The last time I wrote about my girl's prolonging case was back in mid November last year, about her 2 months prolonged jaundice ending.
And now, another prolonged case... this time, prolonged NO pooping. Yep... 2 weeks.. well, almost...
At the time I write this post (which is yesterday), she has just pooped! Finally! After almost 2 weeks without pooping! She pooped about 5 times, pebble (chewing gum ball) sized poops. The biggest one was about twice the size of my thumbs stacked together. Sorry for being too graphic here.
To be honest, throughout the almost 2 weeks of no pooping, of course I'm worried. I mean, I cannot imagine how painful it might be for her to poop when the time comes. I started praying after 1 week, telling God about our situation and that I will not mind the mess when it comes. Just let her poop with as less pain as possible.
On the other hand, I was not worried that she might be constipated as exclusively breastfed babies are not at high risks of constipation (confirmed this with our pediatrician via phone call just few hours before she finally pooped). I did checked out websites on the Internet which all confirmed that unless my child is on formula milk (risks are higher as formula milk are harder to digest and can't be fully digested) or in pain, then I should be worried.
Problem is my girl is not in pain. She's her usual chirpy self.
What I did to help move things along are:
- Pray!
- Increased breastfeeding as breastmilk is a great laxative!
- Give more water throughout the day to hydrate my girl.
- Apply more nappy cream on her anus area to lubricate it when she poops (helps avoid straining the area in case the poop is too big).
- Feed more banana (pead's advice) between feedings to help move the poop along (*Note: We didn't get to try this method since my girl pooped before we managed to buy the banana)
My girl cried for the first few seconds when the poops came out but otherwise was back to her chirpy self and once the poop is out, you can see her happy face as if nothing happened at all!
So there you go, another prolonged case which you can now tell people 'It can happen!'
I just want to tell you guys, especially breastfeeding mothers, if your child is in the same situation as mine, fully breastfed, alert and active as usual, then don't get too panicky.
Try the natural ways first before resorting to using medicine or ointment to force the poop out as it might not help your child next time! (think the dependency towards the medicine and ointment for pooping as in they might end up relying on medicine and ointment to poop next time!)
So have your child ever encountered this before? How long can they go without pooping?
* Update on 4th June 2012: I noticed that when I give my girl banana mashed, she will poop. Do take note of the article I mentioned in my comment section below about bananas (it can help in pooping but it can also cause constipation!)