Xpost: green, mucousy poop in 6 mo

[DrSally]

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[JenaW]

Are you questioning the color or the curds? My kids have all had curdy poo, at times more curdy than others. I am fairly certain it is common in breastfed kids. As for the color change, I noted differing shades if I ate something that color. For instance, I love spinach and broccoli and it ALWAYS gave my kids green poo. I have also noted greener stools when they had a GI bug, and noted mucuos in varying amts at differing times. Did your son have the same stools when you diagnosed his allergy? I have no clue about dairy intolerance so I can't give you advice there, but just wanted to note that my kids had similar stools with no adverse issues that I am aware of (and I eat a TON of dairy!).

[DrSally]

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[nrp]

My BIL who is a pediatrician said that the color of the poop isn't concerning (unless there is blood, of course) and that it varies over time. My babies have both had mucousy poo at various points, and it never seemed to bother them. I didn't do anything and it eventually went away. A dairy allergy never occurred to me, and I never saw any other signs of it.

[DrSally]

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[lizajane]

Hmmm, thanks. I guess I'm hypersensitive to the dairy allergy thing since DS had such a major reaction and we had to avoid it for 2 years. I'm really hoping that DD doesn't end up having it as well. I wonder what causes mucousy poop?


dylan had the same thing. and he did have a dairy allergy, that we discovered at a year old. he did outgrow it, which is the good news.

[bubbaray]

I thought green poop meant they were getting foremilk and not enough hindmilk??

Hard for me to remember waaay back then. If he's not otherwise sick, I would probably just assume that its his digestive track maturing.

Having said that, if he's sick (fever, puking), green weird STINKY poop (that has a smell like no other poop) is also a sign of rotovirus....

GL!

[writermama]

DD#2 had that, too. I suspected milk allergy and did a 2 week trial with no change. In retrospect, I think it was a combination of too much foremilk (I loved mother's milk tea, but didn't need to be drinking it.) and possibly that her system is very sensitive to food acidity and I was drinking lots of lemonade (it was summer).

So it might be dairy allergy, but it might be something else. Or it might be nothing. Ah, helpful, I know.

hang in there.

[amldaley]

Green poop can mean anything from dairy issues to too much foremilk/not enough hindmilk to you ate asaparagus the night before.

If the green poop is accompanied by bloating, gas, fussiness, discomfort etc, and mucus, I would cut out dairy (I have to be TOTALLY dairy free....I keep trying to add a little back in here and there and no go). Mucus IS an issue to watch for as it is a sign that the digestive tract is unhappy with what it's working on.

If the green poop is watery and accompanied by weight gain, gas, fussiness at the breast or an increased frequency in feeding, it might be baby is getting too much foremilk. Try block nursing and cut out extra pumpings.

If the green poop doesn't seem to bother baby, don't let it bother you either.

[amldaley]

Hey Sally, I know I answered in your X-post, but I wanted to address the nursing to get more hindmilk.

The old advice to nurse 15 minutes on each side is out. That should only be used the first few days pp to encourage milk to come in.

Baby should DRAIN one breast before being offered the other. Drain means the breast is small and super soft. The first breast is dinner. If baby is still hungry, then switch to 2nd breast - dessert.

Block nursing is when you nurse baby on the same side for a 3 or 4 hour time frame (I always did 3 hours). Each time baby wants to go back to the breast, put back to the SAME side within that time frame. This allows baby to access the fatty rich hindmilk which takes longer to digest and keeps baby fuller longer and is more satisfying.

Foremilk is like lowfat milk with sugar added. Quenches thirst, but digests quickly and the high carbs are what cause the green poop.

HTH!

p.s. I am posting this in your X-post as well.

[tiapam]

Does she have a cold? The nurse at ped's office told me mucous-y poops can result from swallowing the mucus from a cold. Yuck!

[crayonblue]

Well, mucous poop is a sign of C-diff, something I am WAY too familiar with. But, unless your child has been on antibiotics recently, I doubt you are dealing with C-diff!

[DrSally]

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[DrSally]

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[DrSally]

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[Neatfreak]

I've been battling the same kind of poo with my three month old. I'm already off of dairy as it aggravates her reflux. Block feeding wasn't really improving the green poo situation, but yesterday I starting combining that with breast compression and she's had a normal poo about an hour ago. The idea was that compression would keep her interested in nursing on that particular breast long enough to take in more hindmilk.

[amldaley]

Yes, mucous can come from the foremilk imbalance as well and given you're having recently weaned DS, I would say try that first for a week and then address dairy.

Block nursing takes a couple of days to get used to. Your dd may get bored, but within a two or three days, your body should correct itself. I won't lie to ya...she may get fussy and you may spend some time coaxing her. But if she is still nursing 2 - 3 times at night, it sounds to me like this could help!

You can always start in a smaller increment...try 2 hours, then 2.5, then 3...but I found 3 to 4 worked best. Some women even do 6 hour blocks!

[DrSally]

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[crayonblue]

Nope, no antibiotics ever for either child. Is that the only way you can get C-diff?

Usually those who get C-diff are elderly or immunosuppressed. And they most often are on antibiotics. Hospitals and nursing homes are bad about passing C-diff all around because the staff do not wash their hands. :(

[hellokitty1]

I bf'ed and DD had green poop for awhile and pooped after every single feeding during that time. Ped never figured out why even though I had to try to collect it to test (picture this: diaper with saran wrap in it so that the diaper would not absorb it; then scraping what collected in the saran wrap into a little tube).

I thought it was a lactose intolerance thing even though I was told that infants are rarely lactose intolerant. However, in hindsight, i think it was DD being alergic to milk or at least having intolerance to it bc when we mixed formula with cereal when we started solids, we found she was allergic to milk and soy. So that is why I think the green poop was related to that. No one told me it could be my dient so I wasn't avoiding mile during that time.

Good luck.

[amldaley]

I bf'ed and DD had green poop for awhile and pooped after every single feeding during that time. Ped never figured out why even though I had to try to collect it to test (picture this: diaper with saran wrap in it so that the diaper would not absorb it; then scraping what collected in the saran wrap into a little tube).

I thought it was a lactose intolerance thing even though I was told that infants are rarely lactose intolerant. However, in hindsight, i think it was DD being alergic to milk or at least having intolerance to it bc when we mixed formula with cereal when we started solids, we found she was allergic to milk and soy. So that is why I think the green poop was related to that. No one told me it could be my dient so I wasn't avoiding mile during that time.

Good luck.

This is just another example of how little most Peds know about bf'ing.