What Is Grunting Baby Syndrome? - MadeForMums

We've noticed a bit of chat in our community about grunting babies - yes really! For example, Allie C, a member of our MadeForMums Community, told us: "My son [grunted] when he was newborn, until he was about 2-3 months old.

"He sounded like a barnyard with all the grunting, snorting, squeaking etc! It was so bad, we had to move him out of our room at 6 weeks old. I had planned to keep him in with us until he was 3 months, but he was so loud, my husband and I weren't able to sleep!

"I have a few friends whose babies did the same thing and they all eventually stopped."

And so intrigued were we about this whole grunting syndrome thing - we wanted to find out more.

What is Grunting Baby Syndrome?

Basically, it's an informal term for the noises that your baby may make when nothing else is wrong and generally means that they are about to do, or are doing, a poo!

It's not a medical syndrome - your baby will make lots of noises that aren't crying, and grunting may be one of them.

What are the symptoms?

The main symptoms are that your baby:

• cries, strains or grunts while doing a poo
• turns purple or red before having a bowel movement
• seems uncomfortable for a few (around 5 to 10) minutes before having a bowel movement.

What does the doctor say?

Dr Philippa Kaye tells us you may notice that your baby grunts after a feed as they are digesting and they may grunt and go bright red or purple as they open their bowels. This doesn't mean that they are constipated as long as the stool itself is soft.

"It tends to last for a short period of time and eases as their digestive system matures - pooing, like everything else, has to be learnt, you have to tense your abdominal muscles at the same time as relaxing your pelvic floor and this co-ordination takes time to mature and develop," she adds.

"As it does the grunting stops, though many adults occasionally grunt as they open their bowels!"

Dr Philippa Kaye is a London GP who has written several books on pregnancy and childcare including The First Five Years. Follow her on twitter @drphilippakaye

Read more:

• Is it normal for my baby to have hiccups?
• Why does my baby's poo keep changing colour?
• What counts as excessive crying for new babies?