meds = poop problem?

Hi! It takes about a month our so for offending proteins to build up, so it might be an issue with diet-yours, meaning milk and or soy proteins &/ or the protein in the formula. Constipation can be a sign of protein intolerance…how are poops? Mucousy; stringy or bobby like jelly or cottage cheese? Does baby strain to poop & then it comes out soft?

hellbennt2012-12-31 12:55:13

My son was always constipated, and he was on Prevacid as well. I never knew it the Prevacid had anything to do with it or not, but I did find ways to manage his constipation.

Pear juice worked better (and caused less gas) than prune juice. I added an ounce of Pear juice to each of his feedings.

Flax seed oil. I used to feed it to him in his oatmeal, but he was a lot older than your little guy. Your little guy is probably too young because you can’t put it in a bottle (he may aspirate it if he chokes, and he probably won’t take it from a spoon) but keep this in mind for when he’s on solids because it’s easy to mix into foods and it works quite well.

Benefiber. Again, your son is probably too young for this but maybe ask your doctor. It’s tasteless and mixes completely into liquids so there’s no grit or anything.

Something someone recommended to me once was brown sugar and warm water. I tired this and it did work a few times.

Also, molasses. A small amount dissolved in warm water.

For my son I think food intolerances were the culprit. Some very common problematic foods are: milk, soy, corn, wheat.

It could also be DGE. I’m quite sure my son had this. It’s Delayed Gastric Emptying. The GI tract in DGE kids moves very slowly, so constipation is common. This is something they eventually outgrow, so it’s best to not treat it with meds, but to just find ways to get him pooping.

You say he strains, and strains, but it comes out soft. Maybe he’s not actually constipated. Not every baby poops every day. And babyies tend to strain and make a big production out of pooping even when there’s no issues. With all of my babies, they pooped constantly (after every feeding) at birth but that gradually lessened with time. As their digestive system becomes more efficient they absorb more so they poop less. If his BM’s are soft, he may not be constipated at all.

Probiotics are a great idea. For my children, a supplement of probiotics together with digestive enzymes helped tremendously with their reflux and food intolerances.

The pancreas is what makes digestive enzymes and puts them in our stomach to break down the food we eat. All foods have enzymes in them but anytime a food is cooked or processed it kills the enzymes. With our diets today of mostly cooked and processed foods it’s hard for our pancreas to be able to produce enough enzymes. Without enough enzymes in the stomach to break down the food the only thing our stomach knows to do is produce more acid to try to break it down. Too much acid in the stomach will cause heart burn, acid reflux, indigestion, irritable bowel syndrome, etc.

If a parent has a pancreas that isn’t producing enough enzymes then it is possible that their children can be born with a pancreas that doesn’t work well either. If the mother will take a supplement of enzymes and probiotics while pregnant she will pass these on to her baby and have a baby with a healthy digestive system.

Probiotics are the good, live bacteria that live in our body. One of the things they do is coat and protect our entire digestive tract (and also the ears and nose). When the stomach produces too much acid then it is forced up the esophagus and down the intestines and will kill probiotics. (Antibiotics also kill probiotics.) When the probiotics are depleted then the acid is traveling right up next to the , throat, esophagus and intestines with no protection. This can cause them to get raw, inflamed, and even bleed sometimes.

There are many different brands and kinds of probiotics and enzymes out there to choose from. We use “Digestive Health” sold by http://www.corehealthproducts.com/products/digestive

You can read more about what all we went through and what we found to help our children in my blog that I have created in hopes to help others. http://help4acidreflux.wordpress.com/