Constipated Baby - Cape May,NJ

My oldest was constipated when he was only a few weeks old too. His Dr. had him drink .5 to 1 ounce of prune juice every afternoon. Sure enough he was able to go to the bathroom that first day and I only had to keep him on the prune juice for about a week. I liked this 'treatment' because it seemed normal, like something an adult would do.

I would check with your doctor first though, I don't know if that is ok for all babies. Good luck!

If your baby is old enough the juice usually works, but if she can't have juice the karo does help usually. My oldest I had to put it in every, or every other bottle for it to work for him. My youngest only needed it a couple times a day. They both were on soy formula.

N., You can use either the Karo syrup or prune juice. With the Karo,I used to put 2 tbsp to 8 oz about 4 times a day. Prune juice as other moms previously recommended. I would speak to your pediatrician about recommendations to prevent constipation in the future.I used to give my children extra water and once they started baby food-applesauce and other fruits helped.Is your daughter a big baby? I am a RN and too often nowadays I see doctors diagnosing acid reflux in infants when most of the time acid reflux can be relieved by adding a small amount of barley or rice cereal. Infants taking over 32 oz of formula a day usually experience reflux from too much liquids. As long as there are no other medical issues, I would try alternate natural means to keep her off medications. Try elevating the head of her crib-you can have your hubby put some wood blocks under the crib legs.Keep her upright for one hour after bottles or food.There are many other things to try, but run them by your pediatrician first. Good luck!

When my son was 2 mo old the doctor recommended starting with pear juice - diluted with water 50/50 - and to give him up to 4 oz. I started doing that at lunch time with just 2 oz daily and everything is soooooomth sailing. He is 70 now and gets 4 oz after lunch almost everyday. Good luck - I hope every comes out ok....lol
J. B.

My ped always told me me to go buy the pediatric suppositories for my two little ones during the times they were constipated. You can even buy the adult ones, if you cant find any pediatric ones, and cut them in half. It's def no fun to use them on your baby, but it works wonders! Just be sure to use them ONLY when theyre really needed because it is possible for them to get dependent on them to make a bm....it never happened to my kids but when I used the suppositories though because I never needed to use them very often, once or twice in a day and they were usually good to go after that with soft bowl movements again.
Hope this helped! Good luck!

At this age babies cry when they poop maybe its the medicine or the Soy milk

Try diluting her formula a little bit. For example if you are going to make a 4 0z bottle use the amount of h2o you would for a 6 oz bottle but keep the formula the same for a 4 oz bottle. Worked everytime for my older son who is very regular! Good luck

soy tends to make babies very constipated- unfortunately at her age there is not much you can do from what I know. When she gets older giving her strained prunes and juice (full sugar kind) may help but until then, unless she doesn't have a movement for several days in a row most docs would say her progress is normal. hang in there!

N.,
Did the doctor say how often you could try the Karo? Maybe it will take more than one dose. Check with the dr. about that. Also, ask about a teaspoon or two of prune juice diluted with water.If juice is OK in small amounts, see which they recommend--pear always worked for my son (or prune). Good luck!
p.s. I read that bottle fed babies sometimes only have a bm every few days but if they are hard little "pellets" it IS constipation.....

My son is 3 and did not start having trouble with constipation until age 2 or so... we tried a lot of things, fruits, juices, water, prune juice, fiber, decreasing dairy, etc., etc., and NOTHING WORKED until we tried Miralax. It worked the very next day after we started it, and he has not had a problematic BM since. My friend's pediatrician rx'd it for her daughter as an infant, so I know it can be used for very little ones. And as someone else here said, it is very safe and not dependency-forming like some laxatives are thought to be. They do recommend that you don't stop it immediately after your child has a couple soft stools, as it is likely they will revert back to constipation, but they do say that at some point, you can stop the Miralax and see if the child is able to continue producing soft stools. It is now available over the counter, and you can find the dosage-by-weight online, or you could ask the pharmacist. It isn't cheap, but I know I would have paid anything to help my little guy, plus it goes a long way, especially for the small dose you would give a little one. The Miralax website had some good coupons, so you could try that, or get a prescription, because that is probably even cheaper, if you have any insurance. I definitely recommend you try it... it was such a relief for my little boy, and for me not to have to watch him struggle and not be able to help him! MIRALAX WORKS!

water and juice (prune juice is the best)....you can dilute the juice until you find the right combination for your baby. It is okay to give your baby a little bit of juice everyday, about an ounce or two, to keep her bowels working well.

try some apple juice or apple sauce. That seems to help. Or you can feed some stage one baby food prunes. You could also get the gerber apple/prune juice that usually helps my son.

Why not try a little water ? Try getting her to drink a wee bit of water before her bottle, just to add a bit more fluid to her system. It might help her to flush things through.

My youngest daughter was very very constipated as an infant. We tried the Karo syrup, didn't work. We tried adding prune juice, didn't work. Eventually her pedi told us to put a little benefiber in her bottle once or twice a day. That worked wonders! She still gets about 1tsp every other day or so to help keep her regular. (she's 16 months now) I would ask your pedi about adding benefiber. I hope she starts going soon!

My little one had the same problem. We switched him to Similac Alimentum since the soy formula can sometimes make the constipation worse. Also you can try prune juice (1/2 ounce to a bottle). When my little one got older the pediatrician gave us Miralax but I don't know if you can use it for a baby under 3 months of age.
Try the Alimentum and the prune juice, it really worked for us.

God luck!

Hi N.,
When my son was a baby he also had problems with comstipation. The doctoe let me give him a little bit of prune juice and that helped.

You can get a prescription for suppositories. Sounds awful and is no fun to give, but they work pretty well.

I am a mother of four children 3 boys and one girl. My daughter gets constipated evrey once in a while, she and her twin brother are 2 1/2 now but I gave her apple or prune juice watered down of course. But that always seemed to help her. And yes, Do Not give a constipated baby/child bananna's use those when they have loose bowels, diarreah, or a diaper rash. It helps with the rash b-cause it firms up the stool so there isn't as muuch acid to irritate the skin. But try the juice, I never had luck with applesauce helping that situation it always seemed to do almost the same as banannas for my kids.
Good luck.
M.

I haven't tried this myself (no issues with my LO), but have several friends who had this problem with their LOs, and now use Miralax, and sing its praises almost daily. I guess it is very gentle, is not a laxative, but pulls water from baby's intestines to make BMs softer. Ask your Ped first. I think they make it for infants and adults...

I also have this problem!! I just talked to my daughter's doctor yesterday and this is what they suggested. You can give them 1/2 jar of the small baby food jars, stage 1, of prunes, applesauce or pears. NO BANANAS!! Everyday until they begin to loosen up. My daughter is almost 7 weeks old and she loves it!

My dr suggested I try pear juice and water- 3 oz water to 1 0z pear juice...it totally works!!! My 6 month old has a nice bm every time I give him some of this....it's worth a try!! good luck...:)

We have been giving our daughter who is now a little over 2 yrs - miralax - for some time now. I don't know how early you can start to give it to a baby, so ask your pediatrician and/or gastroenterologist. It works wonders!!!

After I went back to work and cut down on nursing and started using formula my son had this problem. The doctor told me I could give him 1 ounce of juice for each month that he is in age. I also was told to buy child suppositories and was told to cut them in half width wise to make them narrower, hence easier to insert. Thankfully it worked. The last thing they told me I could try was rectal stimulation with a thermostat which sounds scary and painful. I am really glad I didn’t have to do that!