Consistantly green poop

[@llli*shannan]

I have posted before about our struggles with poop. My 5-month-old has had green poop, sometimes with tiny amounts of blood, off and on for 4 months. I have eliminated so many foods. I will think i have it figured out, get yellow poops back, and then try to add a food back. Green stools return, but it may be a week after trying somthing new. Bad poops are not consistant with a single food. I have thought it was oversupply or overactive milk letdown reflex. I try block feeding for 3 hours at a fime. Nothing seems to work. He has had green stools much more frequently than yellow. He doesn't seem uncomfortable in any way. He is happy and has a little more than doubled his birth weight. He sleeps well. He just has the bad looking poops. Can this damage him? I read that you should see a Dr if green stools last more than a few days. This has gone on for months. We have seen a pediatrician and pediatric GI Dr. They have told me to eliminate foods. I'm off of dairy, wheat, soy, corn, tomato, citrus, egg, peanut, tree nuts, fish, shellfish, pork, chocolate, and caffeine. I even eliminated vitamins for a couple of weeks. I decided to drop the vitamin again today to see if that will help. Any ideas?

[@llli*mommal]

First of all: Bloody stools can keep you up at night, worrying. But my pediatrician told me that in an otherwise healthy, happy, growing baby, green poops and intermittent bloody streaks/specks are not a real health problem. They're something to keep an eye on, but not something to freak out about or to wean over.

My doc also told me that proctitis- which apparently in infants is often a mild expression of food protein intolerance- peaks right around 3-6 months. I definitely remember seeing more bloody stools right at the 5 month mark, but they were gone by 1 year.

[@llli*lllmeg]

I agree with mommal. Green poops can be perfectly normal, I have never heard of having to see a doctor just for that! For blood in the stool, yes, but not for green poops. And since your baby is happy and gaining great even when the poops have some blood I do not see the health benefits of starving yourself. Is the pediatricain aware of everything you have eliminated? I cannot believe a doctor would think it is appropriate for you to be starving yourself this way. I am not sure if much of what you have eliminated would even cause blood in stools.

Have you talked to a food allergy specialist? (a real one, there are quacks out there, beware.) Or a lactation consultant with allergy experience?

This is why I hate elimination diets. I am not sure how you got to this point but just for anyone else reading this: For one thing, it is NOT VERY COMMON for a breastfeeding moms diet to even be an issue. Blood in the stool IS a strong sign of an allergy BUT there can be other causes. OK, that said, when something in a breastfeeding moms diet is suspected of causing issues, it makes more sense for foods to be eliminated one at a time and then added back into moms diet before eliminating the next suspected culprit. And start with the most common culprits. So, for example, esp if the symptom is blood in the stool, eliminate all dairy, for at least two weeks (I think, I can never remember how long you have to eliminate for.) If no improvement, then dairy is not the issue and dairy should be added back in and soy eliminated, then gluten, and so on, until improvement occurs. But add back in the previously eliminated food each time or you could end up having nothing to live on. More on blood in stools http://kellymom.com/health/baby-health/bloodystool/

[@llli*shannan]

Thanks for your replies, Ladies! Yes, the pediatric GI dr is the one who told me to eliminate the foods. The pediatrician knows what I am doing and suggested that I go down to only chicken, rice, and pears for a week. Then I can add back one food per week. My current weight is 138 pounds. I have lost 51 pounds since November. I *can't* do the diet that she is suggesting.

I did go and see a lactation consultant today. My son pooped while there. It was one of the worst ones in a while. There was more (still not a lot) of brown mucus in a neon green poop. The LC suggested that I see a different GI dr. Another mom said that it looked like what her son's diaper looked like when the baby wasn't getting enough hind milk. Her pedi took one look at the diaper and gave that diagnosis. While I was there, we weighed my son before and after a feed. He nursed for about 4 minutes while falling asleep and took in 3 ounces. I am really thinking that it is feeding issues and not food issues. He starts nursing and I have a let down. He almost always gets choked and pulls off coughing. I am never spraying milk or anything ever. He goes back on for only a short time. The milk flows seems to stop. He starts fussing. He pulls off, goes back on, pulls off - while fussing. I think the breast is empty, so I change sides. He nurses for 2 or 3 minutes until the fast let down stops. Then he nurses again probably an hour or so later. Also, many days, the poop looks brownish-yellow first thing in the morning and goes to green by mid-morning. It seems like if it was a food, it wouldn't come and go, unless I was eating the food every day. I asked the LC if there was a way to determine if he was getting hind milk. She said that they don't have lab equipment to do that. However, after the poop has been yellow for a few days and then it goes back to green, I always can think of some way that I messed up or another food that I think it may be. So, I get a little more strict with my diet.

[@llli*lllmeg]

I would like to have a moment of silence for all moms callously & almost certainly erroneously told to live on chicken, rice and pears so they can breastfeed. I am so upset about that I could scream. The take everything out then add back in one food a week is the elimination diet technique and it is not helpful in many case. This is generally NOT recommended by breastfeeding supportive medical professionals. See the ABM protocol below.

I assumed you had eliminated oald/os as the culprit, it is certainly a strong possibility based on what you describe. You do not have to spray to have forceful letdown! Trust your instincts. Bottom line, your baby seems to be doing well! Foremilk is still breastmilk and is thus still good for baby, it’s just when they get too much foremilk and not enough hindmilk total due to forceful letdown that can SOMETIMES cause gastrointestinal issues. Also its not like its foremilk for half the feeding and hindmilk for the second half, in a normal feeding, the milk transitions from one to the other gradually throughout the feeding.

More on foremilk/hindmilk, and over active let down/oversupply http://www.llli.org/docs/00000000000...ggrimacing.pdf and http://kellymom.com/bf/got-milk/supp.../fast-letdown/


Your pediatrician and your GI may be interested in this: Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine Clinical Protocol #24: Allergic Proctocolitis
in the Exclusively Breastfed Infant: http://www.bfmed.org/Media/Files/Pro...ish_120211.pdf

[@llli*mommal]

with LLLMeg on oversupply being a very likely culprit based on your description. That was the problem for my LO: I had monster supply and she was getting a huge overdose of lactose at every meal. That caused a lot of intestinal irritation, and a bit of bleeding, but she was always happy and healthy and growing in all other respects. My doc was never concerned.

with the moment of silence for moms on elimination diets.

[@llli*shannan]

Thanks so much for the links and your encouragement! I have some things to try.