Constipation in a Breast-Fed Baby

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I have dealt with a lot of poopy issues as a parent of five children. My oldest and my youngest children were and are constipated babies. As a baby, my oldest child, who was exclusively breast-fed the first 6 months of his life was very constipated. He would have a bowel movement once a week. A big blow-out at that. I had a few friends who said that some babies “just don’t go as often”. My family care MD said that breast-milk was a laxative and he couldn’t figure out why the baby was constipated.

When we first started giving our oldest solid food at 6 months, he became very very constipated. It was so bad, that one time he didn’t poop for 2 weeks. And when that bowel movement came, it was hard like rabbit poop and very painful. I knew something had to be done. So I started giving him water. I was told by several people, including lactation consultants that breast-fed babies don’t need water and that if they get water too soon, it can damage their kidneys. There is some truth to excessive water intake at an early age can weaken the Kidney system. But I learned that a blanket statement, such as “breast-fed babies don’t need water” does not apply to every baby!

Once I started offering my son water (an ounce or two at a time), his bowel movements occurred once or twice a week and they weren’t as hard. I came to a conclusion that my baby was just dehydrated. In fact, I was too. By increasing my water intake, it also helped my baby get re hydrated. Another thing we did to help move his bowels more is we switched his diet. He was only 6 or 7 months old, but we switched to only feeding him Fruit-Eze. Fruit-Eze is a puree of dates, raisins, and prunes (see fruiteze.com). We started feeding him it thinned out with water at least twice a day. Within a week, his bowels were moving daily.

Once he was having a bowel movement every day, I noticed some positive changes in him. He wasn’t as fussy at bed time. My son was never ‘colicky’. But at night he would be fussy and pull his legs to his chest, etc. That quit! His eczema had also cleared up, and his allergies were better. We were doing a few other things at this time, like using natural laundry soap and no fabric softener; eating more organic foods; using natural cleaning products; and giving 1/8tsp of vinegar (pickle juice) to my son daily *I’ll be writing a post on how Apple Cider Vinegar healed my son’s allergies and asthma soon.

The concept is simple. When elimination happens, healing can happen. When your body is full of crap (literally) and thus toxins, illness will surface. Whether that is eczema, food and environmental allergies, reoccurring colds/flus, runny noses, ear infections….I could go on, but this is a Good Feeling Place and I want to continue feeling good.

Anyways…my youngest child is still a baby at the writing of this post. He is almost an identical copy to my oldest son. He too is frequently constipated and only has a poopy diaper about every 5 days. He also is exclusively breast-fed and is currently not interested in food at 6 months old. I do offer him a bottle of water through out the day. More if we are out side. He seems interested in taking the water. But it doesn’t have the same immediate effect as it did with my oldest. So I assume that my baby is not as dehydrated as my first child was.

One time when we were on vacation, my baby hadn’t pooped in about 6 days, so I knew he would be going soon. I switched his regular filtered water out with a product called Smart Water (you can find it at grocery stores, Walmart, Sam’s Club). Smart Water is basically vapor distilled water with added Calcium Carbonate, Magnesium, and Potassium (3 basic minerals everyone needs). After my baby drank about 1/2 oz of Smart Water, he pooped instantly. About every 2 oz of Smart Water I gave him, he’d poop. We had his bowels moving daily for a week straight. I was amazed at how much he could actually poop! And then I thought, I can’t believe he wasn’t going every day!

Minerals work for constipation because they heavy in nature. Its heaviness sort of pulled everything down and out of my son–if you want to think of it that way. That is also why those 3 minerals are important if you have leg cramps. Its heaviness pulls the nutrients and energy down to the legs and into the muscles to nourish them. The daily bowel movements went off and on for about 3 weeks. Then we were back to being constipated.

I am not sure how I heard of this [editor’s note: see home remedies book below], but I tried the ol’ warm salt water technique. You heat up in a pan on the stove as much water as you want to put in a bottle. Then you sprinkle salt (preferable rock salt-think minerals) into the pan and stir. You will want to season to taste. The water needs to be salty enough that it will make you pucker or gag, but not too salty that you feel you need to drink clean water get the taste out of your mouth. Once you got the right taste, give the warm salt water to your baby. Preferably do this first thing in the morning before feeding if possible. I am not certain how much each child will have to drink. The first time I tried this on my baby, he drank 4-5 swallows and then he had a poop. Another time, he drank 3oz and then pooped later that afternoon.

The salt water works because the salty taste drains downward. Just like the minerals do. The salty taste also increases fluids in the body, specifically the Intestines. For instance, Salted Lime Water will re-hydrate you if you have sun stroke (or are out in the sun too long); also Epsom salt is a good laxative for adults.

Our baby still has issues with constipation. He is still strictly breast-fed and I am trying to eliminate foods from my diet to help him, but that is a challenge for me. The herbals I am giving him are helping to increase his digestive ability long term, along with the probiotics. Right now, the warm salt water bottle is our fix for acute constipation. Hope all of this helps some of you.

Peace and Blessings

The 15 Year Hair Cut!

