Painful poops

AKOL0

My LO is 6 months. We started giving her rice cereal at 4m. After a few weeks we started pea puree. However she had an ear infection so we stopped for a few weeks to give her fresh breastmilk on demand. Now she has had a few different purees and loves them. We give her the cereal in the morning and puree at night and BM every 3 hours throughout the day.

The problem is that she isn't really pooping. I know that babies poop changes with the food, but she is only pooping once a week when it used to be at least 2 times a day. Lately she has had really thick poop and pushes really hard. She cries and sometimes makes a wheezing sound. I don't know what I can do to help her.

wintersong

Rice cereal is way constipating. Can you feed her oatmeal instead? Also pears prunes and peaches are great for getting poops going.

ETA my son is bf and still struggles with constipation occasionally. I find I need to watch his diet to balance the foods that get him going with the constipating ones.

Knottie1442268460

Try eliminating the cereal. We never fed our baby cereal. We still had digestion issues. But I think those were from formula.

wintersong

Knottie1442268460 said:

Try eliminating the cereal. We never fed our baby cereal. We still had digestion issues. But I think those were from formula.

Op: I also didn't start cereal until about8 months, then only for the iron. Your baby doesn't technically need it, it's practice at this point, as I'm sure you know. Her nutrition is still really just milk.

AKOL0

I like it for the iron as well. I've been told my BM would stops producing iron at 4 months. I have some iron supplements I could give her, but they stain practically everything.

wintersong

AKOL0 said:

I like it for the iron as well. I've been told my BM would stops producing iron at 4 months. I have some iron supplements I could give her, but they stain practically everything.

I have never heard this. I heard that the iron stores for baby last until about nine months, sometimes less, sometimes more. In any case, the aap and the WHO both recommend exclusive breastfeeding until 6 months, so it can't be true that babies generally need extra iron before this time. (Not judging you, just clarifying.)

Edited for typos.