Babies often go a long time between bowel movements. Most of the time, it is normal for a baby to get days or even more than a week without a bowel movement. However, a baby may sometimes be constipated and need a niggling help.

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

Abode remedies for constipation in a baby include:

1. Exercise

Mother moving baby's legs
Moving a infant'southward legs tin can assist relieve constipation.

As with adults, practice and movement tend to stimulate a babe's bowels.

All the same, every bit babies may not be walking or even crawling yet, a parent or caregiver may desire to help them exercise to save constipation.

The parent or caregiver can gently move the baby'due south legs while they are lying on their dorsum to mimic the motion of riding a bicycle. Doing this may aid the bowels function and salve constipation.

2. A warm bath

Giving a baby a warm bath tin relax their abdominal muscles and help them terminate straining. It can besides save some of the discomfort relating to constipation.

3. Dietary changes

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

While breastfeeding a baby, a adult female could eliminate certain foods, such as dairy, from her diet. Information technology may take some trial and error to identify the dietary changes that assist, and information technology is quite possible that changes in the diet will have no result on the infant's constipation.

For formula-fed babies, a parent or caregiver may desire to endeavour a dissimilar kind of formula. It is all-time non to switch to a gentle or dairy-free formula without consulting a pediatrician offset. If 1 change does not make a divergence, continuing to endeavour different formulas is unlikely to aid.

If an babe is eating solid foods, parents or caregivers should look to introduce foods that are good sources of fiber.

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

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

four. Hydration

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

However, babies that are constipated may benefit from a minor amount of extra liquid.

Pediatricians sometimes recommend adding a small amount of h2o or, occasionally, fruit juice, to the baby's diet when they are over two–iv months quondam and are constipated.

five. Massage

At that place are several ways to massage a baby'southward stomach to relieve constipation. These include:

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

six. Fruit juice

Cloudy apple juice on wooden table with whole green apples in background
A small corporeality of pure apple tree juice can help soften stool.

After a baby reaches two–4 months of age, they can have a small amount of fruit juice, such as 100-percentage prune or apple juice. This juice may help treat constipation.

Experts may recommend starting with about ii–four ounces of fruit juice. The saccharide in the juice is difficult to digest. Every bit a result, more liquid enters the intestines, which helps soften and suspension up the stool.

Yet, a parent or caregiver should not give fruit juice to a infant for the outset time without consulting their pediatrician.

seven. Taking a rectal temperature

When a infant is constipated, taking the baby'southward rectal temperature with a clean, lubricated thermometer may help them pass stool.

Information technology is of import not to use this method very often, equally it can brand constipation worse. The baby may offset non wanting to pass a bowel move without aid, or they may begin to associate having a bowel motion with discomfort, leading them to fuss or cry more during the process.

Anyone who feels as though they often need to use this method to help the baby have a bowel movement should talk to the infant's doctor.

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

  • infrequent stools that are non soft in consistency
  • clay-like stool consistency
  • hard pellets of stool
  • long periods of straining or crying while trying to have a bowel motility
  • streaks of red blood in the stool
  • lack of appetite
  • a difficult abdomen

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

Hard baby stool prior to solid food is the most obvious indication of constipation in babies.

At commencement, breastfed babies may pass stool often since breast milk is like shooting fish in a barrel to digest. Yet, one time a babe is betwixt 3 and 6 weeks onetime, they may only pass a large, soft stool once a week and sometimes even less.

Formula-fed babies tend to pass stool more frequently than breastfed babies. Near formula-fed babies will have a bowel movement at least in one case a solar day or every other solar day. Even so, some formula-fed babies may get longer between bowel movements without beingness constipated.

Once a parent introduces solid nutrient to a baby's diet, a infant may be more probable to feel constipation. A baby may likewise be more likely to become constipated if a parent or caregiver introduces cow'due south milk (other than formula) to their diet.

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A doctor should assess a baby with ongoing constipation.

It is advisable to call a pediatrician if a infant has non passed a stool after a twenty-four hour period or two and there are other signs present, such as:

  • claret in the stool
  • the babe seems to be irritable
  • the baby appears to have abdominal pain
  • there is no improvement in the infant's constipation after taking steps to treat it

Handling typically starts with domicile remedies. If home remedies exercise not piece of work, a doctor may examine the infant and, in rare cases, prescribe medications, such every bit:

  • laxatives
  • enemas
  • suppositories

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

Constipation can lead to discomfort and irritability in a baby. People can try several at-home methods to assistance alleviate constipation.

If symptoms do non ameliorate, information technology is best to speak to the babe's pediatrician for additional strategies.

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