gas and constipation?
Wow, I feel like I don't really have good news and all I ask for is help -- I hope that someday I can be contributing and helping others as you girls do for me!
That being said... our latest hurdle has been gas, grunting, crying and possible constipation.
The long story: The little guy has been grunting and pushing anywhere from every 3 minutes to once an hour (or so). On Monday we had a well-visit with his pedi, and he pooped fine (hooray) with not so much gas. We mentioned gas, so she gave us some Similac Sensitive to try. Later that night, the grunting started. He didn't poop for 48 hours and would wake up SCREAMING and grunting and pushing. It literally broke my heart every time and I'd break down in tears. On Wed we called the pedi, and she recommended a liquid glycerin suppository since he was in so much pain. That worked. We were happy. But later that night we found blood in his stool, so she told us to come back the next day if he continued grunting and pushing throughout the night (he did, but it wasn't quite as often).
Thursday we saw another pedi (it's a practice), and he stimulated him to poop, and said he saw a small anal fissure, and thus the bleeding 
He then gave us Similac Alimentum to help with the gas and said to try give him a couple ounces of water throughout the day.
Here we are 2 days later, and the little guy hasn't pooped again. He's grunting and pushing less (could be the formula is working or the fact that he's getting much less formula). But no poops. It still breaks my heart when he wakes up with his face all scrunched up, crying and grunting, though DH got worried and called the pedi (they must HATE us), and another doc said it's normal and it's just his system adjusting, and he has to learn to pass gas and poop.
Is it normal? Why were we told to give a suppository on Wed? Because he was screaming so much? I know we can't use it too often, otherwise they may come to rely on it... I also don't want to keep stimulating him to get him to go because I don't want him to rely on that or to have anymore bleeding.
FWIW, his poops have been soft, which is why we aren't sure if it's constipation... Oh, and we've also tried the gas drops, tummy massages, bicycle kicks, and LOTS of burping. But there's always lots of gas. Time to go, little guy is screaming and grunting again
Re: gas and constipation?
Oh, you will TOTALLY be able to help others later on. We were all where you were at one point.
Could it be something you're eating that's passing into your breast milk? Hopefully Sandra will chime in because I know E had tummy issues. She had to pretty much do an elimination diet because he's super sensitive to dairy, soy, etc.
All of this makes me wonder if I missed something with my LO. She was super fussy for the first couple months and we could never really pinpoint what it was. Hope you figure it out and that he feels better soon!
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aww, sounds rough
we never had grunting, but E had a lot of gas and would have trouble getting it out. however, he also had a ton of other symptoms that pointed to food intolerance - i think our symptoms starting showing up around 5 weeks, which the pedi said was about when it becomes an issue.
i googled a bit, and it sounds like grunting is common. it's also normal for bf babies to go for pretty long (a week, i think!) w/o pooping, though i can't imagine that being comfortable! as long as A's poops are soft, i would try not to worry about it, and he should grow out of it. however, you could try cutting out dairy to see if that helps - their little digestive systems are still very immature, and it might be worth a shot! you'll want to cut out *all* sources of dairy for at least a week to see if there's any improvement. i saw immediate improvement, but it does take 2-4 weeks for all the milk proteins to get out of your body. kellymom has some good info. let me know if you have any questions about this! it can seem overwhelming, but it's really not that bad.
i hope A feels better soon!
I was going to say this too. My LO is allergic to dairy and to some extent soy too. If we miss something it can take up to a week for the symptoms (skin and digestive) to go away. Even more time for us to feel guilty
Since your LO has been on cow milk based formula for so long (and as sandra said allergies take a while to show) then it makes sense that it is going to take a little time for him to get back to neutral/normal.
It seems odd that if you let your peds know you were hoping to phase out supplementation that they keep giving you formula. Sorry you have to deal with that too.
Gas - My daughter and I had bad gas, which was making for some very cranky days. I did some online research which recommended not eating soy, dairy, citrus fruits, strawberries and tomatoes for two weeks. The situation improved immediately. I also used a bit of gripe water when needed.
Constipation - Try watering down the formula. My daughter was spitting it up at full strength, so I add about 1/3 more water to the scoop suggested. My daughter mostly has breast milk, but now and then she needs a bit more. We have had no pooping issues.