By There’s so many things a parent has to worry about. Once you finish the stresses that overwhelm you at one stage, there’s another stage coming that has more challenges.
When Isabella turned 4 months, we started introducing her to solids. We were ecstatic! We started off with organic avocados because we obviously want her to have the same fascination with guacamole that we both have. (We have seriously sung this song to her over and over to get her excited about the world of chips and guac). To our delight she was loving it every bit of it. She even insisted on taking the utensils away from us and attempting to feed herself.
Thinking all was good, it came to a big shock when we realized Isabella hadn’t pooped in 5 days, then 6, then 7 and so on…we thought a week was already too long and we started falling in the black hole of the internet looking to see if any others had gone through the same thing. It was common it seemed that when a baby is introduced to solids they may have this sort of reaction.
Not letting the internet be the solution to our problems, we called our pediatrician who let us know there was nothing to be too concerned about, especially since she was 100% breastfed before the introduction and her digestive system was just learning how to process avocado. She let us know sometimes it takes 10 days, so this helped us a bit. She also suggested a few remedies including giving her some water, a little bit of prune juice, or a tiny bit of diluted olive oil. Already freaking out at the olive oil part, we tried with the first two—with no avail: 7 days became 10 and it seemed like nothing was working. We tried the rectal thermometer to see if that would encourage her to push, but it didn’t work. I would carry her in the ErgoBaby to encourage more body heat and aid digestion, but all I got were some really wet diapers.
The funny thing was that Isabella didn’t seem bothered by it at any point. We were here on the verge of tears and praying everything was all fine, while she was giggling at her ability to now grab her feet and effectively use her hands.
Day 12. My wife took her to our chiropractor, who specializes in children.(Some cool vids of her baby adjustments here). She gave her an adjustment meant to encourage bowel movements. Low and behold, just 2 hours after her session, Isabella pooped!
I had the honor of changing her diaper. It was large, stinky and a color we weren’t used to with her, but it was the happiest I’ve ever been to see some poop. For the next 2 days, she gave 2 more larger ones, one in which she had it all through her back!!
Given our 12 day drama, we decided we’re going to hold off on continuing solids for just a few weeks more—maybe this time, we’ll be the ones a little more ready.
Being Papa 