[nookle]

Ok here's a question. Maybe not very Vegetarian related, but I like this forum.

My Little girl is now 3 and a half weeks old, and is having some slight digestion problems. I knwo that this is pretty normal. Here's the question. Quite often, she appears to be straining quite hard, as if she's constipated. Or has LOTS of Gas. This can last for hours, and will even wake her up. When she finally does poop, she seems to be really relieved, and stops being in pain. The thing is is that she has normal breastfed baby poop. All soft and liquidy - ew. So what's going on? And is there anything I can do, or do I just have to wait until her digestive system matures?

 

[Dirty Martini]

lactose intolerance?

 

[GhostUser]

Hi Nookle

My 2 little guys are both really different when it comes to this subject! My 6 month old is fine - he does push and strain quite hard but doesn't cry or anything. But my 2 year old has always been constipated and used to cry and scream when trying to poop - poor little guy. Doc put him on stool softeners for a while and that seemed to help. Now that he's up and about and drinks a lot more non-milk fluids he has improved a lot - but still only poops when he's laying down!

As for your little one (congratulations by the way I hope you're having a lovely time!), I have spoken to lots of mums about this and it seems very normal. Funny what becomes normal conversation isn't it! Unless there's any blood, or she's really really upset I would just mention it the next time you pop into the doc's.

Give her a cuddle from me!

vegmumma xxx

 

[Edamommy]

she soulnds a bit gassy! But the poop "consistancy" sounds quite normal for a healthy breastfed baby. Kinda lumpy and water and yellow or greenish? yep... that's breastfeeding poop!

 

[missbelgium]

My daughter was like that. She has a constipated nature, even though her poop can be of all kinds of consistency (depending on what she ate and drank). When she was a baby, the warm water of the bath would relax her and we got a lot of floaters... so beware (I mean she pooped while she was in the water...). I think your baby is fine but will probably be sensitive to digestive problems. All children have their sensitive things, for my kid for instance it is digestion and lungs (bronchitis).

Massage (belly and softly stimulating the anus - using a wipe of course) could help your baby to poop faster and eliminate the gas better. Gas drops may help too but I am not sure at what age you can start using those. They don't exist here so I used something similar, fennel seed oil, on her pacifier. It helped a lot with the gas !

 

[nookle]

thanks guys

I've decided to try being extremely anal about caffeine and dairy, and it seems to have helped some, also belly massage and "pumping" her - bending her knees up to her belly over and over - but she's not sure what she thinks of that.

1 month down - hopefully only a couple more to go before this improves!