At what age does a breastfed baby start to hold in the stomach?

After the baby is born, the baby's physical health and body changes are the most concerned things for the family. Some parents are careful when taking care of the baby, but due to lack of experience, sometimes the baby does not have diarrhea for several days. They are often very worried, fearing that the baby is constipated. In fact, sometimes this phenomenon is normal, which means that the baby is starting to have diarrhea.

At what age does a breastfed baby start to have a stuffy stomach?

Generally speaking, babies who are breastfed are more likely to have constipation. Babies start to hold back their bowel movements after they are one month old, because their digestive abilities improve after a month, allowing them to fully absorb and digest breast milk or formula, leading to less bowel movements.

Of course, depending on the physical condition of each baby, the time when the bowel movements begin may vary slightly. It may be a few days earlier or a few days later. However, babies usually have constipation around the time of one month.

Reasons for baby's constipation:

Due to the improvement of digestive ability, the baby can fully digest and absorb breast milk, and the remaining residue is not much, which is not enough to stimulate the rectum to form a bowel movement, so the baby's bowel movement frequency will also be reduced.

Symptoms of constipation in babies:

It causes 2-3 days, or even 4-5 days without bowel movement and no pain. The stool is still yellow and soft, without any lumps and the quantity is not particularly large. This common physiological phenomenon is called abdominal retention.

How long does it take for a baby to have constipation?

The duration of a baby's constipation is about one month, which may vary slightly depending on the baby's physical condition. The specific time is: between the time when the baby is one month old and when the baby is two months old. The duration of the constipation may vary slightly depending on the physical condition of each baby and the degree of care. If the baby has a good physical condition and is properly cared for, the constipation may end early. If the baby has a poor physical condition and the parents do not care for him properly, the constipation may be prolonged or even turn into neonatal constipation.

What to do if your baby has constipation

Regular bowel movement

Because the phenomenon of constipation usually begins to appear around 2 months, it is time to train your child to have regular bowel movements (such as defecating in the morning and evening every day) so that your child can form good bowel habits early.

Do abdominal massage every day

1. Use your palm to gently rub the baby's abdomen, with the navel as the center, rotating from left to right and massaging 10 times. Rest for 5 minutes, then massage 10 times again. Repeat 3 times.

2. Place the baby in supine position, grab the baby's legs and do flexion and extension exercises, that is, stretch and flex once, for a total of 10 times, and then flex and extend one leg 10 times. This will help the baby's bowel movements and facilitate the excretion of stool.

Drink plenty of water

For fat babies with constipation, you can feed them some boiled water or vegetable or fruit juice between two feedings every day. Adding complementary foods after they are 6 months old can completely solve this bowel movement problem.

Increase milk supply

If the child's bowel movements decrease and weight gain is not ideal due to insufficient breast milk, you can give the child some formula milk in time; if the baby is more than 4 months old, you can also add a little rice soup, which can better improve the bowel movement.

Stimulate anal defecation

Twice a day, about 20-30 minutes after the baby feeds, apply an oily topical medication (such as chloramphenicol ointment) to the baby's anus, pad it with soft paper, gently push and press the anus, and do it slowly 10 times. Generally, the baby will feel the urge to defecate or have a bowel movement soon. Dip a sterilized cotton swab in vegetable oil and gently insert it into the baby's anus to induce a bowel movement in the rectum.