Discomfort At Night Because He Needs To Poop.

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Discomfort At Night Because He Needs To Poop.

My six month old has been waking up at 3 AM needing to poop since he was born. He poops at least half a dozen times every 24 hours so it's not that he's constipated, and he's barely eating solids so it isn't that.

It just clearly is uncomfortable for him starting around three and he lies there and moans and sometimes he poops within an hour or so but sometimes he doesn't do it until six or seven and we're all exhausted.

He also has a perianal abscess, could that be related?

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Discomfort At Night Because He Needs To Poop.

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Mar 04, 2010

See a doctor!
by: Baby Help Line (Paula)

Hi,

If sounds as if you all are having a tough time! At six months old and only breastfed, it is completely normal for a baby to poop several times per day, but the pain at night does not seem quite right. Same if he is formula fed.

Have you considered lactose intolerance or some kind of allergy; milk allergy or soy allergy for example? Since he's had theses problems right from the start, you should definitely discuss the situation with a pediatrician.

Other things you could do is baby massage and try to reduce the amount of feeding in the evening if possible. (But I realize with a six month old mainly breastfeeding or formula, that can be hard. They need their nutrition!)

I really wish you good luck!

Paula

Jul 05, 2010

My baby has this problem too!
by: Anonymous

My 4 month old baby has this problem too. He poos several times a day (which is perfectly normal for a breastfed baby!) and does not struggle but at 4am every morning he wakes up struggling to poo. Sometimes he poos quickly but sometimes it can take him a couple of hours. I too am exhausted! I asked my health visitor and she said that that is just his time to poo which does not make sense to me as he poos at other times of the day and does not struggle. I was hoping that he would grow out of it or that it would stop when he goes on to solids. If you find an answer I'd love to know what the cause is.

Jul 19, 2010

SAME PROBLEM
by: Anonymous

My 4 month old is having the exact same problem, sometimes it starts as early as 12am or 1am and goes on every hr all night, sometimes he poops by 6 or 7am and sometimes he does not and it seems as though the discomfort he feels comes and goes because he cries for awhile, maybe relieves some gas here and there, then goes back to sleep for an hour, but always wakes awhile later with the same problem until he poops. I too am exhausted and hope it is soon resolved, however my 4yr old son had the same problem and the frequent wakings when he was an infant became a bad sleep cycle and I ended up having to "Ferberize" him at about 11 months old (hope this does NOT happen this time around)

Jul 21, 2010

Just left doc's office....again,with nothing
by: Yulia

My 8,5 month son and I have been living like this from birth, too.He is breastfed, we started experimenting/playing with solids at 6m.o. but now he is getting worse and i don't know what to blame now.

He also has(had) a fissure and visible blood stricks in his poop at 4-6 months;we thought he was "colicky".That subsided after (took few days to clear my milk, I thought)I completely eliminated all(!) diary and soy from my diet.
He still woke up few times a night, but got back to sleep easily with a diaper change /feeding (we co-sleep).Overall my baby seemed a bit happier.

A month ago I got cocky that "all is well" and gave him few new foods in one day, as well as, very gradually though, got back on milk&cheese myself. And, for a while, I saw no changes. Until it all came over, like a big wave ,few weeks ago;and never left since. I now am, again cheese-free; my baby doesn't get ANY solids; tried teething gel, pills, colicky pills(all homeopatic though), Ovol, acetomenophen, camomile tea and-yes-massage.

Our ped. is away and the cover-upper suggested acetomenophen "until baby learns to sleep through".

It is terrible.My baby is so cranky most of the time, day or night. Sleepy but restless. Moans and laughter change one another.

My only hope, really, is that one of you, mothers, will write a "happy-end" story for the rest of us here.
God bless.
Yulia

Sep 01, 2010

3 Week old baby sounding constipated and trying to poo!
by: Anonymous

I have a 3 week old baby boy. I am breast feeding hes seems to be having a pooing issue, he keeps pushing and he goes bright red in the face and screams, not matter what i do, he grunts, moans, screams loud trying to get a poo out, i don't know why he wants to try and force a poo out, ive tried Brauer colic meds, Infacol and now on Gripe Water, nothing seems to be working. He just needs help in the bowel area. Ive been to the two different docs and they've all said, it'll pas, which is easy, they don't live in the house hold with a screaming baby every nite!
This is exhausting me out, can someone please help!

Sep 11, 2010

Baby strains to poo all night!
by: Anonymous

My 8 week old son has been straining to pooh all night since he was around 2 weeks old. He is formula fed. All night he grunts & pushes even if he already had a bowel movement and at times wakes up crying. Nobody is getting any sleep because of this. Dr. thinks he may have reflux so just started him on Zantac. I don't have much hope that is the issue but will give it a try. Desperate to find out what the real problem is!

Nov 10, 2010

Same problem with my son
by: Jaxson'sMomma

I have a wonderful 7 1/2 month son, who has also had this problem since birth he will wake up to feed maybe once a night but he wakes up 2/3 more times a night just uncomfortable and cranky I have just in the last month or so started solids but he has constantly been constipated since birth we always are counting if we r on day 2,3,4 I've just started soy w/in the last day or s. Hoping this works!!! Strange how many boys are having this. I didn't breastfeed though. Formula since birth regret it but live and learn.

Dec 22, 2010

3 month old that has restless sleeps
by: Anonymous

My 3 1/2 month old wakes up constantly throughout the night squirming in discomfort. Sometimes he goes back to sleep but other times he can't lay still so I wake him up. Once he's awake he normally poops but it can take anywhere from 5 minutes to 1 hour for him to poop. Lately this has been happening twice a night which really disrupts his sleep schedule. He only seems to sleep in spurts of 1-2 hours of during the day so a good nights sleep is critical but isn't happening. Consequently I have a cranky baby...

Is there anything I can do to help him?

Apr 19, 2011

Same story as all of the above
by: Kayra's Mom

I too have a son...which by the way seems to be the connection we all have: BOYS...not one single post so far about baby girls with this straining to poop issue.

He is 3 months old now, and for the past 2 and half months, it's the same schedule...comes 2-3 in the morning, the pain and the straining starts and nothing will help until daylight comes around 6-7 in the morning and he wakes up and poops. We've tried massages, hot compress...nothing seems to work. I was told by our doctor that he is colicky and can feel his bowel movements, reason for which he has pain and strains so much. He DOESN'T behave like a colicky baby at all, never cries....I have no clue what this is, but was hoping he would grow out of it by now or 6 months the latest. Seeing your posts of much older babies going through the same, freaks me out. Will they EVER grow out of it?

Sep 06, 2011

5 month old
by: Anonymous

my girl also has this problem. I was shown how to stimulate her bowls before by using a glove and using vaseline and just putting the tip of my finger up as if taking her temperature and she goes right away. My doctor said this to me to help her when she was going too long between bowel movements as it stimulates the bowel and in 5 or ten minutes after stimulating her bowels she goes.

Lately she has been staying up to poop, If it is going for a long time I will stimulate her bowels.

If you want to try this get your doctor to show u how. It is much better than using a suppository as it does not cause bowel dependance. Maybe this will help. I think its the teething lately that is causing her to swallow alot of saliva and causing her to poop more and distrupting her sleeping.

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