Constipation in newborns with mixed feeding occurs due to nutrition and some violations of its organization by parents. The child becomes restless, can refuse food, often cries. How to help the baby cope with constipation, and what should be the normal stool of a baby of the first year of life with natural, artificial and mixed feeding?
Breastfeeding stool
With full breastfeeding, the frequency of the stool of the newborn from the fourth day of life can be from one to seven times a day. The chair is also considered normal after each feeding. The volume of bowel movements increases due to the appearance of additional fats in mature breast milk. Multiple bowel movements indicate that the baby sucks the so-called back milk, which is more high-calorie. At two months, stool usually becomes less common.
In the first days of life, the body is cleansed of meconium - the original stool, which looks like a black-green viscous mass. Mekonium consists of amniotic fluid, which the baby swallows during the pregnancy of the mother, dead cells, mucus. By the fourth day of life, the chair becomes gray-green and less viscous, brightens. This indicates the normal operation of the gastrointestinal tract, good digestion of colostrum or infant formula.
Unformed stool in a newborn is the norm, not pathology. The stools are yellow or greenish in color, a mushy consistency, white lumps can be seen in the diaper. Green stool may be a reaction to the food eaten by the mother, and foamy indicates an excess of front milk in the diet of the child. It is non-nutritive and liquid. Back milk is more nutritious and oily. To avoid the fact that the baby sucks only the front milk, you can try to alternate the breasts not each, but through one feeding.
Artificial feeding chair
The bowel movements of infants that feed on milk and milk-free formulations are usually thicker than in naturally fed infants. The stool has a persistent smell; it can be pale yellow or brown in color. The normal frequency of bowel movement in a child with artificial feeding is once or twice a day. This is due to the peculiarities of artificial nutrition, which is digested by the body longer than breast milk.
If a baby who is being breast-fed regularly empties the intestines once or twice a day, then everything is in order. With more rare bowel movements, constipation may develop. The reasons may be the mismatch of the mixture to the age of the child, the wrong size of the nipple or hole in it, a change in the mixture.
The right specialist will help you choose the milk or dairy-free mixture for the newborn. After switching to artificial feeding, you need to especially carefully monitor the individual reaction of the baby to nutrition. Any digestive disorders and anxiety of the child should become a reason to doubt that the mixture is suitable.
The choice of formula for feeding the baby
So that there is no constipation in the newborn with artificial feeding, you need to choose the right mixture. Mandatory consultation of a pediatrician who observes the baby from the first days of life. A child who is being breast-fed should be dosed with water between feedings, and in the diet follow the schedule. It is better to offer a bottle every 3-3.5 hours, but you should not specifically wake the baby to feed.
For a newborn, you can choose any artificial mixture labeled "1", "initial milk". These are the most adapted mixtures that are well digested by the immature digestive system. In this diet, a small amount of protein, so as not to overload the kidneys, but still has all the necessary vitamins (C, D, E, A and others). Mixtures of the "second level" are intended for children of the second half of life. In such a diet, an increased content of iron (reserves accumulated during the period of intrauterine development by this time are depleted), vitamins D and C.
The best mixtures for constipation in newborns are nutrition with beneficial bacteria of lactic acid, that is, probiotics that stimulate the protection of the child's body. For preterm infants, a diet rich in fatty acids LC-PUFA is suitable. With frequent burping, the pediatrician will prescribe a mixture labeled AR. Typically, this diet contains carob extract, rice or potato starch.
Normal stool with the introduction of complementary foods
With the introduction of complementary foods, the child’s stool becomes more formalized, not much different from the “adult”. In the diaper, there may be undigested pieces of vegetables, a sharp unpleasant odor appears. Fiber is excreted in this form, stimulating regular and soft stools.
Complete absorption of breast milk
Can there be constipation in newborns with natural feeding? If the baby eats only breast milk, it may not have stools. Sometimes this indicates insufficient calorie intake, but there are cases of physiological constipation. In rare cases, breast milk is completely absorbed by the body of the baby, as a result of which the undigested residue practically does not accumulate.
Bowel movement can occur once every few days or even a week. This is due to insufficient filling of the large intestine with waste. Only full filling is a signal to reduce the walls of the intestine, which leads to emptying. This feature of the assimilation of breast milk becomes apparent by 1.5-3 months.
So, stools with a frequency of once every few days is a physiological norm only if three conditions are met: the baby is completely breastfed, her age is at least one and a half months, the baby does not suffer from bloating, discomfort, difficulty emptying, gaining weight well.
Mixed Feeding and Constipation
Constipation in newborns with breast, artificial or mixed feeding, after the introduction of complementary foods, is a common problem for parents with children in their first year of life. The digestive system of the baby is still immature, certain enzymes may be absent. In this regard, independent stool may be absent for more than a day, independent bowel movement may be difficult or accompanied by discomfort.
When breastfeeding, constipation indicates an improper nutrition of the mother, a lack of dietary fiber in a woman’s diet, a tendency to foods with easily digestible carbohydrates and proteins. In this case, you need to give preference to cereals (especially brown rice, buckwheat and oatmeal), include boiled vegetables in the menu. Prunes, fresh kefir, figs, boiled beets, dried apricots, apricots and peaches have pronounced weakening properties. Eating them allows you to normalize your own stool and stool of the child.
