7 Week Old Baby - Plumbing Question (How Many Bm's per Day?)

I would put him on baby probiotics and get healthy flora into his gut. Maybe change formulas to a lactose free and stop interfering with his bum by sticking something in it. You are loosening up those muscles. Not a good thing for him to rely on you to do his business. This is a system that should happen automatically. Give prune juice everyday/diluted. Keep him on his tummy as many as 4 times a day for 30 minutes each time to build core strength and abdominal muscles. Movement is the best thing to build that right brain which takes care of automatic functions like breathing-pooping.

I have to totally agree with Riley J! My breastfed son would only go every 3-4 days and that was his norm.

Please, please, please stop putting a q-tip in his little bum. It would be far too easy for you to perforate his little rectum.

Your diet had nothing to do with it and he was perfectly normal! The pediatrician telling you he was constipated was/is woefully uneducated when it comes to the breastfed baby. How sad that you stopped breastfeeding because of such bad advice.

Just let him be and see what his norm is. He's not in pain, he's not spitting up, his poo is the right color. Just let him do his thing. No more "help"!

Breastfed babies can easily go 7+ days without pooping without anything wrong, OR poop every hour. Formula is far more troublesome, but with breastmilk they can simply be using EVERYTHING, and have it take a week to build up enough to go.

In fact, many children AND adults are once a week'ers. I only poo once or twice a week, and my nutritionist *loves* my diet and exercise levels. While the average may be once a day, a lot of people just have very efficient or inefficent digestive systems.

((Also, to know: the small intestine removes the water from our stools. So if one is dehydrated, they poop less, because the body is concerned about extracting every last drop it can))

As far as the 28oz a day, my 1mo-9mo drank 20oz per feeding, so about 120oz per day (we were on the high end... low end is about 20oz per day), and when we switched to formula at 10mo he drank 64oz+ a day.

I'm a little concerned, if there were NO other symptoms, why have you been working so hard for bowl movements instead of letting them happen naturally?

You are freaking out over nothing (to use your own words). Please stop forcing him to have bowel movements. If he becomes uncomfortable you'll know, and you can give him a little diluted juice. When we added formula to my breastfed son's diet, it took about 2 weeks for things to normalize. He'll go on his own, and you really don't want his body to become dependent on your help. Now that you've gone to formula, just stick with whatever pattern you have, and instead of thinking of the pooping as a problem, think how lucky you are that you aren't having diaper blowouts every 3 hours!

Breast milk is a perfect food for babies. It's absorbed so well, there sometimes is not much to pass through. If you can work the breast milk back in and if he's not in pain, let nature take it's course. He'll go when he needs to go, and every baby s pattern is different.

Sounds to me your child's BM are totally normal. Burps and gas are ok. He has unassisted BMs. Not all children, and adults for that matter, go every 24 hours. Every person's "normal" is different. Just one piece of advise. Have him drink more water. And...Take it easy mom.

.Sounds like nothing. My son is 6 weeks old and does the same thing. It's not unusual for him to be going once every 2 days. My husband asked the peditrician about it, and he says that since they are learning to control their bowels now (everything was automatic before) that it's going to come a lot less than we've been experiencing.

If the problem with breast feeding was your diet why not fix your diet?
Did you tell the doc about the green?
You are right - this isn't enough BMs
I'd get Bifidus- and the company I use is Simplexity- they have the best bifidus- 800-800-1300 is their number- if you can go back to breast feeding do, if not call them.
best, k

My breastfed daughter (now 2) was the opposite of your son. I think she went 4-6x/day! But my cousin's son who was primarily breastfed and had a bottle or 2 of formula would only go every 2-3 days. They were told that it was perfectly fine. I think it is normal for up to a week, so you probably should just let your little guy have a little more time to work things out on his own. (It would stink to cause him to become dependent on the assistance.)
I agree that you might try changing the formula. I personally only used organic formula (when we added it around 11 months) and would recommend it. But even changing from dairy to soy could help.
Ultimately, every baby is different. He could just be your very particular, on his own terms baby. :-)

If i remember correctly my pediatrician told me that it is not unusual for a baby to "unload" lol everything only but one day a week - my daughter would go two or three days with just wet diapers and then that 3rd or 4th day would be poopy diapers all day long. He said that as long as the baby wasn't uncomfortable or upset about it then neither was he :o)
Don't worry, don't give him laxatives, or try to "help" him along - your freaking out over nothing.

my oldest daughter was on similac formula and would go a few days without pooping! I put karo syrup in her bottle and that never helped and I hated having to give my 3 week old a laxative! The dr put her on soy formula and she never had an issue again! He said that to much iron in some of the formulas will plug em up! She was on Similac with Iron and went to Isomil (I think thats what it was called, shes almost 7 and I bf my other 2)

my baby is 10 weeks old and full time breast fed. He was going 6 to 7 times a day but has started only going once a day now. He grunts and groans and wiggles and then he goes and he is fine. Pooping once a day may just be your sons normal. I would stop helping him along, try to breastfeed again and see what happens.

We had this issue with our daughter now 4 months at aprox 6 weeks she had a bad bout of constipation breastfed she went 11 days without ped said it was normal well she stoped eating she was so stopped up. Anyhow ER doctor said this can happen around this age because of a change in the bowels. She had an Enema and we haven't looked back. If it is not too late I would try to get on breastmilk again. I know my first two suffered bad from formula and constipation but our littlest is doing a ton better on breastmilk