Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Pooping...what!?

When J was born, up until he was about 12 weeks, he had a dirty at least once a day.  He often had more than that!  But at 12 weeks he went 7 days.  7 days! without so much as a sign of a poop.  (Read:  T and I refer to a little marking in the diaper from gas as "sharts."  Classy.)  Anyway, at 7 days we called his pediatrician who suggested a glycerine suppository.

Thank goodness T is a pediatric nurse and has had lots of experience with this because, if it were up to me, I'd let my baby go without pooping for a long time.  What?  At least he'd weigh more on the scale.

Within 15 minutes, J had a massive, struggling poop that was experienced by none other than his Grandmama, Grandaddy, Uncle, and parents.  Needless to say, pictures were taken, cheers were shouted, and glasses were clinked.

Now, you'd think the problem was solved.  Whatever plugged him, plugged him no more.  But this isn't true.  At 16 weeks, he is now averaging a dirty diaper every 5 or 6 days.  We are currently on day 6 and I'm anxiously awaiting the next celebratory poop.

(Yes, I'm blogging about his bowel movements.  Yes, I use cloth diapers and am kind of thrilled I don't have to wash them out in the toilet with each change.  Yes, he's exclusively breastfed so I know sometimes this is normal and expected.  No, his stomach is not distended, he isn't excessively fussy, he's eating normally, and has plenty of wet diapers.)




Has this ever happened to any of your babies before?  Do you "wait it out" or does your pediatrician encourage taking action against constipation?

6 comments:

Brooke said...

We are in the same boat!!!! My baby girl has had pooping issues since switching to a special formula for her acid reflux. It has added rice starch in it. She has gone 4 days without pooping and it hurts her so much when she does. :( It makes the cloth diapering a lot easier on me, but it is so sad for her. We have done the suppository, feeding her prunes, prune juice, and she is even on mirilax daily for over 3 months now. It is so sad. Good luck and keep me posted!

I am a new follower following back from Brookies Baby Bargains. Thanks for the follow.

Katie said...

Thanks for visiting my blog :) You've got a new follower! Your little man is adorable. I hope his poopy woes don't last forever-or at least that they don't faze him too much. :)

Lindsay said...

Hey, thanks for following. I'm following you back! :)

Parker is a once a day to every other day girl. She is formula feed now but even when EBF she was only once a day. I am actually going to the ped today to talk to her about some stuff, poop included. :) She sometimes struggles really hard and only gets a tiny bit out, I just want to make sure we aren't messing up her tummy.

I'm a cloth diapering momma too!

erin said...

We had this problem at the beginning with Charlotte. She didn't go for almost a week right after she was born, and it completely stressed me out. It was all we talked about, and whenever I talked to my mom and mom-in-law, they'd ask about her poop (or lack thereof). Finally, the ped told us to try a suppository, and bam, 15 minutes later it all came out! We haven't had a problem since, but I have read that starting solids can complicate things. I hope you get that poop soon! :)

Anonymous said...

We had this problem with the Munchkin once I started supplementing breast milk with formula, most likely due to the added iron in the formula. He went up to two days without having a BM at one point. We ended up helping a bit with checking his temperature and, once, a suppository (thankfully, the Munchkin and I were at my mom's, and she got him loaded up for me; he slept through the whole ordeal).

After a while, though, with the help of a bit of Karo syrup in his bottles for a bit, his system just worked itself out; now he has about two dirty diapers a day.

E @ Life on a Quilt said...

Thank you for commiserating and sharing your stories, everyone! We're currently on day 7 (AGAIN!) and waiting for what is to come...eventually. :)