How to help your infant with constipation (2024)

FAQs

How to help your infant with constipation? ›

Sometimes giving your baby a warm bath to relax them or exercising their legs, like riding a bicycle, will help stimulate the bowels to move. If it has been a few days since your baby has pooped and the juice or pureed food has not worked, then you can try a glycerin suppository. Place your baby on their back.

Sometimes giving your baby a warm bath to relax them or exercising their legs, like riding a bicycle, will help stimulate the bowels to move. If it has been a few days since your baby has pooped and the juice or pureed food has not worked, then you can try a glycerin suppository. Place your baby on their back.

You can mix fruit juice (apple, prune, pear) with cereal or the fruit/vegetable purée. Formulas with iron – The iron in infant formula does not cause or worsen constipation, because the dose of iron is very small.

Offer prune, pear or apple juice.

Juice is a very good, natural way to ease constipation in babies. It contains sorbitol, a sweetener that acts like a natural laxative. Add 1 to 2 ounces of 100 percent prune, pear or apple juice to a baby's diet each day until symptoms resolve. Don't offer water to babies.

Help your baby by holding the knees against the chest. This is like squatting for your baby. This is the natural position for pushing out a stool. It's hard to have a stool lying down.

Try moving your baby's legs in a cycling motion. Place your baby so they are lying on their back. Hold their legs and turn them gently in a cycling motion. This will make the stomach muscles move and, in turn, put gentle pressure on the intestines to make them move.

If your baby becomes constipated, use whole wheat or barley cereal instead of rice cereal and avoid bananas and sweet potatoes, which are constipating. All the fruits which begin with “P” (prunes, plums, pears, peaches) will help soften your baby's stool, so give them often if your baby is having hard stools.

Gripe water is also not a laxative. In other words, if your baby is constipated, it will not help them poop.

Start by rubbing some baby oil in your hands to warm it up. Then, gently place your forefinger near your little one's belly button and move it clockwise in little circles, out to the side or edge of the belly.

How to calm baby when pooping? ›

If your baby does react to the feeling of pooping more intensely, try massaging their belly or legs before or while they are doing it. You might try putting a warm water bottle on their belly during the process, but be sure to check first that the temperature is not too hot for them.

It is best to seek medical advice if constipation lasts a long time or a baby is in intense pain. A baby may have constipation if they have fewer bowel movements than usual or than is typical for their age. Their bowel movements may be hard or dry.

Treating your baby's constipation

Give your baby a warm bath to relax their bowel. Gently massage your baby's tummy in a clockwise direction. Make firm but gentle circular motions from the belly button outwards. Lie your baby on their back and gently move their legs backwards and forwards in a 'bicycle' motion.

If your baby seems constipated, consider simple changes to your infant's diet: Water or fruit juice. Offer your baby a small amount of water or a daily serving of 100% apple, prune or pear juice in addition to usual feedings. These juices contain sorbitol, a sweetener that acts like a laxative.

Infant poop frequency

Babies can poop as frequently as every feeding or as infrequently as every two to three days. Neither of these situations should cause you alarm.

try giving your baby extra water between some feeds. if your baby is on solids, make sure they're getting enough fibre – apples, pears and prunes are particularly good for constipation.