Straining During Bowel Movement

by Mercy
(KENYA)

My 3.5 month baby strains a lot and makes fussy noise during his bowel movement.

For the first 2 months he used to strain but have a soft poop and they were quite often, but that time he was only on breast milk.

When I went back to work, I had to introduce formula, which made things worse because he has at least one bowel movement in a day and at other times he goes after one or two days and is usually vey uncomfortable and there can be periods of crying and screaming lasting for 10 minutes and I have to stand up and shake him calmly to calm him down, which he responds to quite well by sleeping for 20 minutes just ot wake up to the discomfort again.

I want to understand what is happening to him and what I should do to assist his BM although he passe soft stools. Also he is usually very gassy as I hear grumbles from his little stomach. Please advice.

Baby Help Line Response:

Hi Mercy!

The fact that your baby didn't pass stools more than every other day or so when he was breastfed is completely normal and so is probably that he continues to have bowel movements less than once per day now, especially since his stools are still soft.

However, the crying of course indicates that something can be wrong or at least qutei uncomfortable.

Have you tried using baby massage? Some babies really benefit from belly massage when carried out correctly.

Other things that come to my mind are trying another type of formula, for example soy based or hydrolyzed (where the protein has been broken down to smaller parts, easier to digest). Sometimes even switching to another brand of regular formula may help.

Since your baby isn't really constipated, I don't think you should experiment with fruit juices and similar.

While straining and belly pain is common and normal for young babies, it is of course completely right to try to help him as much as possible!

If you do think that your baby is constipated find symptoms as well as remedies here.

Hope this helps!

/Paula

 

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