jooksing
09-23-2004, 06:05 PM
My 7 week old baby is exclusively breastfed, and there seems to be no end to his pooping. At just about every diaper change (about 8 times a day), every time I think he's nice and clean (thoroughly wiped off, diaper rash ointment applied in all the right places, fresh diaper perfectly in place), he'll suddenly let out more poop. Or we'll actually make it off the changing table, I'll be buttoning up his outfit and ready to take him to the living room for feeding, and suddenly I'll hear a loud toot and know that his clean diaper is now soiled again. This happens repeatedly - I often go through 5-6 diapers in one changing. Last night, it took me from 3:30 am to 4:45 am to change his diaper, and that was only because I finally decided to walk away after the 6th diaper (which still had a little bit of stuff in it).
As you can imagine, it's driving me crazy. By the time I'm done changing him, it's already about time for his next feeding (am feeding him every 2-3 hours). I feel like all I do is change and feed him! And of course by the 2nd or 3rd diaper, my sweetie is screaming his head off (so would I, being confined to the changing table for so long). He has sores on his tush from all the poop (which is also why I'm so nuts about getting him clean - my husband tells me to let it go after the 2nd ruined diaper, but I just can't).
I called my doctor about this, and she says since his poop is normal for a breastfed baby (mustard yellow and seedy) and since he's gaining weight and seems very healthy, she's not concerned. She said all I can do is wait it out until he gets to the point where he only poops every few days (which breastfed babies are supposed to reach from 3 weeks to 2 months of age - I have been waiting and waiting for that day to come...). Her only advice was to wait a half hour after feeding him to change him (I change him between sides). #1, that's not practical because he usually falls asleep after feeding - if I changed (woke) him after, he'd never get any rest (neither would I); #2, it obviously wouldn't work anyway, since if half an hour were all it took, we wouldn't be having these hour+ marathon changing sessions.
Is anyone else having this problem? Am I being too anal (no pun intend) - should I just let it go after a certain point, as my husband advises? Like I said, I feel like I'm losing my mind. I'm not even going into how expensive this is getting (flying through diapers, wipes, ointment at an alarming rate). I just want some time here and there where I'm not changing or feeding him!
As you can imagine, it's driving me crazy. By the time I'm done changing him, it's already about time for his next feeding (am feeding him every 2-3 hours). I feel like all I do is change and feed him! And of course by the 2nd or 3rd diaper, my sweetie is screaming his head off (so would I, being confined to the changing table for so long). He has sores on his tush from all the poop (which is also why I'm so nuts about getting him clean - my husband tells me to let it go after the 2nd ruined diaper, but I just can't).
I called my doctor about this, and she says since his poop is normal for a breastfed baby (mustard yellow and seedy) and since he's gaining weight and seems very healthy, she's not concerned. She said all I can do is wait it out until he gets to the point where he only poops every few days (which breastfed babies are supposed to reach from 3 weeks to 2 months of age - I have been waiting and waiting for that day to come...). Her only advice was to wait a half hour after feeding him to change him (I change him between sides). #1, that's not practical because he usually falls asleep after feeding - if I changed (woke) him after, he'd never get any rest (neither would I); #2, it obviously wouldn't work anyway, since if half an hour were all it took, we wouldn't be having these hour+ marathon changing sessions.
Is anyone else having this problem? Am I being too anal (no pun intend) - should I just let it go after a certain point, as my husband advises? Like I said, I feel like I'm losing my mind. I'm not even going into how expensive this is getting (flying through diapers, wipes, ointment at an alarming rate). I just want some time here and there where I'm not changing or feeding him!