What to do if your 2-month-old baby doesn't poop

Because the baby's urination and defecation need to be controlled by mom and dad, the baby's urination and defecation habits should be memorized by mom and dad. The main food for two-month-old babies is their mother’s breast milk, so their bowel habits should be relatively normal. But when a two-month-old baby has trouble defecating, what solutions can parents take?

What to do if your 2-month-old baby doesn't poop

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

2. Do abdominal massage every day. (1) Use your palms to gently rub the baby's abdomen, with the navel as the center, rotating from left to right 10 times. Rest for 5 minutes, then massage 10 times again. Repeat 3 times. (2) Place the baby in supine position and hold the baby's legs to do flexion and extension exercises, stretching and flexing once, for a total of 10 times, and then flexing and extending one leg 10 times. This will help the baby's intestinal peristalsis and facilitate bowel movements.

3. Drink more water. For fat babies who have "full stomach", you can feed them some boiled water or vegetable or fruit juice between two feedings a day. Adding complementary foods after they are 4 months old can completely solve this bowel movement problem.

4. Increase milk supply. If your child's bowel movements decrease and weight gain is not ideal because of insufficient breast milk, you can give your child some formula milk in time. If the baby is more than 3 months old, you can add a little rice soup to improve the bowel movement.

5. Stimulate the anus for defecation . Twice a day, about 20 to 30 minutes after the baby feeds, apply an oily topical medication (such as chloramphenicol ointment) to the baby's anus, put soft paper on it, gently push and press the anus, and do it slowly 10 times. Generally, you will feel the urge to defecate or have a bowel movement soon.

Normal stool shape and frequency of newborns

The shape and frequency of normal stools in newborns:

The stools of breastfed babies are golden yellow, occasionally slightly green and relatively watery. Or it may be ointment-like, uniform, with a sour taste and no foam. Normally, the neonatal period has more bowel movements, usually 2-5 times a day, but some babies may have 7-8 bowel movements a day. As the child grows older, the frequency of bowel movements will gradually decrease, and after 2-3 months the frequency of bowel movements will be reduced to 1-2 times a day. Therefore, if a breastfed baby has loose stools or has more frequent stools, parents do not need to worry as long as the baby is energetic, feeding well, and growing in height and weight normally.

If the baby is fed formula, the stool is usually light yellow or khaki, dry, rough, like a hard paste, and often has an unpleasant fecal odor. If there is more sugar in the milk, the stool may become soft and have a slightly rotten odor, and the amount of stool will be larger each time. Sometimes there is grayish white "milk curds" mixed in the stool.

Don't compare your child with other children, as each child has his or her own growth trajectory and may have different daily bowel movements. But be careful. If you normally only have 1 to 2 bowel movements a day, and this suddenly increases to 5 to 6 times a day, you should consider whether you are sick.