Breastfeeding strike and constipation?!

mjellison81

Ooooh nooooo! Not both at once! For the past two days, Will has been really struggling with nursing- he'll only stay latched on for a few minutes, then pull off and start screaming bloody murder. I was afraid there was something wrong with my milk, but luckily he's been having no problem taking a bottle. Still, it makes me feel terrible. On top of this, he's showing signs of being constipated: no BM for two days (and he's a pretty regularly guy), lots of tears, nothing we do seems to comfort him, etc. and I feel just awful! I just spoke to the nurse at his ped's office and am waiting to hear back, so hopefully they've got some ideas. I did massage his lower belly a bit earlier and move his legs around and that seemed to brighten his mood a bit, and allow me to put him down for a few, thankfully. Unfortunately, Ky's in class all day, so I don't have contact with him. Anyone else deal with either of these problems? 

mrscjwatts

T was like this once too.  We did 1 oz of straight prune juice which did the trick.  I knew this was an option but didn't want to give her prune juice without their blessing since she was so young, at the time.

mjellison81

mrscjwatts:

T was like this once too.  We did 1 oz of straight prune juice which did the trick.  I knew this was an option but didn't want to give her prune juice without their blessing since she was so young, at the time.

My thoughts exactly! I'm pretty sure that prune juice will work it's magic (always worked for Mama!), but I want to make sure I run it all by his doctor first. It just sucks that he's not feeling well, and is unable to tell me what's exactly wrong! I'm just glad he's calmed down a bit, so we're just laying low and waiting for the callback.  

mesa81

Karo syrup in a bottle with breastmilk also relieves constipation according to the pedi... Sarina only poops twice a week!

mjellison81

I was told not to use Karo as the modern formula does not contain the proper make-up to help relieve constipation: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/karo-syrup-for-constipation/AN01826

 We were OK'd to give him a little prune juice or pedialyte, and if those don't seem to work we're going to try a tiny bit of glycerine supository. Bliss. Poor guy!  

mesa81

I didnt like the idea of the karo syrup so I never tried it... we just ended up realizing she's not much of a pooper.

Hope he gets relief soon!

maeghan21

Poor guy, hope he gets some relief. At that age we never had this problem. Little pooping machine was what I had lol

shuga_23

I wish I had some good advice for you Mama. When Abe was an infant he was a fairly consistent pooper...still is. And luckily he never went on a nursing strike. There were a few nights that I couldn't get him latched on and he would scream and scream at me. I can't even remember how I resolved that situation.

Anyway.

My mother used to tease me that she had to drink prune juice when I was constipated as a newborn. Bottoms up Molls!

AnnieME

We dealt with constipation on a regular basis.  Trying to relax him was often the key.   Like you already did, we did tummy massage and bicycles (and I think there's a certain direction you're supposed to rub in or rotate the legs but can't remember which way it was right now!)   My favorite was warm baths.  Nolan and I would snuggle up in the bathtub together and it really helped relax him.   Good luck!  Sounds like you're on the right track!