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Today we had to drop off packages at the GoodWill. Little did Robert know, but I had secretly decided to take him to get his hair cut. This was no ordinary hair cut. No, this was the “last time I saw the barber was 15 years ago” hair cut. Through the years, Robert managed to cut his own hair and trim his own beard (when he grew one) with fair success. But his hair had become a little long and unruly over the past six months.
chewbacca
Here is a before picture. So as you can see, I HAD to do something. When we got loaded in the car, I said to him,”Honey, you are going to have to bite the bullet and get your hair cut.” Robert then squirms in his chair like our 4 year old does when he has to go potty. “I don’t need to go get my hair cut. I can do it my self!” He whines (again, like our 4 year old). So I give him the puppy-dog eyes and the “Won’t you do it for me???” speech. Yeah, THAT one. The one I am secretly teaching our daughter to do.
He agrees to go to a barber, not a salon. “Salon’s are for girls.” he adds. So we pass salon, after salon, after salon and finally spot a place called Sports Cutters. We park, Robert goes in with our daughter Eden while I stay in the car with 2 sleeping babies. Ten minutes later, he comes back–all hairy still (see picture above). I said, with an annoyed tone “What’s the problem!” He then preceded to say something about how it was too much like a salon, there was only one woman cutting hair, CNN was too loud on the TV…ya’da, ya’da, ya’da…So I put my book on meditation down, threw a hissy-fit (like my 6 year old) and yell “You’re acting like a baby! The place is called Sports Cutters. It can’t be a salon. FINE! Lets just go some where else.”

A couple of miles of silence later, we pull into a strip mall hoping to get a bite to eat at a chinese buffet. Low and behold right next door to the restaurant is John’s Barber Shop. We all travel in this time and take a seat along a row of uncomfortable, deli-style chairs. A nice looking woman, with a waist about the size of my right thigh, motioned for Robert to come up and sit in the stylist chair. She said, “What would you like done?” “Everything!” I shouted. “Please, just clean him up some.”

Well to keep a not so long story even shorter…30 minutes and $25 dollars later, he was finished! I don’t remember the last time I saw my husband’s ears. Or have seen him so well groomed. Maybe on our wedding day almost 8 years ago. Needless to say, I am very happy now that I can see the face of my very handsome and dashing young husband. I took a picture because I know that it will probably be another 15 years before I get him back to a salon…I mean a barber!

Turmeric and Salt for a Strained ankle

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One day last week I came downstairs and after skipping the last step with a toy on it I landed funny and strained my ankle. After a few minutes on my back I was able to get up and gingerly walk on it, so I made a mental note of appreciation for my MBT shoes (www.swissmasaius.com) that have strengthed my ankles for the past few years and went to bed. At about 3am I awoke in a great deal of pain and couldn’t sleep anymore. So I hobbled downstairs on my hands and one foot and got some ice. That was my first instinct because I was taught to put ice on all my injuries during my 16 years as a competitive gymnast. But after about 10 minutes I put the ice pack back in the freezer and decided to find out what else I could do, since the pain wasn’t much better.

I looked in my Ayurvedic home remedies book and read a recommendation about putting a healing paste (made by adding a little water to equal parts turmeric and salt) on sprains and strains. So I tried putting on a paste, and a few hours later I could walk on that ankle again gingerly. Then I tried another recommendation from the same book –

“To relieve swelling, soak the foot for 15 minutes in hot water with 2 tablespoons of salt per gallon of water.”

I did that around 6am, and my ankle was still yellow from the turmeric for awhile. But by noon I was walking normally with only slight sensitivity while carrying two of our children down the stairs. I was amazed at how effective these simple remedies were – my ankle is fine now.

Update (with another example): A few months later while my parents came to visit us, my dad twisted his ankle stepping down from their RV which was parked in our driveway. These remedies were fresh on my mind, so as he sat on the couch in pain I got a bucket of warm water with salt in it and gave it to him to soak his ankle (and foot) in. Then I made a paste of turmeric and salt, and after about 15 minutes I gave it to him to rub on his ankle. The next day he drove their RV a couple hours to a round dance event, and he was able to dance with only slight discomfort. By the following day he said he didn’t notice any pain in his ankle.

There are many other benefits of turmeric as well. Sometimes I even drink turmeric. 🙂

I wish I had a voice recorder now!

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I just have to share something that made me laugh this morning. It was after breakfast, about 45 minutes before we were going to leave for a family birthday party to celebrate birthdays for four people. I had just finished picking up the toys, trash, and clothes from the floor downstairs while my wife Candice was doing dishes. I had turned off the sprinklers a few days ago so the grass would be dry enough to mow (it started getting long since Candice turned the sprinklers back on a few weeks ago and they were running on the default setting of 20 minutes every day). So I said to my wife (after putting away the “picker” I was using to pick up toys from the floor) “I’m going to mow the lawn now.” She instantly turned around with a panic look on her face, saying “No! God, No! Please don’t mow the lawn now, not today, PLEASE!” She went on to explain that I would have to take a shower afterwards and we still had things to get ready, … but I could not contain myself – “Haha! I wish I had a recorder now, I would replay that all the time! Can you write that down?”

This is going to be a good day:)