Constipated 7-month old baby, what must I do?  

I should be giving her papaya this morning but it was not yet fully ripe when I opened it. I did massaged her tummy and even the muscles around her anus. I havent tried prune juice but I'll try to look for one when I get to go to the grocery.

Hi,

Yeah, I have experienced this with my child. When she is constipated, I have given Papaya juice or just to eat. It workd really well. Sometimes banana also works

I'll try to look for prune juice when I go out. I am trying to exercise her legs coz I have been self-help books too. The rice cereal is the culprit I guess because that's the only I was giving her for the last three days. I can not just introduce her new food because she might have allergies. I've tried suppository but it only helped her go but still, the pain is there I guess because she was crying and pushing really hard. Thanks a lot.

Thanks for your response. I'll try to buy papaya and prune tomorrow. I will also have to figure out if prune will not trigger her allergy.

Thanks a lot! Most of the formula prescribed to her has iron because anemia runs in the family and she's a little pale. I'll try to buy fruits tomorrow. I'm cautious in giving her food so I just give her rice cereal because it's the safest food to give for infants with history of allergies. She doesn't go everyday but the pain she's experiencing just to defecate makes me worried.

A third of a jar of strained baby applesauce on her cereal (or a couple of times a day) could make the difference. The other common baby fruits (peaches or pears) may as well, but applesauce is pretty bland.

At seven months old most babies have something like a little rice cereal with applesauce for breakfast, a half a jar of strained baby vegetable (like sweet potato or peas) and a half a jar of fruit (applesauce or peaches are standards).

Then, depending on the baby (and the pediatrician and/or mother) at dinner they may have the other half of the lunch vegetable and fruit. Of course, these days there are a lot of strained foods to choose from. That keeps the cereal to one serving a day.

I am only giving her lunch right now because it was only last week that I reintroduced her to solid food. Her stool is now ok but she had developed trauma with defecating which I hope she would outgrow soon. I gave her a half-teaspoon of papaya last night and it worked. Thanks lot for your time!

It's really the discomfort that's making me anxious. She doesn't normally cry but recently, she's been crying loudly and you can sense that she is in pain. I've stopped the rice cereal for the mean time and gave her squash yesterday and today and this evening, I gave her some papaya. I am cautious in introducing food to her because she has allergies. She used to have Nan Hypoallergenic but I tried Promil gold just recently to know if she still has allergies with cow's milk.

My baby is quite delicate compared to my eldest. She had Nan HA before but shifted to Promil lactose free when she had diarrhea. I think it was too much "apple juice" that caused her diarrhea last month so I decided to just give her water for the mean time. Ive read that rice cereal has less allergens among cereals but since it is making my baby sick, I would resort to feeding her veggies and fruits. Thanks for your time!

Thanks a lot! I'll try to do that but I'll have to ask the pedia first because my child might be allergic to some food.

Thanks a lot. I will ask the pedia about the karo syrup and check if it is available here in the Philippines. I gave my child some papaya last night and her poo loosen up already but she was still crying. I hope she'll recover from the trauma since that's more of my concern.

chryz,

Babies can get digestive upset (terrible belly pains, gas, etc.) from things pretty easily, which is why using something like Gerber baby food is good right now. (Seven months is still pretty little.)

There's a chance that she's getting belly pains from either gas, needing to go, or even something like papaya if you gave that to her.

It's not for me to question your doctor, but I do know that when I was expecting my babies I couldn't even take the high-iron vitamins every day because they made me violently ill (and I mean "violently"). They gave me horrible belly pains as well.

Some people leave their babies on formula for one full year (I did, and that's why my doctor recommended), but some even start their babies on whole milk at six months. I know the idea of giving formula with iron is to make sure babies get everything they need (and some babies seem to need iron a little more than others). I know, too, that the reason for keeping them on formula while they're still eating "baby style" is that they don't always eat enough to get the nutrition they need.

Still, if your baby is having pain and/or getting "irregular" you may want to ask the doctor if you should cut back on the number of iron-formula bottles she gets; and maybe substitute one or two with formula that doesn't have the extra iron.

You may want to also ask the doctor if some babies/people develop a problem with iron after they've taken it for a certain period of time.

I think you should cut back on the rice as the doctor recommended, maybe try the applesauce, but also call the doctor and just ask what, if anything else, you could do.

I know Karo syrup is fine because that's what everybody used to make formula with years ago, but I think giving her things like papaya or trying other things may give her more belly pains than she's already having.

The Promil gold has iron. I think its the rice cereal that is causing her problem. I'll try to give applesauce later or papaya again since, as per doctor's advise, I should give her the same food for three consecutive days to check if she has allergies towards the food. Maybe I can try applesauce after two days. I haven't tried giving her again apple/pear juice because she had a run when my grandma gave her some last month. She had diarrhea last month and was hospitalized for two days so we stopped feeding her solids and just reintroduced it last week. Thanks for sharing!

I think I'll try that,putting lesser milk powder in her milk. Also, I'll try the prune juice or the prune baby food. Thanks a lot!