Blood in diaper (sorry, this is kind of gross!)

[infomama]

A short summation of our challenge with this issue...

We went through the same thing with DD (only BF'ed, threads of blood at 2 months, mucosy stools, rash) and it IS HARD but you WILL make it through. I tried the elimination diet (extreme..no milk, soy, wheat, citrus, egg, peanut) for two weeks and it didnt work. We spent so much time in the docs offices and it was so trying but it has to be done for the sake of your little one. DD is almost 1 year and she is on a hypoallergenic formula (Elecare) prescribed by her allergist. We went to a GI doc and was given the option of the scope test but that was out of the question since we had the alternative of trying the formula. The blood went away shortly after starting the formula and now that we have done her milk tolerance test we have discovered that she most likely has a milk allergy (blood returned with 3 servings of yo-baby).

It sucks and only being able to BF for four months broke my heart but this is what was best for her. We hope she grows out of it. Only do what you are comfortable with and by all means get second opinions of you feel like what you are being told isn't right. Feel free to email me if you want support through this.

[theMama]

I started seeing blood & mucous in my son's diaper (nearly every day) when he was 4 months (exclusively breastfed). After elimating milk & soy from my diet for over a month and still seeing blood, we saw a Pediatric GI Dr. The Dr. said that since our son was thriving & seemed happy & the elimination diet wasn't working, that there was no need to try to eliminate anything from my diet or switch to formula. Since then, he still seems happy & I haven't seen blood since we started him on solids at 6 months (he still get's breastmilk 5 times/day). Breastmilk is best for your baby, and according to our GI doctor, you don't need to do an elimination diet beyond milk & soy if your baby is thriving & happy.

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[infomama]

We went to two female GI docs who were at different prominent hositals here in Cleveland. The second doc did her thesis on breastmilk and is very pro breastfeeding however after she told us that there can be severe long term consequence if one continues to feed an infant food that is causing blood in the stools. She had a name for it..striations I believe. After hearing this (she even said she would go to AMA to try to get a clinical trial approved/outlined so that I could drink the hypoallergenic formula so I could continue breastfeeding without consequence-but alas these things take time and we didnt have that to spare)I of course wanted to get another opinion but I began to think that I was just looking for what I wanted to hear and perhaps the truth of the matter was DD really needed this change to be healthy.
Go with your heart but also take the words of the professionals to heart, too. Good luck.