Conquering Constipation

During Lia's first seven months of life, we never had any issues in her bowel habits.  She would poop without difficulty even if sometimes, she would skip a day or two without soiling her nappy with #2. However, after I stopped expressing breast milk and we started giving her 100% formula every day, we started encountering challenges in her bowel movement. :(  Our battle against constipation has begun.

How does one know a baby is constipated?  According to Baby Center, these are some of the usual signs:

1. Crying and discomfort, irritability or pain before doing a poo.
2. Dry, hard, pellet-like poo that she has trouble passing.
3. Fewer than three bowel movements a week.
4. Foul-smelling wind and poo.
5. Loss of appetite.
6. A hard belly.

In Lia's case, signs #1, #2, #3, and #6 are spot on. She would grimace and grunt and sometimes, there's even blood. :( It's always very difficult for me seeing her strain to poop, she would even cry. We tried a lot of things with the guidance of her pedia: we encouraged her to drink more water, we gave her laxatives and even suppositories (which she hated a lot), and we tried a number of milk brands to find out which would be hiyang with her tummy.  I researched and researched and researched and nothing worked. This went on for several months and it bothered us greatly. :(  Even our choice of solid food for her became very limited, as any wrong type of food may aggravate her constipation. 

Two weeks ago, we went back to her pedia to discuss the issue once again, and this time, a new milk brand came up, one we haven't heard before. It's Hipp Organic. Doc Nik said she heard it's good with constipation because the formulation is closer to that of breast milk.  The brand isn't popular but we went for it.  Anything that may help our baby.

You know what I think about it? It's heaven sent!!! Lia has been taking it for a week and since she started, she would poop 'beautifully' everyday. (I never imagined myself describing poop as beautiful, ever!!! Hehe.) She also seems to like the taste.  With Promil Gold, she would only consume 30 ounces everyday on the average, but with Hipp, she's drinking up to 44! So far, I'm really loving Hipp! 

Let me tell you more about Hipp based on what I've researched so far:

HiPP Organic, as the name suggests, is an organic milk brand from Germany. According to its USA website, HiPP "contains important prebiotics and omegas, but doesn’t contain any of the questionable additives of other brands, and no brown rice syrup like the US Organic formulas. HiPP uses the finest organic ingredients in milk, which means no chemical pesticides and no GM ingredients. The company has been researching breastmilk for over 50 years, so you can rely on their formula including the ingredients your baby needs to grow strong and healthy (like iron, vitamins A, C and D and PRÆBIOTIK® oligosaccharides (GOS)."

HiPP is not yet popular in the Philippines because it was only introduced here towards the end of 2013 (if not early 2014), and it's far from being the top-of-mind brand among pediatricians yet. But to moms who struggle against constipation in their babies, I super swear by it! Of course, every kid is different, and one thing that works on one baby may not work for the other. But still, it's worth a try, especially if you've tried several other ways to no avail like I did. As for the price, it's a little bit more expensive than other brands. Promil Gold's 1.8kg costs around PhP2,100, while Hipp's 900g is already PhP1,340 which makes it PhP2,680 if only it had a 1.8kg SKU. HiPP is sold in all Mercury Drug outlets but not in SM.

Hooray for HiPP! :) By the way, this is NOT a sponsored post. I am just overjoyed to conquer Lia's constipation that I couldn't help but share. ;)

Cheers,