7-Month-Old Baby Feeding On Solid Food, Doesn’t Poop

How long can a 7-month-old baby on solids go without pooping? 

The baby in this Q&A has not pooped for four days. What should the parents do? 

Pin

Mom’s Question:

My 7-month-old baby has been eating solids like peas, sweet potatoes, applesauce, pears, oatmeal cereal, and prunes once or twice a day for nearly 2 months. I sometimes give her apple prune juice, and pear juice.

But it is four days since my baby pooped. She never had a problem with her poop as long as I was breastfeeding her. She didn’t have a problem when I was giving her formula, either. It looks like she all of a sudden caught up with this problem. Sometimes, she cries if her poop is hard and if she poops after three days. Sometimes, though she poops after two days, her poop is soft, and it doesn’t affect her at all. Though she has not pooped for four days now, she is active as usual.

Kindly suggest what I can do to get things right.

Thanks in Advance.

SN

Baby on Solids Not Pooping: A 2-Step Approach Needed

Your daughter reminds me very much about my youngest son. His tummy took the longest time to get used to solid foods.
Becoming constipated when introducing solid foods is quite common, particularly among breastfed babies. You probably need a 2-step solution. The first step is to mitigate constipation right now, and the second step is to make sure it doesn’t come back.

Step 1: To mitigate immediate constipation, you can breastfeed as much as possible and combine it with baby massage in a clockwise direction, starting at her navel and moving outwards. A warm, relaxing bath can also help. You can also read about more remedies here.

Step 2: To prevent future constipation, the best thing you can do, if possible, is to go slowly with the solids. If you can increase the share of breast milk or formula again (breast milk is better than formula), it will help mitigate constipation. Then, continue breastfeeding or offer formula as a bigger part of her diet for some time more. And when you give her solids, make sure they are not contributing to her constipation.

It seems like you are already doing a good job of offering her prune and apple juice and so on. You can also try apricot puree and prune juice. No carrots, white potatoes, dairy products, rice cereal, and unripe bananas for example. Apple sauce can also contribute to constipation, so you may want to stop giving her that.

Avocado, sweet potato, and pears are great for preventing constipation, as well as prunes, peaches, and peas.

In this post, you will find a number of foods that soften stools.

I hope this helps a bit,

Paula

More On Babies That Won’t Poop

• My Baby Can’t Poop On Her Own
• 7-Month-Old Hasn’t Pooped For 2 Weeks – Normal?
• My 8-month-old Refuses To Poop

Find comments below.

Paula Dennholt

Paula Dennholt founded Easy Baby Life in 2006 and has been a passionate parenting and pregnancy writer since then. Her parenting approach and writing are based on studies in cognitive-behavioral models and therapy for children and her experience as a mother and stepmother. Life as a parent has convinced her of how crucial it is to put relationships before rules. She strongly believes in positive parenting and a science-based approach.

Paula cooperates with a team of pediatricians who assist in reviewing and writing articles.