Baby Poop Concerns
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Baby with gas and bubbles in poop
Nov 2008
My baby strains, struggles, and cries every couple of hours from gas in her intestines. I thought this was a mild form of colic and is quite common and normal. Then my nanny noticed that her poop has bubbles in it and she didn't think it's normal and she might be sick. My nanny feeds her once a day w my breastmilk in a bottle, rest of the time I feed her directly. After each feeding we make an extra effort to burp her and usually gets a couple of burps. Have other parents experienced similar symptoms and found solutions? Is there any reason to believe that my baby is sick? Teresa
My baby was having similar symptoms, and even had some blood in her stool. She was also getting fussier and fussier in the evenings. The doctor suspected a milk-protein allergy, and recommended that I cut out all dairy. I did, and after 3 weeks the foamy poop stopped, the blood stopped, and fussiness largely went away. I highly recommend it! anon
I have heard that this sort of poop is an indication of a foremilk/hindmilk imbalance. Check out the website Kellymom.com for advice on how to balance this, and for advice on all things breastfeeding. My baby had this sort of frothy poop for a while, and did not seem to be a problem, she grew well, though ''snacked'' a lot, so got a lot of foremilk, less hindmilk. Good luck figuring things out! angela
it may be nothing--especially if your baby seems happy and is gaining well. But this sounds like one of the symptoms of a foremilk/hindmilk imbalance. You can google it to learn more--LLL's site has good info such as at http://www.llli.org/FAQ/foremilk.html. Essentially, if the baby isn't given a chance to ''finish'' a breast and is instead switched to the other breast, the baby won't get the high fat/high protein hindmilk and will be filling up on the sugary foremilk. All that sugar (lactose) overwhelms the baby's gut and the bubbles form. It is easy to remedy by limiting the baby to one breast per feeding and letting him/her feed as long as she/he wants to. It is worth mentioning to your pediatrician in case there is something that needs to be corrected. -
If you are very worried you ought to call your pediatrician. You don't say how old your baby is, but I've heard that it takes several months for baby's digestive systems to really get working so this could be part of that. My daughter did a lot of scwirming and moaning with gas. I would also consider what YOU are eating, she may be having a reaction to something that is passed through the breastmilk. Try cutting out foods that might give gas or that are considered common allergens and see if that helps. good luck. anon
Blood and mucus in infant's poo after we ate miso
April 2007
My breastfeeding wife and I had a nice lunch of miso soup for the first time since 6 mo baby was born. About five hours later, baby had the biggest, stinkiest poo she's ever had, plus a hint of blood. For the next three days (and still) she's had some particularly foul-smelling poo with a little blood sometimes. (blood and mucous, actually.) We think it might be the miso... is that possible? Anyone out there have similar experiences with miso poop? Thanks! k.
It sounds to me as though the miso may just be a coincidence. I would run, not walk to your pediatrician and include a stool sample from the baby. Bronya
hello advice on your problem with the baby it is not from the food that your wife ate. you need to take the baby to the hospital and get blood work done and x-rays. especially if the baby is not eating regular and is sleeping too much. when there is blood in the poop it could be 4 serious problems. you need to go right away. if you could prevent getting surgery getting done. it is best to go to the hosiptal and take care of it. i seen a child have something similiar to that and they had to keep the baby over night to do tests and be on antibiotics. please take your child to the nearst emergency just to prevent the worst.have them check for EVERYTHING DON'T LEAVE THERE UNTIL EVERYTHING IS CHECK ARGUE WITH THE DOCTORS IF YOU HAVE TO JUST MAKE SURE THEY TAKE CARE OF YOUR BABY OR GO TO CHILDRENS HOSPITAL IN OAKLAND. GOOD LUCK JUST GET IT DONE. PLEASE! TO A CONCERN PARENT TO ANOTHER. CONCERN PARENT
your baby has blood and mucous in her stool and you haven't gotten her to a doctor? call tomorrow. no, call right now. you didn't mention any other symptoms so hopefully this is something easily managed. anon
Bloody stool from eating miso soup?? Take your baby to the doctor! amy
It could be a soy allergy? Mucus and blood in baby poops are usually allergy related. i would call advice nurse at your dr.'s Liz
Ok. I'm going to go out on a huge limb here and say CALL YOUR DOCTOR!!!!! Yeesh.
