Ok, i dont know what to do, ive searched the internet high and dry and nothing, ive called peds, nurses, docs, nothing. My daughter is 3 weeks old, she stopped pooing on her own almost 12 days ago. I took her to her first appointment, doc said this was normal in some infants, and to give her a teaspoon of sugar in 4 ounces of water, or a teaspoon of karo in her formula. OK, well shes also got acid reflux, she gags through out the day and they dont acknowledge that the nicu doc already diagnosed her with it, but her ped says she will be fine, OMG> this is half of it. Her last poo she took on her own was smaller than a teaspoon, and was really applesause like. Well the ones i have helped her have, through glyercine suppositories, cut in half down the middle and inserted, no sooner do i get it inserted she pushes it back out with her poo. I dont understand it. It was clay consistancy at first, but last night before the trip to the er it was hard, like a cat poo that has laid out and dried in the sun, she was so miserable and i had to keep assisting her to have it. Well when she finally gave it up you could see the impacted poo there and it was too large to pass so i rushed her to the emergency room. Well at 3 weeks old i would certainly be alittle concerned since she only drinks soyformula, but no they werent. They took a x ray said there was NO POO (( ok what did i see trying to pass through)) and then another nurse said there was just a tad bit in there, so thats two different answers in 10 minutes, i was PO'd. TOld me to give her alittle karo in every bottle and if she doesnt poo in 2 days to bring her back. OMG shes already went 12 days with out passing on her own i have been helping her. She will fart no problem, but she will not pass her stool its like it hurts. I know i would hurt too if something tha tlarge was trying to come out of something so small. I am at a loss for words and they told me to give her prune juice, a 3 week old and prune juice?? Well i did and of course, NOTHING, Nothing has happened since 10 pm last night, and she just lays and strains and hurts, and crys those long breathless ones of pain, and i cant do anything to help her, the nurse said if i keep assisting her body to have a bowel movement i will make her bowels lazy, but do i let her just lay there in pain, what do i do???

I would try the sugar in the water again- warm and see how she goes. I believe soy is one of the biggest things that can consstipate a child. Is she allergic/ have a bad reation to cow formula- if not you cxould try a HA hypoallergenic formula and this may help.

Drs aren't too good with constipation and before we started introducing solids we could go 8 days regularly. I found the same thing with the suppositories, I think that sometimes the pressure is enough for them to have a BM- also you can get infant suppositories- are they still too big- and make sure to put vaseline on the end- also this should definately be approved by your dr if this is going to be a continual thing

When my daughter was 2 weeks old, she went 10 days without pooping. She was BF and supplemented with Enfamil at that point. We switched her to Alimentum at that point and within 3 days, the constipation resolved itself. We tried milk-based formula a few times after that, and she totally constipated within 24 hours and it would take another 3 days of Alimentum to clear her out.

Yes.. I was wondering the same thing about the type of formula she is on.. maybe a switch would be of benefit. My boys coulod not tolerate the same formula when firts born.. so for 6 months theyw ere on different ones. Matthew had dreadful constipation while we were tryigng to find the right one for him.. in fact we had blood in his poop several times as he starined and pushed out rabbit- sized pebble.s It was awful. Once we hit the right formula... things were sooooo much better. Also, we were using infant gaviscon at the time (along with other meds) and this constipated him.
Applesauce consistency poop is good.

I agree with switching formulas. If she's still constipated after that call the ped everyday until they listen to you.

I would also try a different formula for her. Keep calling the doctor if things don't improve, they ought to listen if you keep calling.
Good luck and I hope things improve, constipation is no fun. We are dealing with it on and off now since starting solids.

Yeah,
Constipation could mean a milk/soy protein sensitivity. I would ask doc about a hypo formula.

Is she on any meds?

My son's constipation (Lasted from 6 weeks to 6 months without help from docs) was due to the med he was on. Just a thought.

