Breastfed baby hardly pooing
Does anyone have any experience of a young newborn EBF baby not having as many dirty nappies as they "should"? I say that as everything suggests they should produce multiple dirty nappies per day in the early weeks, and this was the experience with my first, but my 5wo can go 2-3 days without a dirty nappy and this has been the case pretty much always, as soon as the meconium all passed in the first few days he's only been going every few days (loads of wet nappies though). I've spoken to all the healthcare professionals going and nobody really knows what to say, because he's gaining weight etc. they just shrug it off. But I know it's very unusual, and the main concern really is that i can see it's causing him discomfort as he's always straining and wriggling and then gets frustrated/upset and resorts to feeding allll the time for comfort - you'd think he'd be pooping a lot more, I honestly don't know where it's all going!!
I'd love to hear from anyone else who's experienced this, just to know we're not the only ones and maybe if you know of anything that helped, or when/how things eventually sorted themselves out...?! I just don't know what to do to help him, and I spend all my days wishing for the next poo 🙈 Just want to know he's happy and comfortable 🥺 his poor little gut really seems to be having a hard time waking up and kicking into action, he's quite gassy too and has some mild reflux, it's all going on.
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It’s actually very common/normal for breastfed babies to do that, not pooping that much while exclusively breastfeeding. So long as baby is still having wet nappies, you should be fine. My first born was JUST like that! Turns out the discomfort was more often than not gas. I had to adjust my diet so I quit eating foods that could cause gasiness in babies. :) That really helped. And when he’d have gas, laying him on his back and bicycling his legs and massaging his tummy to help the gas pass also helped loads. Poop is just the body getting rid of waste, and there shouldn’t be that much waste in breastmilk, so it is common to even skip days pooping. :) So long as the tummy isn’t enlarging (a sign of constipation/backing up), the baby should be okay. Be sure you’re eating things that agree with tummies (not just healthy… Broccoli is healthy but very upsetting to stomachs… I learned that the hard way 😅) and bicycling baby’s legs and massaging it’s tummy. Hopefully that will help! *hugs*
Thanks @Heather 🌻 it's really reassuring to have the conversation with other mums! It's weird isn't it that we know beeastmilk is tailored to baby's needs and there is very little waste, and it IS really normal for EBF babies to not go for a few days from about 6 weeks+, but for some reason everyone says to expect multiple dirty nappies a day in the beginning and I haven't been able to find anything that explains why! I think in our case it probably is just the way he is, and I'm questioning it and worrying unecessarily - although the gas/whatever is causing discomfort is no joke, wish i could fix that for him the poor little guy. I hope it's something he grows out of quickly. I try bicycle legs and massage and it never really seems to help but perhaps I'm not doing it for long enough, how long would you usually spend doing that to see results?
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