Get newborn to poop

Symptoms, Treatment and When to Call a Doctor

Nationwide Children’s Hospital

Constipation (con-sta-PA-shun) in infants can worry parents. Most of the time, your baby is not really constipated. They may not have developed a routine for pooping yet. Some babies do not develop a bowel movement (BM) pattern for a while.

An infant’s BM pattern can change if their diet changes, like switching from breastmilk to formula, starting solid foods, or drinking less formula than usual. If your baby’s stool (poop) is not soft or easily passed, then they may be constipated.

In rare cases, constipation may be caused by a lack of nerves going to the intestines or by a problem with the way the intestine formed at birth. Your baby can be tested for these conditions if your health care provider feels it is needed.

Signs of Constipation

less stools than their usual pattern
straining more than normal to have a bowel movement
a change in how the stool looks from soft and mushy to:
- small, hard pebbles, or like a large, round golf ball
- loose and watery
abdomen (belly) bloated or swollen with gas
painful cramps

Treatment

If your baby is not eating baby food yet, you may give 1 to 2 ounces of 100% fruit juice (pear, prune, cherry, or apple) once a day. Stop the juice if their stools become too loose.
If they are old enough to eat baby foods, feed them pureed pears, peaches, or prunes instead of giving them juice.
If your baby eats cereal, it may help to give oatmeal, wheat, or barley cereal. Rice cereal can cause constipation in some children.
Sometimes giving your baby a warm bath to relax them or exercising their legs, like riding a bicycle, will help stimulate the bowels to move (Picture 1).
If it has been a few days since your baby has pooped and the juice or pureed food has not worked, then you can try a glycerin suppository. Place your baby on their back. Gently push the suppository into their anus (bottom). Suppositories are meant for occasional use.
Contact your baby’s health care provider before giving them laxatives, baby mineral oil, or enemas to treat constipation.

Medical Therapy

Your child’s health care provider may order the following treatments:

Give your child medication.
Check your child’s temperature using a digital, rectal thermometer. Put a small amount of petroleum jelly (Vaseline®) on its tip before inserting into the rectum. Taking a rectal temperature may stimulate the baby to pass stool.

When to Call the Health Care Provider

Call the health care provider if any of the following occurs:

Your baby is irritable and seems to be having stomach pain. Infants will pull their legs up to their stomach and cry when they are in pain.
Your baby has constipation and develops vomiting, and their belly looks like it is bloated or filled with gas.
You see blood in their stool.
Their constipation does not get better with treatment.

If you have any questions or concerns, call your baby’s health care provider.

Constipation: Infant (PDF), Spanish (PDF), Somali (PDF), Arabic (PDF), Nepali (PDF)

Bowel Movement Tips From Pediatricians

Parenting

So your newborn's diapers are a ghost town. Here's how to get things moving.

by Patrick A. Coleman

Updated: Oct. 31, 2022

Originally Published: November 9, 2019

Ariela Basson/Fatherly; Getty Images

Learning how to make a baby poop easier is an important skill for new parents. Contrary to popular belief, not every newborn, infant, or baby poops perfectly after birth. Lifestyle changes, problems in feeding, a lack of gut flora, or sickness can cause your baby’s bowel movements to slow or become non-existent. But the fact that your baby isn’t instantly a perfect pooper doesn’t always mean there’s a problem. So while there are gentle and non-invasive ways to make a newborn poop, parents shouldn’t rush into it.

What Is Normal for Baby Poop?

Before parents can understand how to make a baby poop, they need to understand what constitutes “normal” stools.

“Infants who used to stool several times a day when they’re first born may slow down their production to just once every couple of days and that can be normal,” says Syeda Amna Husain, M.D., a pediatrician, internationally certified lactation consultant, and founder of Pure Direct Pediatrics. “The infant’s gut bacteria changes and matures as the infant grows older. These bacteria play an important part in the digestion process and are really one of the reasons that baby stool changes in a character over the first few months of life.”