I hope she's poohing soon. UGH! Constipation sucks!
(((Big hug)))

She isnt on any meds, the ped said her reflux wasnt bad enough for meds at this point, which i agree, she hasnt gagged, or thrown up in a while. Right now shes on good start soy. At birth, of course they gave her the sugar water, and then regular good start. She drank a half ounce of it and did not throw it up. When i got into my recovery room with her, she was breathing a little raspy and they took her to the nicu. Well they said her blood sugar dropped to 28 (from 56) and she wasnt eatting, well i asked them howt hat could be when she kept the half ounce down, but the doc changed her to soy. She was throwing the soy up violently if you gave her over a ounce so she was only getting 30cc every 3 hours !! She lost a lot of weight and finally they let me into parent care and she stayed with me in a room and she would eat almost 4 ounces every 3 hours with out throwin up. I told the doc the reason she was throwing up was because they werent giving her enough and the reflux was pushing it back up because all she had was acid in her little belly. Well he didnt like me telling him that and told me to keep her on soy. Well when we got home we were having 2 to 4 poo's a day, and it was runny applesaucy like, then i started using the powder. Well then thats when things started thicking up. First it was just thick, then clay playdough like, then just hard rabbit poo like. Its been awful. Well i took her to the emergency room tuesday because she was straining so hard i didnt want her to hurt herself, a friend of mines newborn got a hernia from the same thing, and they didnt even help her pass it or get it out, so i spent four hours in the ER for nothing. When i got home, i called the telenurse and of course she said use 1/4 infant suppository and i did and it passed no problem. I called another ped yesterday in northern indiana that told me that a infant does not become dependant on glyercin, its impossible that doctors tell you that for their protection. If i only use 1/4 or a small chipof it to stimulate the hard constipation to pass then that was fine. But if its runny and she wont pass it, then thats a whole different problem. Well before when this started it would be loose like consistancy then when it went to thick she stopped pooing. But i can get her to pass it no problem with a suppository and of course i hate to do it, and im going to look into changing formulas this weekend, but i really dont know what to go too if the soy can be the cause because i dont know if she has a allergy to the regular. I have looked into the more expensive formulas, but OMG those are so outragously priced, and i have no idea if i even bought them if they would work. I have tried everything to help her poo, karo, sugarwater, suppositories, no enemas though, i wont do those, those to me will just cause more problems like dehydration. And with the suppositories, i dont even have to let those melt, or stay in longer than 3 seconds, as soon as i insert a piece of one, she poos right behind it. Im just lost.

I'm so sorry your baby is goign through this. My son went through CHRONIC constipation for about 5 months. We are finally adressing the issue w/meds.

I have a quick question...how much water are you giving her each day? I'm asking because I've heard that it is not good to give too much water to such a young baby. In fact, my ped suggested no more than one ounce, with one tsp. of karo syrup. Everyone says something different though. I was just curious...as I think also, the more water you put into her, the more her bowels absorb it and expand even more. (I could be SO WRONG in stating that, but it seems as though I did hear that somewhere.) We had great success with fleet babylax suppositories...but again, your little one is so "little" that I'm not sure about those. I'm at a loss for advice for you being that your baby is so young. I'm really sorry but I DO hope you find help! :(

I noticed you said that she didn't have a problem until you switched to powder.
I could be way off here but...
Could you be mixing it improperly? Soy it so different as far as consistency than regular formula. It's more...packy and it kinda sticks to itself. It's very easily packed.

I ask this because I was actually mixing it wrong for a while. I thought just a few light taps to shake the excess off was ok, but it really is important to level with a knife (or something)instead of tapping away the excess.

I did an experiment one time and I couldn't believe the difference as far as the volume of formula it made.
And I started leveling every time.

But like pp said soy does tend to make firmer pooh.

I also noticed that the formula was less powdery/gritty if I mixed in warm water and made it ahead of time in a big container. Which really sucked because I never knew how much he was going to eat in a day, and I wasted a lot. But when I did it this way it was smoother and more like milk. I think he liked it better too.

Also another thing to consider is the powder formulas usually have some kind of corn product in them where as not all, RTF or concentrate does (some still do). Sometimes babies are sensitive to corn as well as milk and or soy, and constipation is a sign of any protein sensitivity. If you do decide to go with a hypo formula. Allimentum powder, Nutramigen RTF, and powder, all have corn, but the allimentum RTF doesn't. Oh yes, I was a label reader LOL


I hope you figure this out and get some regular poops in the near future. It's so hard to see your baby strain and cry to have bowel movements every day. I almost think the chronic constipation was worse than the reflux.