigrit in it fiber no taste or
grit in it
good luck L.

Put a tablespoon of Karo syrup in one of her bottles a day. I used it with my son who's now three and healthy..and on my 8 month old. It's a gentle (and cheap) way to help them go and keep going on a normal scedule. Good luck hon.

Shaena

When my son was real little, he would only go about twice a week. He would push all the time though, so I knew that was uncomfortable. I gave him a little apple, prune, or pear juice everyday to keep things moving. I started this at 3 weeks. It made a huge difference.

have you tried apple juice? My daughter is 2 mos and her dr said she could have 1/2 oz twice daily. See if that works.