You’ve had colds and flus, you’ve been unpleasantly surprised by violent reflux, you’ve seen all shades and textures of diarrhea… so what about the silent lurker; could your baby be constipated?
We’ve all experienced it from time to time as adults (…come on, be honest), so why couldn’t it happen to your baby?
Let’s start with the essential question: what is constipation? I mean, it could be normal for your baby to poop once a week if it is not a strain, if the stool is not too hard, if there is not a black color or blood present. Or they could be a regular as clockwork, once-a-day poop machine.
Still not quite sure if your baby is suffering from constipation? Take a look at our baby poop chart here to assess their excess.
The key to knowing if your baby is constipated is the strain, the pain, the fussiness, the crying, the difficulty in getting that stinky monster out and free it into their diaper. Pain and strain is not a fun game! So if you feel like your baby is struggling it may be time to try some baby constipation home remedies.
Our moms and dads at Organic Baby Food Shop have come up with a few tried and tested solutions for you to try for baby constipation relief:
- Give your baby sips of water. This works for breastfeeding moms and formula feeding mums. And it’s really fun for baby to try sips of something different. For older babies you can alternate bottles and sippy cups. Even try slurps from a little teacup. That way it’s fun as well as good for them.
- Alternate water sips with sips of fruit juice especially prune, apple or pear juices. These are natural laxatives.
- A really cute and fun option is the bicycle. Move your baby’s chubby, cute little legs around in a circular movement like they’re riding a tiny little baby bike. The exercise can help to get their intestines moving and produce some very funny bottom burps in the process.
- One of our very favorites, for us, as well as for baby, is a warm bath. The bliss! The relaxation! The scented candles and the gentle jazz tunes… oh that’s us not baby! But… it works just as well to relax your baby’s body and muscles and get that stubborn stool out. A word of warning though; it is best to be prepared. One of our mum’s swears by this technique but the bath clean-up crew had to be called multiple times after this worked a little bit too successfully!
That’s just a few ideas for how to help relieve baby constipation. You might also consider switching formula if your baby is formula fed. You may be wondering, what is the best formula for constipation? Well, babies are all unique and different but we found great results with our HiPP Organic Combiotic 1 year and up Formula which contains Prebiotic oligosaccharides (GOS) for a healthy digestive system.
If your baby is a little older you may wish to try HiPP Organic Combiotic 2 years and up Formula to help ease their tummy troubles.
If you are in any doubt, don’t be afraid to go and see your doctor or nurse to make sure that your baby is the healthiest and happiest they can be. And enjoy the wonderful world of magical poop that your baby can produce and continually surprise you with.