Constipation in Breastfed Baby

[Anonymous]

Kelly – I breastfed my refluxer/MSPIer for 14 months and more often than not she had problems with constipation. Its awful but I can’t remember at what age I introed a sippy cup to my daughter . .. my memory is shot from a year of night waking – lol. Anyway, breastfed babies do great with the straw style sippies and even with regular straws – you could try a little prune juice mixed with water, like a 1 to 2 ratio. Buuut .. .its not really necessary if your already giving her foods like prunes and peaches which should regulate her. Is she constipated in the sense that its hard and she strains or in the sense that she isn’t going as often? It may be that its just slowing down in frequency and its an adjustment stage?

To answer your question – yes, milk that you digest can cause stomach upset of any kind in a bfed MSPI baby because you are passing the proteins on. But if there isn’t wakefullness, heightened irritability day or night, and or increased reflux symptoms I wouldn’t think its the cause

http://www.breastfeedingbasics.com/html/ask/milkcontent.shtm l

~Liz

[hellbennt]

scroll down to ‘Possible signs of food allergy’ http://www.kellymom.com/babyconcerns/food-sensitivity.html

Other signs of a food allergy may include: rash, hives, eczema, sore bottom, dry skin; wheezing or asthma; congestion or cold-like symptoms; red, itchy eyes; ear infections; irritability, fussiness, colic; intestinal upsets, vomiting, constipation and/or diarrhea, or green stools with mucus or blood.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your replies

Liz – She strains, is clearly very uncomfortable, and when she does finally go, it’s not a lot and is frequently hard.

Laura – Thanks for the link! I love kellymom. She doesn’t have any other signs of MSPI, so I’m skeptical.

I am starting to get a little concerned. Today, I cooked her up a little concoction of prunes and pears simmered in apple juice. I then pureed them and thinned them with more apple juice. Still nothing, though she’s very obviously uncomfortable at this point.

[Anonymous]

Kelly

I don´t know anything about breastfeeding… but i can tell you that Matthew was never ever constipated on Neocate, which i think is amazing and when we started with veggies and fruits he became constipated…. we thought it was the cereal but took it away and he still was. I asked my ped and he said that pears and bananas can have that affect — that is what Matthew is eating, so only asked about those. He said that even though they have fiber, they will cause constipation for soem weeks… thanks to someone in this board, we have started using milk of magnesia… we put 2ml in matthew´s water in the morning and it has been amazing for the last 3 or 4 days… he goes and consistency is pasty vs hard from before.

[Anonymous]

Pears can constipate? Wow – never knew that.

[Anonymous]

I would stay away from rice and apples for bad days – pears and prunes and maybe some extra water in things would be better .. .

[Anonymous]

Thank you for your replies

Thais – I’ve always been told that the “p’s,” such as prunes, pears, peaches, and peas will help get things moving. I’ll be sure to ask the gi about it when she calls (hopefully) me back.

Liz – We never do rice and apples. I think she’s had rice once, and that was back when we very first started. We only do pears and prunes, and lately, it’s been almost all prunes. I do add extra water, and breastmilk.

I called the gi this morning, so we’ll see what she has to say. Ali is absolutely miserable, won’t eat, and her reflux is horrible

[Anonymous]

Oh the poor baby :-(. . .I would stay away from apple juice I meant too. Apples in any form aren’t good. Just out of curiosity when you bfeed do you do one side fully and then the other or is she sort of here there and everywhere? Sometimes your milk content can provide too much of a good thing and cause digetive issues. . .a long shot but just wondering. Constipation makes reflux twice as bad so I think its best to go to the docs instead of taking stabs in the dark .. .maybe they can give you something for her because it seems like once it starts then it just gets worse. Have you tried the Cherry Mylanta? That seems to loosen a lot of kids up. .. .

Hope you get some relief at the docs.

~Liz

[Anonymous]

The GI used to tell me to give Matthew pear or apple juice for his constipation… then we got to spain and our ped said that they are not effective really. He said that some GI give them because they are the first fruits allowed in a baby´s diet and have some excellent fiber but for example, when an adult has diarrhea you can eat apples to stop it and he said pears are similar. They have tianine or something like that, which is astringent and anti-inflammatory… so they do help with problems with teh digestive system, like gastritis, irritation etc but are “astringent”… here they are used for diuretic purposes….

It is amazing that the beliefs in different countries are so different…ped said some babies do well because of extra fiber for a few days but he would give something like a spoonful of orange juice instead

[Author]

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