Mucousy green stools

[@llli*anakopia]

Hi moms,

I am so glad I found this thread, because what shannon describes is exactly what is going on with my son. Only it started when he was 3-4 weeks old. He is 4 month old now and after being on elimination diet for weeks we see some improvement but not total improvement. His stools are more yellow now, but still very mucusy and he has about 3-4 of them each day. His gastroenterologist suggest doing a colonoscopy if he doesn't get better in a week and I would do anything not to go that way. I eat only turkey, lamb, rice, rice milk, quinoa, potatoes, yellow squash, baked apples, pears, and onions( cooked ), sometimes yams. What else can I exclude from my diet ???

I wonder if shannon could give us an update on what is going on with her son now. Or if any other mom who was in this situation could tell if the diet eventually helped.

[@llli*mommal]

How much blood have you been seeing in your baby's poops, mama? Streaks and specks, or larger amounts? Is it every diaper, or just the occasional one?

(I note that this is your first post on the forum- so FYI, if you want to get some more individual attention please do start your own thread! A lot of times people kind of ignore the older threads, because they chimed in long ago and figure the issue must be resolved by now. Also, people don't always read all the way through a thread, and they might miss your post.)

[@llli*anakopia]

Hi mommal,

I see streaks and specs and not in every diaper now. When he had mostly green stools then blood was detected by multiple occult blood tests. The thing is that he still has either diarrhea or mucus in them even if the stool is yellow and he has green mucusy stools periodically. One of the tests showed that he has some inflammation in colon and doctor said it's because of allergy. So we put him on Similac Alementum for 1 week to let the inflammation heal and me get more "clean" from allergens. After that he was back on breast milk and it did look like it was getting better although he would do number 2 almost every time he ate but it progressively started to get worse.
Doc had him do the allergy test and we just heard from them that it came back negative, which doesn't matter anyway because this blood test has a lot of false negatives/positives.

Thank you very much for the advice to start new thread! I really am new to this forum and haven't had a chance to see how it works.
The reason I replied in this thread is I was hoping that the thread starter will get an email notification when other users reply to his/her post as I am very interested to know how their situation got resolved.

[@llli*mommal]

Yeah, the reason I suggested starting a new thread is that I don't know if the OP is actually on the forum all that much right now. People come and go, you know?

Aside from the blood streaks/specks, is your baby generally happy, healthy, and growing? I think a lot of parents and many doctors really freak out over bloody stools, and often it's just not such a big deal. When my kid had bloody poops my doctor took a look at the bloody diaper and just shrugged and said not to worry about it- because she's really good at looking at the baby first, and deciding whether or not a healthy baby requires an intervention.

A lot of babies poop every time they nurse. Breastmilk has a mild laxative effect, and often the act of nursing will stimulate a baby to move something out at the bottom of his digestive system. Don't expect a consistent 1 poop per day frequency until your baby has started to eat quite a lot of solids.

[@llli*arflicki]

This sounds exactly like what we're going through right now. I've been on the total elimination diet and working on my oversupply issue. We were doing great until I had to go in for a D&C for retained placenta at 10.5 weeks. After that, my milk came in even more so and have to pump off quite a bit so she's not just getting only foremilk which I think she was before we noticed. Previously, all of my pumped milk looked great with a nice layer of fat. After the surgery, there was barely any fat in the milk. It seems to be slowly improving, but I get diaper anxiety because just when things seem to be going well we get another crappy looking diaper. Pediatrician isn't really making a call as to what it is just yet. I can share much more if you're interested.

[@llli*phi]

After that, my milk came in even more so and have to pump off quite a bit so she's not just getting only foremilk which I think she was before we noticed.

Pumping is not a good way to deal with oversupply. It creates extra demand to which your body responds by producing extra supply. Block feeding is the best way to make sure your baby gets the right proportion of the thinner milk you get from a full breast and the fattier milk you get from an emptier breast. Normally that occurs in a single feeding, but it can take two or more feedings to get it in an oversupply situation. Block feeding also effectively reduces your supply as the milk sitting in the unused breast signals your body to make less milk. A lot of oversupply is triggered by pumping too early on. Staying away from the pump for as long as possible is the best way to avoid oversupply.

[@llli*mommal]

Pumping is not a good way to deal with oversupply. It creates extra demand to which your body responds by producing extra supply. Block feeding is the best way to make sure your baby gets the right proportion of the thinner milk you get from a full breast and the fattier milk you get from an emptier breast. Normally that occurs in a single feeding, but it can take two or more feedings to get it in an oversupply situation. Block feeding also effectively reduces your supply as the milk sitting in the unused breast signals your body to make less milk. A lot of oversupply is triggered by pumping too early on. Staying away from the pump for as long as possible is the best way to avoid oversupply.

This. Got oversupply? Then step away from the pump.

[@llli*anakopia]

I don't think that in our case oversupply was the only issue. Since I started to work my son gets his milk in a bottle where the fore milk is mixed with hind milk. Although he has less green stools, still, his yellow stools are always mucusy with no curd at all.
The inflammation in colon has subsided as tests showed but he is still allergic to something that he gets from my milk. He hasn't been gaining weight properly. Only 6 ounces in almost 3 weeks :-( Wants to be held or carried for the majority of the day. I am very concerned that this problem will affect his development.

Anyone here with the baby who has type 3 allergies ? Who's been on elimination diet and can tell if it eventually helped ?

[@llli*mommal]

I know there are other mamas who have dealt with food allergies here, but I don't know that they're likely to notice this post. It's been kicking around for a while, YK? I'd start a thread on it, down in the allergy forum, just to increase the chances that it gets seen by the people who can help.

[@llli*lllkaren]

Just FYI -- I split this off from the older thread; I think it deserves its own.