Poor Miss Boo

I hope that this post comes off as being less "advice-y" and more as "this is what we're going through" because those are my intentions--again, I'm not a doctor, and you should always talk to yours.

My little Boo girl (as we call her) is just not......pooping. There's just no nice way to say it. We've talked about how formula tends to bind babies up here, but I after those "day four woes," little Bubby never really had any problems. It's my understanding that bottle fed babies should, like most adults, should be pooping about once per day. Now, having said that, every one has their own "schedule," so please don't blast me if you only go once every three days or only on Wednesdays or something like that.

I was concerned about not being on a "pooping schedule" and about the fact that she wasn't going every day, but more than that, my baby seemed uncomfortable. She was fussier than usual. She wasn't enjoying tummy time as much. She just wasn't herself--and the longer she went without pooping, the worse it got.

Unhappy baby, unhappy mama :(

I could tell something was just not "right" with my baby. So I did what I advise you to do in just almost every post--I called my doctor........after I talked to some friends and I called my mom. And looked it up on the internet. Some friends had experienced similar problems and had success switching to a "gentle" formula. I had a sample of such formula thanks to the Money Saving Mom, and was all set to give it a try. But when I asked my doctor, his answer surprised me. He really wanted me to stick with my regular formula--telling me to switch to the gentle formula if I thought it was absolutely necessary, and even at that, only to use it for a month. His preferred method of "unbinding" my daughter was to use a little apple juice (about 1 ounce in 3-4 ounces of water) because he didn't want her to lose the benefit of the Lipil that's found in the formula--and pregnancy and breastfeeding supplements--that he recommends.

I've ALWAYS believed that if you bother to ask a person's advice, bother to take it. We've added an apple-juice bottle (again, one ounce of apple juice in 3-4 ounces of water) and that seems to be doing the trick. She's definitely more "scheduled" and my sweet, happy girl seems to be back.

More than anything, I think YOU will know if something's not right with your baby. If she skips a day every now and then--especially if you've just started cereal or introduced a new food, if she's teething, etc--that's probably fine. Sometimes it takes a baby a few days to adjust to a new experience. Best of luck!


Oh! Quick sidebar: How do I buy apple juice for my baby without it going bad before she can drink it all? Well, since Bubby doesn't drink apple juice (more on his eating habits later), I bought little teeny juice boxes. I can get about 2 days out of it before it goes bad and I can get 8 juice boxes for about $2. That's a better bargain for me because it will last for about 16 days--way longer than a huge bottle would.