How to Help Your Baby Poop

Let's talk about poop!

Let's talk about your baby's poop and how to keep things moving for your little one. I'm going to share with you my top tips for constipation - what foods to eat, what foods to avoid, and how to keep things moving for your baby.

As always, with any of this, you want to check with your medical team. Only you and your medical team know what's best for your baby. Constipation is very normal. It happens when babies are starting to eat new foods or start with a new formula, start purees or baby-led weaning. Babies' bellies change a lot, especially in the first year, and so when anything changes in their diet, we'll see that reflected in their poop.

Normal constipation only lasts for a short time, but anything that we can do to help our babies and relieve that pain is going to be better for everyone. So, I'm going to show you all the things you can do to get your baby more comfortable, starting right now.

My name is Lindsay, and welcome to the Little Foundations Channel, where I help parents and caregivers create healthy habits for their babies from the very start.

Alright, like we talked about, every baby will be different, and only you and your medical team know what's best for your baby. So make sure you check in with your medical team before implementing these techniques. Many babies will experience constipation at some point in their life. Like I said, their bellies are changing a lot in the first year, and sometimes they will have a reaction to new foods or new formula or just changes in their diet. And so, we want to be prepared to know what to do to help our baby.

But it's also important that you check in if this is a chronic situation, if it's happening a lot, or if your baby is in a lot of pain. Sometimes constipation can also reflect any intolerances or allergies or something going on with your baby's belly that might be more serious. So with any concern, please always bring it up to your medical team.

Alright, let's jump right in with number one. What are we going to look for? It's always important to have a loose idea of how often your baby has wet or poopy diapers. It's a great thing, especially if you're concerned that your baby's sick or really constipated or having a lot of diarrhea. It's always great to be able to tell your medical team how often or how little they're going to the bathroom during this time.

So one of the first things that we'll see when your baby becomes constipated is definitely changes in their pooping schedule. They won't be pooping as often, and the poop will start to look a little different. They might even have a swollen or really hard belly, and it might even be sensitive to the touch. So we know that our baby is hurting, and I'm going to show you exactly how to help your baby. They might also experience changes in appetite. They might not be as hungry because their belly is full and they're not feeling great. They may be really uncomfortable or fussy or just not their normal selves. And when it comes time to poop, they might be pushing and straining and crying and in a lot of pain at that time. And again, the poop itself will look different. And it's a good thing to keep an idea of how things are changing for your baby.

Alright, and number two, I'm going to show you how the power of food can help your baby get things moving again. When your baby is constipated like this, and it's not a chronic issue, there are usually three things that we can do. We can look at their food, their liquid, and their movement.

So let's start with the food. Let's start with the things that we're going to avoid, not forever, just for a short time until our baby is more comfortable. Some of the things that we're going to avoid during this time would be:

And these might be some of your baby's favorites, and again, I don't want you to get rid of this forever. Sometimes when your baby has too much of one thing, if they get excited about bananas or excited about yogurt and they have a ton of it, this can also be a shock to their system. So we just want to take a short break from these during this time.

Alright, now let's talk about the foods we are going to eat, the foods that we're going to try to introduce. And whether your baby is doing purees or baby-led weaning or a combination, these are foods that you want to try to introduce to get things moving. These foods have great nutrients, but they also have lots of fiber, and they can help your baby to get rid of that constipation and help the food to move along a little bit easier. Okay, some of my favorite foods to help during this time are:

One of my favorite things to do is to introduce smoothies to our babies really early on. If your baby likes smoothies and gets used to them from very early on, it could help in times like these. We can take a lot of these foods that we mentioned and mix them in with chia seeds and flax seeds and put them into a smoothie with kale and spinach, and that will be high in nutrients and great vitamins. But it will also have lots of fiber to get your baby some relief.

Smoothies are so great, and there are so many great things you can put in them. So consider adding a smoothie into the routine today. If you're not up for a smoothie, that's okay. Make sure that whatever you're doing is safe for your baby. Some of these foods are high-allergen foods or some of them may be choking hazards. So make sure that you're always preparing them appropriately.

You can always find more information for how to keep your baby safe during these feeding adventures on YouTube at Little Foundations.

Alright, our next tip for your baby's constipation is liquid. We want to make sure that we are monitoring how much liquid our baby is getting. A few notes here - yes, of course, there is so much hydration from breast milk and formula. But sometimes when your baby starts eating, they'll still need a little bit of extra hydration to keep things moving.

One quick note about formula is especially as your baby is growing and maybe they're needing to eat more formula, please make sure that you're making the formula exactly as it says on the can. We want to make sure that the recipe is exact. Sometimes a lot of families will over pack the scoop that comes in there, or they put a little bit extra in there. We also want to make sure that you're filling up your baby's bottle with the water first and then putting in the formula. Again, make sure that the recipe for the formula is exactly what matches the can. Put the water in first and don't pack the scoop full. That will also help to make sure that your baby is getting exactly what they need for their age and weight. And then we can make sure that they're okay, they're getting the calories they need without having any constipation.

A lot of the liquid that your baby will have will come from that breast milk or formula and also the fruit and the smoothies that we talked about. But you can also talk to your medical team about adding in a little bit of water or a little bit of fruit juice in your baby's diet when there are times like this with constipation.