Most often, constipation occurs with artificial feeding, and in some children this problem appears only to the introduction of complementary foods. Constipation in newborns with mixed feeding or another type of food in any case requires intervention. A child with bowel movement can be helped mechanically (gas tube, enema), with the help of drugs or by natural means (normalization of nutrition, physical activity).
Normalization of a child’s nutrition
Along with the introduction of complementary foods, the problem of unbalanced nutrition and constipation appears. For example, cereals are offered in large quantities to a child, but there are few vegetables in the diet. This usually happens if milk porridges with sweet fruits, sweetened, are given. The child refuses vegetables and cereals without sweet additives. Therefore, modern pediatricians advise not to sweeten food for children of the first year of life, but to introduce vegetables first.
A child on mixed feeding must be offered to drink more liquid. You can solder with plain water from a spoon or from a bottle. Periodically, you can replace the water with decoctions of dried fruits. You can cook compotes from apricots, apples, plums, pears and other fruits that the crumbs well tolerate, but do not sweeten the drink. Be sure to dairy and when feeding an artificial mixture. If the baby consumes only breast milk, then additional water is not necessary.
Provision of motor activity
Constipation in newborns with mixed feeding can be eliminated if sufficient physical activity is provided. Exercise helps intestinal motility. Sometimes, for their own convenience, parents keep children who already know how to move crawling or holding on to a support, in playpens and cribs. This not only slows down the pace of development of the child, but also leads to disruption of the bowel movement. Breasts that are not yet self-moving, it is useful to spread more often on the tummy and wear a column after feeding.
What is colic in newborns
If natural methods of normalizing digestion (correction of diet, physical activity) do not help, then, most likely, there is a violation of motility and cramping. With cramping, gas discharge is difficult, so that intestinal colic is associated with constipation. The most common cause of such pain is the air that the baby swallows while feeding or crying.
The occurrence of colic in a baby is not affected in any way by the nutrition of the mother (with natural feeding) or the mixture. Pain occurs in 70% of infants, regardless of whether they feed on conventional mixtures, lactose-free or adapted, breast milk. How to help the child, what will the pediatrician advise against colic and constipation in newborns? Most likely, these will not be medications.
Every day you need to do a tiny massage (stroking the tummy with fan movements strictly clockwise), often wear the baby in an upright position (not only after eating), from time to time use a sling or a special backpack (this is a preventive measure not only for hip dysplasia, but at least some movement). For children who are breast-fed, you need to choose the "right" bottles. Such "dishes" has a special tube for venting air.
To relieve pain, you can give your child dill water or fennel. Many pediatricians today are fully convinced that there are no special remedies for colic in newborns, but there is a large list of drugs that will help to some extent relieve pain and reduce gas formation. These are medicines that contain simethicone or fennel fruits. There is no need to remember specific names. A pharmacist in any pharmacy will offer a range of products. You can choose the cheapest or "attractive." There is no significant difference between these medicines. They work the same way, have almost the same composition, are safe for the baby.
Mechanical emptying assistance
What will help a newborn baby from constipation? You can mechanically help the baby empty his intestines, but this will require certain skills from the young mother. If the baby is actively pushing for some time, but the bowel movement does not occur, you can use a vent tube, if there is no stool for more than two or three days, use an enema. For newborns, a pear with a volume of 30 ml is suitable, up to three months - 60 ml, from three to eleven months - 90 ml. The tip must be silicone or rubber. For an enema, boiled or bottled water at room temperature (22-26 degrees) is used. You can add glycerin to the water (two tablespoons per glass of water), vegetable oil, or chamomile broth.
Laxatives for infants
What will help with constipation in newborns with mixed feeding? If other methods do not help, it is worth trying laxatives. Typically, pediatricians prescribe lactulose syrup, which can be purchased at pharmacies under various trade names: Normase, Dufalac, and so on. You can use glycerin suppositories and medicinal microclysters.
Glycerin softens dense stool to normally remove it from the baby's body. The substance is not absorbed into the blood, but acts exclusively locally. The drug effect occurs within thirteen minutes. Microclysters “Microlax” are easily administered, restore the water balance in the intestines, and improve the digestive system. Mikrolaks copes with constipation in ten to fifteen minutes.
One of the most famous laxatives is Dufalac. It is safe to give this medicine to a newborn with constipation. Syrup costs from 500 rubles, but you can buy not a large bottle, but a portioned sachet. Lactulose, when it enters the intestines, softens the stool, saturates it with liquid, and reduces the intestinal wall. "Dufalac" with constipation helps a newborn in 12-24 hours.
Reviews of young mothers about the problem
Judging by the reviews, constipation in newborns occurs quite often. Moms deal with this problem in different ways. Natural methods, that is, physical activity, “right” bottles and tummy massage, help someone. Often young parents resort to glycerin suppositories - this is a simple, budgetary and effective tool. Special syrups and enemas are used a little less often.