Babies oftentimes go a long time betwixt bowel movements. Most of the time, it is normal for a babe to go days or fifty-fifty more than a calendar week without a bowel move. However, a baby may sometimes be constipated and need a picayune help.

If a baby is constipated, a pediatrician may recommend using home remedies as a start-line treatment for babe constipation.

Abode remedies for constipation in a baby include:

1. Do

Mother moving baby's legs
Moving a infant'due south legs can help save constipation.

As with adults, exercise and move tend to stimulate a baby's bowels.

However, as babies may not be walking or even crawling withal, a parent or caregiver may desire to help them exercise to relieve constipation.

The parent or caregiver tin can gently motion the baby's legs while they are lying on their back to mimic the motility of riding a bike. Doing this may help the bowels function and relieve constipation.

2. A warm bath

Giving a baby a warm bathroom can relax their intestinal muscles and assistance them stop straining. Information technology tin too relieve some of the discomfort relating to constipation.

iii. Dietary changes

Certain dietary changes may help constipation, just these will vary depending on the babe's age and diet.

While breastfeeding a baby, a woman could eliminate certain foods, such as dairy, from her nutrition. It may take some trial and error to identify the dietary changes that aid, and it is quite possible that changes in the diet volition accept no event on the baby's constipation.

For formula-fed babies, a parent or caregiver may want to try a different kind of formula. Information technology is all-time non to switch to a gentle or dairy-complimentary formula without consulting a pediatrician commencement. If one modify does non make a deviation, continuing to try unlike formulas is unlikely to help.

If an infant is eating solid foods, parents or caregivers should await to introduce foods that are proficient sources of cobweb.

Many fruits and vegetables can help stimulate the bowels because of their higher cobweb content. Skillful food choices for babies with constipation include:

  • skinless apples
  • broccoli
  • whole grains, such as oatmeal or whole-grain staff of life or pasta
  • peaches
  • pears
  • plums

four. Hydration

Young infants do not typically need supplemental liquids as they get their hydration from breast milk or formula.

Notwithstanding, babies that are constipated may benefit from a pocket-sized corporeality of extra liquid.

Pediatricians sometimes recommend adding a pocket-sized corporeality of water or, occasionally, fruit juice, to the baby's nutrition when they are over ii–four months one-time and are constipated.

5. Massage

There are several means to massage a baby's stomach to relieve constipation. These include:

  • Using the fingertip to make circular motions on the stomach in a clockwise pattern.
  • Walking the fingers around the naval in a clockwise pattern.
  • Holding the baby'south knees and feet together and gently pushing the feet toward the abdomen.
  • Stroking from the rib cage down past the belly push button with the edge of a finger.

6. Fruit juice

Cloudy apple juice on wooden table with whole green apples in background
A pocket-sized corporeality of pure apple juice tin help soften stool.

Afterwards a baby reaches 2–4 months of age, they tin can have a small-scale amount of fruit juice, such as 100-percent prune or apple juice. This juice may help treat constipation.

Experts may recommend starting with about ii–iv ounces of fruit juice. The sugar in the juice is hard to digest. As a upshot, more liquid enters the intestines, which helps soften and pause up the stool.

Nevertheless, a parent or caregiver should not give fruit juice to a baby for the first time without consulting their pediatrician.

7. Taking a rectal temperature

When a baby is constipated, taking the babe's rectal temperature with a clean, lubricated thermometer may aid them pass stool.

It is of import not to use this method very oft, as information technology tin brand constipation worse. The infant may start non wanting to laissez passer a bowel movement without help, or they may begin to acquaintance having a bowel movement with discomfort, leading them to fuss or cry more during the process.

Anyone who feels as though they often demand to use this method to help the infant accept a bowel movement should talk to the baby'south dr..

As infants may go for extended periods without a bowel motion, it can be hard to tell if they are constipated. Signs that indicate constipation in a baby include:

  • exceptional stools that are not soft in consistency
  • clay-like stool consistency
  • hard pellets of stool
  • long periods of straining or crying while trying to accept a bowel motion
  • streaks of blood-red claret in the stool
  • lack of appetite
  • a hard belly

Signs of constipation in babies vary depending on their age and diet. A normal bowel movement before a baby begins eating solid food should be very soft, almost like the consistency of peanut butter or fifty-fifty looser.

Hard babe stool prior to solid food is the almost obvious indication of constipation in babies.

At showtime, breastfed babies may pass stool often since breast milk is piece of cake to digest. However, one time a babe is betwixt 3 and 6 weeks one-time, they may just pass a big, soft stool in one case a week and sometimes even less.

Formula-fed babies tend to pass stool more ofttimes than breastfed babies. Most formula-fed babies will accept a bowel movement at least once a day or every other twenty-four hours. However, some formula-fed babies may go longer betwixt bowel movements without being constipated.

Once a parent introduces solid food to a baby's diet, a baby may exist more likely to experience constipation. A baby may as well exist more likely to go constipated if a parent or caregiver introduces moo-cow's milk (other than formula) to their diet.

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A physician should assess a baby with ongoing constipation.

It is appropriate to phone call a pediatrician if a infant has not passed a stool after a day or two and at that place are other signs present, such as:

  • claret in the stool
  • the infant seems to exist irritable
  • the baby appears to have intestinal pain
  • there is no comeback in the baby's constipation after taking steps to treat information technology

Treatment typically starts with home remedies. If home remedies do not work, a dr. may examine the baby and, in rare cases, prescribe medications, such as:

  • laxatives
  • enemas
  • suppositories

People should never requite these medications to a baby unless a doctor prescribes them.

Constipation can atomic number 82 to discomfort and irritability in a infant. People can try several at-abode methods to help alleviate constipation.

If symptoms do non ameliorate, it is all-time to speak to the infant's pediatrician for boosted strategies.

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