Lately, I’ve seen a lot of new mothers concerned that their breastfed babies are not pooping every day. My first son has always pooped a zillion times every day. We never knew when a BM was a-brewin’. It was kind of terrible.
When this picture was taken, Felix (then 3 months) hadn’t pooped for 12 days. I remember because we were on vacation and I was freaking out.
My second only pooped once a week. So, when this first started happening, I was concerned that something might be wrong. I called our pediatrician and googled products like the Windi to see if I should be doing something special to help my baby move his bowels.
What I learned is that it’s very normal for exclusively breastfed babies older than 6 weeks to poop infrequently. It can be normal for babies to go as long as 2 weeks without a poop. And Felix went that long once. When he finally did decide to go, it was intense!
But, provided baby is not uncomfortable, really his little body is just using up that magical milk your body produced for him. At first, I tried gentle techniques to move things along, such as bicycling his little legs or giving him warm baths or rubbing his tummy in small circles. Some moms claim that taking baby’s temperature rectally can trigger a BM, but I didn’t want to do this with my son because he was not showing any signs of distress–he just wasn’t pooping.
It was sort of nice being able to go out and about with just one spare diaper, not worrying about a poo-splosion. With Felix, I always could tell when his long-awaited poop was eminent. He’d roll onto his belly in the morning and start doing some yoga planks. When he started cruising, instead of planking he’d do plies clinging to the futon. So I knew that day would be a poop day and prepare accordingly.
Isn’t he considerate?
I can joke and laugh about it now because I’m past this stage, of course. He eats food now and we’re back to unpredictable diapering. But I remember how easy it is to think, “Is something wrong with my wee baby?” So I feel you! But if you’re able to, just enjoy those days of no dirty diapers.
Did your wee baby take some time between bowel movements? Leave us a comment to share your experience.
