What Causes Irregular Bowel Movements In Infants?

Posted on Fri, 13 Mar 2015

Question: My daughter, who is 50 days old is not having motion at proper frequency. Earlier she use to have it 2 to 3 times daily now she is having only once in 2-3 days. When she doesn't passes motion for more than 1 day, then she starts showing reluctance in feeding and sleeping. We have shown her to the pediatric on 12th and the doctor has given suppository to her. She immediately passed motion that day but post that she hasn't passed motion post that till date.

Pls tell what shall we do.

Answered by Dr. Diptanshu Das (53 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
Nothing needs to be done as of now.

Detailed Answer:
Thanks for asking on HealthcareMagic.

For a breast fed baby of this age, passing stool once in a few days is nothing unusual. If the baby has not passed stool for the last 3 days (12th to present), I would not really worry and would probably just continue with the breast feeding as usual. If you still have some doubts, looking up the following links would help:
http://www.llli.org/faq/bm.html
http://www.medela.com/CA/en/breastfeeding-consumer/breastmilk-information/normal-stools-for-exclusively-breastfed-babies.html

It is only if she does not pass stool in several more days that I would consider giving a suppository which will make her pass stool immediately. My advice to you would be to be patient.

Hope that helps.

Regards
Dr. Diptanshu Das

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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar