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We've been talking a lot lately about constipation--a lovely topic, I know! I promised to share with you what I call "The Jean Bryant I Love You" massage. This massage is another great, natural way to get things "moving." It can be especially helpful if you're out and about and don't have any other supplies with you.
Start by laying the baby down on a soft surface in front of you. On the bottom-right side of her tummy, lightly massage your way up to her ribs, kind of like making an upper case "I."
Then, starting back down at the bottom-right side of her tummy, massage up to her ribs, then across the top of her tummy, kind of like making a side-ways "L."
Next, start back down at the bottom right side of her tummy, make the "L" again, but this time, continue to lightly massage down to the bottom-left side of her tummy, kind of like making an up-side-down "U."
Get it? "I" "L" "U"
I Love You.
I thought it was clever. It makes it easy to remember.
Jean is our wonderful friend who also happens to work as an RN in the maternity ward at our hospital. She suggested this massage when Jack was "backed up" way back on "day 4" of his life. This, along with taking his little legs and making them "run" (just be easy, though) is a great, natural way to help babies who are too young for apple juice. A little water never hurts to try, either :)
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.
It's not all sunshine and roses with formula. If you'll check your can, regardless of the brand you use (more on that here), you'll notice that your baby is getting about 1.8 mg of iron per 100 calories of formula. I think you'd have to have a masters degree in mathematics to figure out how much that is in ounces, and how it compares to the 18 mg of iron found in a traditional women's multi-vitamin, but all I know is, it's a lot.
Your baby needs a lot of iron, but unfortunately, when your baby is getting that iron from formula, it's not always easy on the tummy. I've never claimed to be a doctor or a nurse, so please keep that in mind as you read on.
Since my babies were both formula fed from birth, I did notice a trend between them. When they're about 4 or 5 days old--and have been formula fed that whole time--they get a little, um, bound up. Both of my kiddos did right about day 4. All I can say is that it's sad and it sucks and they cry and they bring up those tiny legs and you can tell their tummies (and later bottoms) hurt.
With both my babies it lasted about a day. With weensies, it's hard because there just aren't a lot of options. For us, both times, pushing through that "day 4" drama and sticking with our same formula worked really well. I gave my babies a little water through a bottle and did the Nurse Jean "I love you" massage (more on that here).
Bubby never had any other problems with the formula binding him up again, but Boo ran into some trouble at about 3 months. At that point, a little apple juice (1 ounce in 3 ounces of water) did the trick nicely. My sister-in-law has also had good luck with cayro syrup. As always, talk to your doctor.
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