So a trick that a lot of Medical Teams will use is that we give babies a little bit of prune juice, 100% prune juice. It's a great quick fix to get things moving. But it's important that you speak to your medical team. I also want to caution you to not go crazy with that. Speak to your medical team, and if they feel that it's appropriate to give your baby prune juice or other juice during these times of really bad constipation, we can plan for that. But make sure that you're doing exactly what your medical team asks. We're not going to overwhelm them with that because sometimes a little bit of prune juice goes a long way. And then we have the opposite problem - now our baby has diarrhea and things are really going.

Alright, the last part of this is movement. If you can help your baby to get things moving, we will definitely get some relief. So movement is really important in this process. When your baby is constipated, then not only do they have poop trapped in their belly, but they also have air. And the air that's trapped in there, that gas, is really uncomfortable.

And like we talked about, sometimes it makes them even not want to eat other food. Their appetite goes way down, and they're really uncomfortable and irritable. So anything that we can do to help get that air will really help. So two more tips I have. One is that about an hour after they finish their last feeding, we're going to take off their shirt and just have them in their diaper. And lay them down flat, and then we're going to do some massages and movement. This will help to get things moving in their belly and to get that air out and some poop out.

So many years ago, when I first started working with babies, I wanted to figure out how I could remember all these great tricks to get things moving. So I'm going to share with you exactly how I remember it, and I hope it helps.

Alright, like we talked about, you're going to lay your baby down without their shirt on, just in their diaper. And then these are some of the things that we're going to do. Again, this is how I remember it, and I hope it helps. So when I'm working with a baby or when I am helping a family work through some constipation with their little one, I will share this. So I'll say, "up, up, down, around the clock, side to side, out, out, all around, and I love you".

So let's go through them step by step. So for up, up, first, we take their little toes and we point it toward their nose. We gently try to bring their legs to their nose.

Then we're going to let them relax, and we're going to bring their knees to their chest. Again, that's that natural squatting position that we're going to help them with.

Next, we're going to do down, down. What we're gently going to do is massage down from their ribs down to their hips, right where the top of their diaper is. And we're going to do that massage multiple times, and that will start to get things moving. So gently put the pressure of your hands on their belly, underneath their little ribs, and bring it down to their hips. So that's up, up, down.

Next, we're going to do around the clock, side to side, out, out. So around the clock is, we're going to do gentle clockwise circles around their belly. So I like to start really small around their belly button and then grow bigger circles until we're basically rubbing their whole belly in that clockwise motion.

Next, we're going to do side to side. We're going to gently take their knees and we're going to move them from left to right. So we're going to bend their knees and put their knees out from side to side.

Next, we're going to do out, out. We're going to take our two fingers and we're going to rub from their belly button out to the left and right, from their belly button out to the left and right a few times.

Next, we'll do all around. And I love you. All around is we're going to lift up their hips, hold them by their hips, and we're going to put them in a circle that movement in their belly and their pelvis really will help. So pick up their hips off of the floor, off of the bed, wherever you're practicing, and move their hips in a circle. So I kind of joke with the baby and I'll say, "bring it around town". So we want to get that movement from them.

Next, we're going to do a really famous one - I love you. So you're going to be looking at your baby laying down, and you're going to take your hand and gently go on their left side, which is your right side. And you're just going to make a downward motion, just gesturing the letter "I." So you're going to take your hand again underneath their little rib cage and bring it down to the diaper. You're going to make "I," "I," on the right side. Then on your left side, their right side, you're going to sweep up and over across their belly and that will be kind of the sideways "L." Then you're going to do an upside down "U." Start from the left, your left side, go all the way up to the top of their belly and around to the right. So again, if you're looking at your baby on your right side, you're going to go from their rib cage down to their hips, make an "I." You're going to go up on your left side, sweep across the baby's belly and end up over on your right side for a sideways "L". And then you're going to make across the belly upside down "U." So you're going to go from their right hip up across the middle of their belly and down to their left hip.

So again, if you get into the habit of doing this again after about an hour after your baby has eaten, you can start to say to yourself, "up, up, down, around the clock, side to side, out, out, all around, and I love you".

I know it sounds like a lot, but you'll start to figure out exactly what movement really helps your baby. So it's worth trying out all of these techniques in the beginning, and then you'll start to see if there's one that really helps your baby more than the others. If you can do this great massage before bath time and then you put them in the bath, this sitting in the bathtub with your support, sitting up, and having that warm water up to over their belly button or the middle of their stomach, that can help to open up their little bowels and get them more relaxed and ready to poop.

So again, be cautious with this because you might have to put them right back in and clean them up, give them another bath, but it'll definitely be worth it to get some relief for your baby.

Alright, so go back and check these lists out, check the things we want to avoid, the foods we want to eat, how we can incorporate more movement, and give your baby some relief. I am hoping, fingers crossed, that this constipation is a short-term for your baby, and that we can get things moving again. Please reach out and let me know how it's going, and for more baby feeding tips, check this one.

Check out my Essential Guide to Starting Baby Food - use the code: BABY for $5 off today!