For babies who are exclusively breast-fed, these changes can be even more extreme. Breastfed newborns may either poop after every feeding, save it all up for one bowel movement a day, or go days between producing a stool.

“What we as pediatricians care about is the consistency of the stool and if the infant is appearing to be any sort of discomfort,” Husain says.

Baby Constipation

In clear cases of baby constipation, Husain warns parents away from home remedies they might find in online forums. Additionally, she notes that a lack of bowel movements does not mean a child is dehydrated. In fact, the only fluids a baby should receive are breastmilk and formula. Parents should not offer water to babies younger than 6 months. If your baby is producing wet diapers but not stools, you can be sure dehydration is not the issue.

For a baby who is not pooping, Husain says that there are over-the-counter remedies that can be taken. “Occasionally, I will recommend a probiotic, but I like to see the child first and know of any associating factors along with a diet and stooling history.”

As babies get older and start on solid foods, a change in diet may also change the frequency of bowel movements. It’s not uncommon to see a decline in bowel movements, and parents may even see their child straining to pass a stool. This might cause their face to turn red, for instance, or result in grunts. If baby constipation or strain is an issue for a child eating solid food, it may be possible to get things moving by adding certain foods. “I recommend the ‘p-foods,’” says Husain. “That is, peaches, prunes, pears.”

Manual Methods to Get a Baby to Poop

Aside from probiotics and new food choices, there may also be manual ways to get things moving according to pediatrician Daniel Zoller, M.D., Medical Advisor to Green Active Family. And although he does caution that the methods aren’t evidence-based, that doesn’t mean they aren’t helpful.

“One of my personal favorites I call ‘bicycles,’” Zoller says. “Place the infant on their back on your thighs while you are sitting. Take their lower legs in each hand and move their legs around in a forward and backward circle, as if they were riding a bicycle. Do this for 10 minutes or so, and repeat several times per day. Make faces and talk or sing to your baby while you’re doing this! Most babies think it’s quite fun.”

Whatever method parents try to help their newborn poop, Zoller notes that it’s important for pediatricians to be involved in the process. There is a danger that babies might become dependent on ways to make them poop rather than developing and maintaining the skill themselves, therefore making the issue worse. That’s particularly true with the manual rectal stimulation technique.

“This can be dangerous, as babies can learn to depend on this in order to have a bowel movement,” Zoller says. “I would not recommend this unless specifically directed by your pediatrician.”

How to Make a Newborn Poop: A Quick Guide

Avoid methods like manual rectal stimulation that can cause a baby to become dependent.
Look for consistency in timing rather than time between baby poops to understand if your baby is actually having trouble.
Try probiotics, but be sure to ask a pediatrician for guidance.
If a baby is eating solids, add peaches, prunes, and pears.

This article was originally published on November 9, 2019

What is constipation in a newborn

The contents of a baby diaper is one of the key topics that young mothers discuss. They pay attention to the frequency of the stool, its consistency, color and smell. One of the most common problems they complain about to doctors or to each other is constipation in babies. We figure out what the baby’s chair depends on and how many days he may not go to the toilet for the most part.

Normal neonatal stool

During fetal development, nutrients are supplied to the baby through the umbilical cord. Through it, the metabolic products of the fetus are also excreted. The digestive system of a newborn begins to work only after childbirth, so it is logical that the baby does not poop in utero. But this does not mean that nothing gets into it. nine0003

During this period, the child actively swallows amniotic fluid (amniotic fluid). Its excretion from the body begins after the birth of the child and the start of breastfeeding. For the first time, a newborn goes to the toilet on the second day after birth. This stool is not like a baby's usual feces. Over time, he will return to normal.

How does the baby's stool change in the first months of life?

