Sometimes feedings cause upset stomachs and causes other issues such as serious constipation in infants. Constipation in an infant does not always mean hard stools, it can mean mushy stools with a lot of grunting and straining and some serious, heart wrenching crying.
If the pediatrician feels your formula is correct and that there is no medical condition preventing your itty bitty to poop then there is no reason why you can’t take a peek at some ways to move things along.
At times, it doesn’t matter how often you change formula or if your breastfeeding you may eliminate foods you feel is the culprit yet your itty bitty is still seriously constipated. The infant’s digestive tract is new. It is adjusting and sometimes it gets in extreme distress trying to eliminate its contents. With this in mind, your goal is to ultimately ease your baby’s tummy and ease the contents out.
Typically you would want to wait until the bay is 2 months old to start this but there are others that say you can begin right away especially if the constipation is severe.
Here are some proven home remedies that have been proven remarkably well to eliminate constipation:
First and foremost, when formula feeding, make sure you have added the proper amount of water to the formula.
If your baby is over 2 months old provide 1 – 2 ounce Perrier water mixed with Ginger ale. (Mix in equal parts) right before the next feeding or somewhere in between meals. If your baby is less than 2 months old, skip the Ginger ale and just give Perrier. Perrier is cleaner and more natural than most carbonated waters.
During your daily bottles, add an extra ounce of water to at least 2 formula feeding bottles during the day. Too little water can cause constipation.
Others love a remedy called “Jell-O Water”. Jell-O water is a mixture of 2 ounces warm water, ½ tsp jello and a pinch of soda. This too will help soothe the stomach and ease it of acid and gas. Adding this mixture of soda water and Ginger Ale will not only help ease the stomach but also help your little one get air bubbles trapped out plus add water to the system to help move stools along.
If your baby is still grunting, straining and in pain to move a stool do the following;
Take a small infant bulb syringe and fill with 2 TBSP warm water. Lightly coat the tip of the bulb with Vaseline or Olive Oil. Insert the bulb into your baby’s rectum about an inch and squeeze in the warm water. This is natural and will almost, within a minute or two, allow the baby to move along the stool.
Give baby a sitz bath- this is a warm bath mixed with baking soda allowing the infants bottom to soak in it for ten minutes. It will help relax the muscles and ease elimination.
If adding water to your babies diet does not help or eliminate constipation, try adding 1- 2 ounces of pear or prune juice to the diet at least 2x daily. And while many experts will disagree to adding this to an infants diet, it is still a natural very old natural remedy proven to work: mix 1 tsp of white (clear) karo syrup with 2 oz of water or formula–give it to your baby 1 or 2x per day.
