Patient's question:
Doctor. Hello! My child is now 2 months and 20 days old. We have been breastfeeding exclusively. Their weight is 11 pounds, and their height is 56 cm. The current issue is that the child has a bowel movement on average every 5 days, and the stool is not dry. Is this normal?Doctor's answer:
If it hasn't been a bowel movement for several days, it is usually constipation in infants. Infant constipation generally refers to a decrease in the frequency of bowel movements compared to normal. This can even mean not having a bowel movement for 2 to 3 days or more. However, when determining whether a child is constipated, the consistency of the stool is more important than the frequency. If the stool is soft and free of hard lumps, even having one bowel movement every 4 to 5 days is considered normal. This is common in breastfed infants around 2 to 3 months old. Sometimes, the bowel movements may be normal in frequency, but the stool is dry and hard, difficult to pass, with small amounts each time, and appears granular, which then constitutes constipation.