Age	Child's chair
1–3 days after birth	The chair is dense, pasty. Usually dark, sometimes greenish in color. The passage of meconium can cause discomfort to the baby.
3–5 days after birth nine0003	The chair gradually brightens, becomes mushy. Usually does not cause any inconvenience to the child. But some problems may arise due to the fact that the digestive tract of the baby "learns" to work and is colonized by bacteria.
2 weeks after birth	The work of the gastrointestinal tract is normalized. If the mother feeds the baby with breast milk, the stool is creamy, yellow. On artificial feeding it can be thicker. Not always homogeneous, there may be inclusions. Due to the immaturity of the enzymatic system, it is greenish in color. nine0003
1 month after birth	A month old baby can poop from one to several times a day. The chair is normalized and is both pasty and quite hard. Some children may also have stool retention. But if the separation of feces does not cause discomfort and anxiety in the baby, they should not bother the mother either.
2 months after birth	The work of the intestine continues to improve. Two-month-old baby no longer goes to the toilet after every feed. The number of bowel movements is reduced to 1-2 per day. The stool is still not hard, more like slurry. It can be homogeneous and interspersed.

Constipation is not considered that the baby cannot go to the toilet for a certain time. The main criteria at this age are not stool retention, but unpleasant sensations during defecation (the child cries before pooping), a large amount of stool and its hard consistency. nine0003

Because of what the child does not walk on large

Constipation is a reduction in the number of bowel movements relative to their normal number for this age. In addition, such a disorder of the stool is accompanied by the discharge of a large amount of dense stool. Thus, constipation is not just a decrease in the number of bowel movements, but also a change in the stool itself.

Other signs of constipation in a baby include the following:

change in stool odor;
a large amount of gases;
anxiety of the baby during washing;
restless sleep in a baby with frequent awakenings;
intense crying that cannot be stopped.

Even if the baby goes to the toilet every day, but at the same time his feces become plentiful and dry, this indicates constipation in the child. At the same time, the absence of a bowel movement for several days, which does not cause any inconvenience to the baby, and normal mushy stools, even after a break, are not considered grounds for making such a diagnosis. nine0003

Causes of impaired defecation can be both normal and pathological. The most common causes of constipation in babies are:

congenital malformations of the gastrointestinal tract;
disruption of the digestive glands;
violation of the normal colonization of the gastrointestinal tract by flora;
the predominance of the mixture over breast milk;
insufficient fluid intake; nine0090
unsuitable mixture for the baby;
allergic reactions;
Iron-deficiency anemia.

Most often, the problem lies in improperly selected nutrition or dysbacteriosis in babies. The fact is that the child's intestines are sterile, and until the flora returns to normal, constipation can develop even in a one-month-old baby. Usually this condition does not require medical intervention, but the baby needs some help anyway. nine0003

Constipation is not just a delay in stool, but also a change in its consistency. It can be difficult for a young mother to understand when the lack of bowel movements is normal, and when the child needs help. Our doctors at a remote consultation will help you understand when a child needs help, advise on how to organize a baby’s diet and choose the right formula for him.

When constipation of the baby requires medical attention

nine0002 Most often, problems with defecation in infants occur due to improper feeding or due to the immaturity of the gastrointestinal tract.

However, in some cases, the absence of a chair requires medical intervention. It is especially dangerous if the newborn cannot go to the toilet and his meconium has not passed 2 days after birth.

This may indicate congenital problems with the gastrointestinal tract, which require additional diagnosis and examination by a neonatologist. In addition, other symptoms may indicate them. The main ones are: nine0003

blood streaks or black blotches appear in the feces;
close relatives have diagnosed diseases of the gastrointestinal tract;
the child burps frequently and profusely;
he has vomiting with bile impurities;
the child gains little or no weight;
his stomach is very distended;
the child's stool is like a ribbon;
the child cries a lot, and the parents cannot calm him down;
his temperature rises;
there are traces of calomania on the diaper, but the feces themselves do not go away.

If such symptoms are observed in the maternity hospital, it is necessary to report them to the neonatologist on duty. If they are found after discharge from the hospital, you need to call a pediatrician or report these symptoms during a patronage bypass. In cases where the child begins to vomit profusely and the temperature rises sharply, you need to call an ambulance. nine0003

Important! The minimum weight gain for children in the first three months of life is 150 grams per week or 600 grams per month. In the first month, the increase is calculated from the minimum weight, and not from birth weight.