I've never had that happen with miso and I drink/eat it often with my breastfed baby. Blood in baby poop is a dangerous sign. Go to doctor asap. Jenny
I'm not a doctor but I nursed my 2 children for a very long time and ate a whole variety of different foods. Certain foods would cause gassiness (i.e. indian, or other very spicy). I don't think that anything your wife ate would cause blood in the stool. I'd see a doctor asap. concerned
no! this is not from the miso soup! and i have had it a few times since breastfeeding. take your child to the doctor. this is very abnormal. blood in the stool could be a sign of something else wrong. worried health professional
I hope you are in touch with your child's pediatrician! My 10-month old son was just diagnosed with food allergies (we are still determining what it might be - milk, wheat, soy?) and had symptoms like those you are describing (mucousy poop with a tinge of blood at times). He's fine but, because I am nursing, we are both on a strict diet -no milk, soy, wheat, eggs, nuts, citrus, etc. for a while. Good luck - hope your little one is feeling better soon! anon
Hi, this sounds like an allergy to soy. Our kid was allergic to milk protein with a cross allergy to soy, and the blood is the indicator. It resolved when we stopped the soy & milk. hope this helps.
Sounds like your baby might have a soy allergy, which is not uncommon. I'd call your pediatrician. Good luck! Naomi
5-week-old baby's stool is green and mucousy
Sept 2005
My 5 week old baby has been having green and mucousy stools for a few weeks now (they were yellow and seedy in the beginning). the dr is not worried because he is growing rapidly. He has no other problems and we had a normal birth. the only other thing is that I was taking clyndamiacin (an antibiotic) the week before he was born and his first day or two. I am breastfeeding. I tried cutting out caffeine, which seemed to help with the consistency of the stool-- it made it less watery. Did anyone else have a baby with green stool? The dr did recommend trying probiotics. Did you get other advice from the dr? Thanks! worried new mom
I had the same problem w/my now 2 yr. old son when he was about that age. After much research, I finally found out that he was only getting the fore or skim milk when I would breastfeed. He would often fall asleep after only a few minutes on one side so I would switch him to the other. The solution was to feed him on one side/feeding so that the breast would empty completely and he would get the fatty-er milk at the end or make sure he empties both sides as much as possible. I now have a 2 wk. old and am trying to avoid the same problem. I feed him about 15-20 min. on one side and then switch to the other for another 10+ min. Fortunately he's not as sleepy as his brother. I also massage the breast while I'm feeding to make sure he gets as much milk as possible. I recently consulted w/the lactation consultant at Kaiser and she said not to worry about the green stools, but instead focus on whether the baby's gaining wt. We bought a Salton digital baby scale ($84 online and well worth the peace of mind) so I weigh him about once/wk. Hope this helps, and feel free to contact me. cv
My 11-week baby has had green stools twice now (lasted a few days each time). My pediatrician told me that any earth tone was fine, but that I should call for white, red, or black stools. anon
Assuming that you're breastfeeding, green stools can indicate a foremilk/hindmilk imbalance. There can be many reasons for it, including an overactive milk ejection reflex, overabundant milk supply, or switching sides too often/soon while nursing. I have struggled with two of the three above, and am finally getting it under control at 11 weeks. I nurse only on one side for every four hour period, take sage extract a few times daily, and express a little before nursing if I catch my baby gasping, ''clicking,'' or swallowing a lot of air. An internet search on ''foremilk/hindmilk imbalance'' might give you more information. Good luck. Whole lotta milk
My now 8 month old had this... are you breastfeeding? If so, try massaging your breast as you feed. One theory with my little one was that she wasn't getting enough of the fatty hind milk and that massaging would help her suck the fattier milk out. The doc also limited my foods by taking out some allergens but I suspect the fat milk was the issue. happy mom of healthy babe
Do try the probiotics. Lifestart by Natren is a good place to start. It has gut bacteria that are the predominant beneficial bacteria in the guts of healthy infants. Whole Foods carries it and if it isn't on the shelf they will order it for you. Usually infants are colonized at birth, but if you were taking antibiotics they may not have had a chance and less beneficial bacteria may have taken their place. My child had a diarrhea illness and only recovered after we gave her lifestart every day for more than a week. Otherwise she'd relapse and it'd be back to the green poop again. The mucus is a sign that your baby is having diarrhea. The other cause for green stools can be not enough hind milk. If the baby is getting milk low in fat the bile ends up coming out in the stools. But since your baby is gaining well I'd try the Lifestart. Good luck, susan
My baby had something similar, only it wasn't related to antibiotics. Instead, I had an overactive letdown and when breastfeeding, my daughter was getting too much foremilk and not enough hindmilk. I'm not sure if this is what's happening, but if you're spraying everywhere (like I was) and your baby seems cranky at the breast, you might consider it. Once I saw a lactation consultant and learned strategies to slow down my milk, my baby's stools went back to yellow. Good luck! Green Poop Veteran
Are you breastfeeding? You may feed your baby more foremilk than hindmilk. The first milk coming out - the foremilk - is more watery and has less fat and calories than the hindmilk. This shows in more green stool. It might help to try have your baby stay longer on one breast to get the hindmilk. If you feel you don't get enough advice from your doc, try a lactation consultant.
