Seeking Help and Advice About Baby Fissures

The first foods that I would suggest to try is apple sauce. You also can try watering down the cereal so it is not thick. I know they do not like babies having juice early but some kind of apple juice might help after you feed her some baby food. Just give her a little after she eats. Apple juice and grape juice can sometimes help thin out the babies bowls. I hope this helps.

My son has been having problems with constipation for a while. When he was able to eat first foods I started him with vegetables and squash was always easy on his tummy. In fact when I give him squash now it helps if he is a little constipated. I hope this is helpful.

My daughter was born November 6, 2006 and has been eating cereal for several weeks now. She hasn't had fissures, thank god. She is actually very regular. I add applesauce (baby's first by beechnut)or juice. We have gone through many of the fruits and some veggies. I still continue to nurse as well. My daughter has gas too, but I think it comes mostly from the nursing.

what about oatmeal cereal to keep her full, and should also ease the forcefull BM.

Hi. My son also had those-I guess they are like baby hemoroids. My son is mostly supplemented. I am trying to nurse and even if he gets only an once of breast mik a day it helps. (We tried nursing but I had lots of post pregnancy complications and he had problems latching on-so I'd love for him to be fully breast-fed-but it didn't work out that way) I know other mom's that have babies who are breast fed only and when they started foods they became constipated. We were told to to give him some dilluted prune juice at the first signs of tummy trouble and he can have 2-4 oz of water a day(my son is 2 days older than your daughter) You can also put some karo syrup in the water. Keep nursing though-that helps the most with their bowel movements. I hope this helps a bit-but we know exactly what you are going through! Take care.

I had this happen with my 4 year old. It was horrible! What I did was put baby prunes, or just a touch of prune juice in her baby cereal. It made her bowel movements more mushy, but not enough to make it runny. Also, if you give them fiber (like in oatmeal) and not enough liquid, it can cause them to have hard bm's. I learned this the hard way too.

HTH!

Oatmeal has a lot of fiber which can help make her bowel movements easier. Also, fruit can help.

Hi M.,
Ahh, I remember this quite well. My son was not yet 3 weeks old when we hit his fissure. I had no idea that there was blood in his stool and the doctor was very worried and we switched formula not until we had X-rays done. It was horrible. Basically we found out after bringing in more stool samples, that indeed it was just him baring down with his bowel movements and we switched back to our normal formula. Some things that I have found to perhaps soften up his bowel movements have been using barley cereal instead of rice, rice has a tendency to harden them up and back kids up. Oatmeal is okay and not as hard to pass as rice. Also, if you are using formula at all, try putting a teaspoon of dark Karo syrup in it. Some of the first foods that help are peaches, pears, prunes, sweet potatoes, carrots, green beans and squash. They(Drs.) suggest for kids with hard times passing bowel movements, don't feed too much applesauce or bananas, they tend to back up as well. If your daughter is ready to try a sippy cup, try offering apple juice, prune juice, white grape juice. These help to pull sugars into the intestines to help soften bowel movements. Good luck, I understand what you are going through!
A.

My daughter was 5 weeks premature and we have had major intestinal issues with her. We went through numerous formulas before we found one that work and even now at 2 years old we still have major constipation issues. She never liked juice and was on again off again with the prunes. We filled her full of raisins, fruit, anything we could to soften her up. What has worked the best is using mineral oil. Our doctor recommended and said it could be used long term without side effects. I mix 1 tablespoon in cottage cheese, which both her and her sister love, and you can't even tell it is there. You do need to be very careful with it since if it was inhaled into the lungs it would cause major problems but it has been a miracle for our family. We no longer have a screaming child who can't go to the restroom and she gets to enjoy one of her favoite foods on a daily basis.

My son also had blood in his stools around the same age and he was diagnosed with having a protein intolerance, they put him on a special formula and it made a world of difference. He was also constipated so they perscribed a powder that went in the formula that was like a stool softner, he stayed on this powder until around two but as soon as we started it there was no more painful bowel movements. As far as the cereal goes, we were told not to start it until he was at least six months old, once we did he had no problems whatsoever.( we were told to use Beechnut Rice Cereal) He is a very healthy 4 1/2 yr old now with no belly problems at all. Good luck I know it can be very stressful, not to mention heart wrenching when your baby is screaming in pain and there is nothing you can do to help. Email me back if there's any questions you have.
J.

M....while all the advise is wonderful...not one person remembered to mention WATER...NOT sugar water, WATER. Talk to your Doc and see what is approp. for you little ones age, breast feeding or not...PLAIN WATER will help more than all else. Then use the bulk foods...hard stool is exactly that hard...which means dried out...re-hydrate until the amout of water you give shows a soft formed stool. Water, PLAIN water will also help with the gas issue. Plain water is what we give newborns to get the system up and Flushing....errrr running...NOT sugar water!!!
Just an old fashioned nurse...

C. Condit, LPN

My son had fissures, too, which had me very worried. But the doctor told me to use A & D ointmnt. I would cake it on (right on his "hole") everytime I changed his diaper and within 2 weeks it was gone. This also seemed to help with the pain when he had a bowel movement. I wouldn't be too worried at this point, just as long as it goes away doing this, if not after a couple weeks, take your baby back in to see the doc. I'm sure she will be fine.

M.,

My son had the same problem, and it turned out that he could not tolerate milk protein, so my son's doctor had me eliminate all dairy from my diet and that took care of the problem. Then when he was a little older, I gradually started introducing dairy back to my diet, and now he's 16months and has no problem with dairy products. Maybe that's worth a try?

Thanks,
O..

Just want to warn you a little...Bananas can cause constipation and may compound the problem by making her stools harder--they did for my children. Apricots work well to give looser stools. Also, just to give you a little warning. My youngest girl had this problem and when she was old enough to (around 14-15 months), she started "holding in" her stools because she remembered them being painful. We didn't realize that was what she was doing at first because it just looked like it hurt her to go poop, but it turned out she was stiffening up to hold it in. So be on the lookout for this in the future (it may not happen). If you catch it in time, you will be able to keep it from getting to the point where she is constipated all the time by giving her foods that naturally loosen stools so she can't hold it in and eventually she'll stop trying.