How to treat stool problems in an infant

To help the baby cope with constipation, you need to understand what caused its development. The diagnosis is made on the basis of a survey of the mother and a physical examination - the doctor palpates the abdomen, examines the anus and performs a rectal examination. To determine the cause, an examination is also carried out - general tests of urine, blood and feces, ultrasound and others if necessary. nine0003

If pathologies are detected, a small patient is sent for treatment to a gastroenterologist, who will prescribe the appropriate treatment for the child. In other cases, it is recommended to change the lifestyle of both the nursing mother and the baby:

A nursing mother is recommended a light diet without fried and fatty foods, with plenty of fresh vegetables and fruits. It is also worth reducing the amount of sugar in the diet, as it can cause fermentation in the digestive tract.
Try to keep breastfeeding or mixed feeding as long as possible. Breast milk helps the digestive tract to ripen and form the correct flora.
When transferring to artificial feeding, make sure that the mixture does not contain palm oil. It impairs the digestive processes and can cause constipation.
If these measures do not help, the child may be prescribed pro- and prebiotics, which help to normalize the intestinal flora, after which the digestive processes also normalize. nine0090
As prescribed by the doctor, the baby may be prescribed laxatives, glycerin suppositories, microenemas and gas tubes. However, you should not get carried away with these drugs, since their constant use can lead to hypotension.

Massage of the abdomen can also help the newborn - stroke the baby's tummy in a circular motion in a clockwise direction and gently press the legs to the stomach. This will improve peristalsis and help the stool pass. A warm bath can also help the baby - it will relax the muscles and make it easier to pass the stool. nine0003

If we are not talking about pathologies of the gastrointestinal tract, normalizing the nutrition of mother and child helps to fight constipation. Our doctors will help you choose the best diet, tell you when your child needs supplementary feeding, and determine when he needs medication.

FAQ

How do you know if a baby is constipated?

Normally, a child’s stool may be absent for several days, if the baby himself is calm at the same time, and the feces after that are soft and pass without problems. A sign of constipation is the presence of a hard plentiful stool and difficulty with the bowel movement itself.

Why is there a delay in stool in infants?

Stool retention can develop due to the immaturity of the gastrointestinal tract of the child, pathologies in the development of the intestines or digestive glands, dysbacteriosis, dehydration, an improperly selected mixture, or flaws in the diet of a nursing mother. nine0003

Can a newborn baby be given a laxative for constipation?

Do not give a newborn baby any medication without first consulting a doctor. Your doctor will assess the severity of your constipation and suggest ways to treat it with or without a laxative.

What to do if the baby has constipation? Should I force my baby to poop?

If the child is not bothered by anything, and the feces after the pass pass without problems, then there is no need to interfere in these processes. If the baby is clearly having difficulty with bowel movements, consult a doctor to find methods that facilitate this process. nine0003

Can planting help with constipation?

Theoretically, an upright posture can help a child cope with constipation. However, these methods are rather auxiliary and will not lead to a stable result. It is more effective to adjust the diet and make sure that the child does not have dehydration.

Expert opinion

The absence of a chair in a child does not always mean that the baby has developed constipation. It is indicated by hard plentiful stools, restlessness and a swollen belly of the baby. The cause of a violation of the stool can be both pathological processes in the gastrointestinal tract, and flaws in the diet of the mother or baby. To determine when constipation requires treatment, the doctors of our service will help. They are available at any time of the day without queues and long waiting times. nine0003

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Article author

Pruzhinin Mark Yulievich pediatrician nine0003

Experience 30 years

Consultations 1572

Articles 105

An experienced pediatrician with extensive experience and clinical experience in various medical organizations, resuscitation and intensive care and neuroinfection. Works with leading experts, attends international and Russian conferences.