Our baby also had a green stool for a while. I don't think you need to worry, unless the baby shows some other signs of distress. I was also concerned at the time and looked through lots of books for advice. The only one I found that addressed the subject and calmed me down was Dr. Spock's! mother of a healthy baby
Hi, When our baby (two weeks old at the time) had developed a rash, he was put on antibiotics. His stool also became green. We gave him a probiotic supplement (Jarrow Formulas' Baby's Jarro-Dophilus). His stools returned to normal color in a day or two.
By the way, when we asked his docor (at Kaizer) about the green stools, her response was to wait and see, and if they continued, to give him another antibiotic to correct the effects of the first one. She did not mention probiotics... Good luck!
I would push your pediatrician for a referral. It sounds like something painful is going on for your little, and you're right, you don't want this developing into a long term issue.
I see that you have treated his behavior as constipation, but have you gotten a more formal diagnosis?
My child had the same issue. Cows milk is VERY constipating. We try to limit cows milk to 1 serving/day, and have switched to oat milk. But watch out for non-dairy milks which add locust bean gum, guar gum, xanthan gum, etc… these food additive gums are added as thickeners and can also be constipating. We drink Oatly which doesn’t contain any of the “gum” thickeners.
Hello,
We had this problem with my daughter and then a little less intense with my son. The pediatrician recommended putting some mineral oil in their hot chocolate. This made it more difficult to hold the stool and also made it more soft. I believe for us it had to do with maybe a small fissure or pain from a hard poop experience that they remember and didn't want to repeat. Also, of course increasing some roughage in their diet. It took a while and then it finally resolved for us. Good luck.
We solved ours (mostly) by following the Ped's recommendation of 2 tsp of miralax per day. You have to get the poop super soft so it comes out easy and stops being so traumatizing. We started Miralax at 18 months and she's still on it now at 4.5, though we have reduced it to 1tsp a day along with a dose of fiber powder.
Our younger child (now 16 months) was having pooping issues that sound similar. I started added 1 tsp of miralax to her milk every day and now her poops are soft and it's no big deal and it doesn't bother her anymore. Pooping used to stress her out so much!
We put the miralax in a cup, add some hot water to dissolve, and then add the milk. It doesn't dissolve well in cold liquids so that's why we take the extra step.
No amount of prunes, pears, or changing her diet (just adding fiber) worked for her. She's also on cow milk and has no other GI issues. The Miralax did it. When I told the pediatrician we started her on it, they said that was just fine. There are no adverse effects from long term use.
It's a simple fix to take away months of potty training trauma if the poops are hard (this happened with our older child).
I don’t have any expertise, but I will tell you what I would try doing to sort it out. I might try talking to a nutritionist who has an expertise in children to see if there are alternatives to cows milk. I’m wondering if your child is lactose intolerant. It is actually much more common than you think. I understand why your pediatrician is recommending cows milk, but I don’t think it would hurt to explore alternatives. My child suffered with stomach stuff for years until we figured out he was lactose intolerant. A nutritionist might be able to suggest foods that would help his digestion. This must be very stressful to watch. Good luck!
Ditto on the Miralax per our pediatrician’s recommendation. Our daughter (around the same age) used to be extremely stressed out and she would cry a lot when she needed to go. Plus it would hurt her and she strained a lot when pooping. I would add Miralax in her soup and made sure she had some type of liquid in her meals for the Miralax. Eventually it stopped hurting her as in she stopped crying when she went. It took a few months before she stopped straining when she went. And about 1.5 years before she went regular. About 8 months after using Miralax, I would reduce the dosage and start skipping in every other meals and then every other days. If she starts straining or not going regular for whatever reason, I would increase dosage again until she gets regular again.
I emphasize how stressful the situation is. Luckily other than incorporating more liquid in her meals, we didn’t have to add mineral oil or do anything else. Good luck!
Are there signs in the stool that it’s actually a constipation issue, as in is it rock hard? Could it be an emotional issue instead? This isn’t conventional advice here, but one from my culture: could it be your baby has retained disgust for pooping themselves? Most American children are trained to poop in diapers, but in the rare case some take poorly to it. From infancy I noticed my baby wailed and fussed when pooping in their diaper, so I tried putting them on a potty during the usual poo times, which baby seemed to prefer pooing on and has been ever since. And reduced the many tiny poos into one or two big poos per day. Around 12mo I noticed my baby throws a tantrum and face turns red when trying to hold it in while sitting in the car seat for a long ride. Perhaps your child is like mine and just really doesn’t like the feel of poo on their butt.