Constipation in a breast-fed baby

is the baby unhappy?

Fruit juices. You need to get more sugar and liquid into her bowels. Soften the poo up.

Pureed vegetables too, such as sweet potato. Porridge. Bananas.

I'd echo jess's question too – is the baby unhappy? Some babies (and adults) only have a bowel movement every few days. It doesn't necessarily mean they are constipated.

I wonder if they take enough bulk on board with this baby-led weaning.

I used to liquidise stewed apple and boiled carrots for DS1. The results were quite the opposite of constipation.

Pear is supposed to be good.

I am not aware of baby-led weaning. Presumably the child eats what the parent gives him/her, as they are not in a position to involve themselves in the choice of foods at the weekly shop! I suppose it must mean they eat what they like from what is put in front of them and chuck the rest on the floor - twas ever thus!

Perhaps someone an enlighten me.

How did I miss that bit?

Someone did a study (some time ago - can't remember who or where) where they let babies choose from a selection of foods set out in front of them which and how much they ate. They recorded what each chose and totted them up at the end of it (it went on for several days). They concluded that they chose different amounts of different things at different times, ans sometimes a lot of one thing for a while, but the overall diet was a good balanced one.
On the strength of this kind of experiment, it seems to be assumed that they know what they should be eating. Admittedly, if they don't want it and won't eat it, then the best diet in the world is not going to do them much good, but it does depend on the foods they can choose from being a good selection to start with. They can't decide to go and buy X because that is what they will want to eat today.

I think that is a pretty old study elegran because it was being cited when I was a student. The children in question were not, if I remember correctly, offered any cakes etc. Otherwise they would have chosen them and ignored the celery

Prunes !! Did the trick for my DGS

Heinz used to do prunes and custard which always did the trick, but I don't think they do that any more. Easy to do your own though.
Plenty of boiled water as well, as your DD2 is probably cutting out some liquid feeds as she increases solids. I heard years ago that unrefined sugar in the water works as a laxative, but that would probably be frowned upon now.

My DGS had bad constipation as a very young baby. I looked on UK sites and SiL on Chinese sites. We both came up with the same answer - brown sugar in either milk or water. Worked a treat !

Well, I am keeping my mouth firmly closed in front of DD and SIL on the subject of baby-led weaning, co-sleeping or anything else - not offering an opinion unless asked. I've had my fingers burned too often and it gets me nowhere. But I recall that with mine, I started DD1 off on pureed carrot and gradually included other veg into the gloop, including spinach and lentils. DD1 was never constipated as a baby. DD2 was tricky to feed - didn't take easily to any kind of feeding and did suffer from constipation as a baby. DD2 has asked my opinion about the constipation, so I have offered a few suggestions, and the ones suggested here are great so I will pass those on too . Not sure whether baby is unhappy - she didn't say. I think I know what the reaction might be if I suggest sugar - but I'll mention it anyway!
Thank you to all - much appreciated

Sugar definitely does the trick - but it is now a dirty word!

There are lots of forums (fora?) on baby led weaning and the consensus seems to be - water, fruits beginning with p especially prunes (as suggested), pear, and the miracle fruit papaya. They also suggest avoiding bananas and toast. Whatever did we all do in the olden days, before the Internet?