Tricia, I think it is highly unlikely that Colace could cause constipation in the baby. Most mothers in our hospital go home on Colace without detriment to bfdg. I think it is more likely that this baby is not getting enough milk. I have had cases where urine output is good but there is insufficient stooling and poor wt. gain. I would recommend checking this baby's wt. on an accurate scale and also doing a test wt. to assess milk transfer. This baby was under 6 lb., reportedly falls asleep at the breast, mother reports no engorgement, and he is not stooling. All these together are red flags for low milk intake. When I see a similar situation, I do a test wt., have mom pump afterward and then add the two totals together. If test wt. is 1 oz. and she pumps another 1/2 oz. this equals a milk production for that feeding of 1.5 oz. If she brfd 3 hr. ago (measure from the beginning of one feeding to the beginning of the next) I then multiply the total, in this case 1.5 oz., by 8. This would equal a 24 hr. output of 12 oz. I tell mom that this is an estimate since supply varies through the day. If you find supply is low, you still need to sort out cause. Was baby always a poor nurser which resulted in low supply or was supply low which resulted in infant becoming sleepy at the breast. Observing the baby and the nursing can sometimes sort this out for you. If supply is fine and baby is transferring milk well, then decreased stooling is due to something else. Kathy Boggs, RN, IBCLC Mountain View, CA In a message dated 10/2/02 5:45:37 PM, [log in to unmask] writes: << Hello Ladies, I have just a minute before I run out the door, but there were two things I wanted to mention. I'm still looking for help here, so any help would be appreciated. I'm asking here because I think they is a very unusual situation, so it's helpful to talk to so many wise women at once. The main concern of the doctors and the mom is that the baby has gone so long between passing the meconium without having a bowel movement. So that's the main concern here. Many of you think it's a milk transfer problem, and I think it may be too. Except the baby does have plenty of wet diapers. Could it just be that some baby's take a while to start their bm's. What is the longest it should reasonably take between the day the baby stops passing meconium until she has her first yellow bm. My first daughter took about 6 days, and that's the longest I've heard of. After that she had no other problems. But the mom does not seem reassured by this. And her doctor is very concerned. He is blaming it on breastfeeding and wanting to give formula. So my big main question was - Has anyone ever heard of Colase causing the baby to not have bowl movements, or sort of save them up? The baby was not constipated, but seemed either like she was saving them for a long time, or unable to push it out (possibly?). One wise woman asked about infertility problems in regard to her milk supply. The mother did have infertility. This is her first baby and she went through 3 rounds of artificial insemination, all failed. This baby was a surprise between fertility treatments. Again any thoughts are most appreciated. And thank you to all of you who have responded so far. I know the mother will find this information very helpful. Warmly, Tricia Palleja *********************************************** >> *********************************************** To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest) To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet All commands go to [log in to unmask] The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html