Dairy intolerance in newborns

[Ruth_Baldock]

This question is regarding baby poo, I'm afraid.

Alexa is 10 days old and since my milk came in, has been pooing round the clock. Good, excellent. However, since Tuesday, about 80% of her nappies have been filled with watery poo- still yellow, and still with seedy bits in, but much less 'solid' than what she was doing. MW suggested it may be something I am eating and the only things that match up are on the days she was a bit 'runny', i had several (decaff) coffees, with milk. She is quite a gassy thing anyway, burps like a champ, but otherwise is a happy little girl.

Does this sound like a dairy intolerance, or just standard newborn stuff? Can't remember any of this going on with Seb, but I was a zombie for the first 8 months or so of his life, so can't remember much.

[mrs f]

perhaps try giving up the diary for a few days and see if that helps... ? I know a couple of forumites who gave up the dairy and it helped their little ones...

[ClareC]

Hiya,

I had the same with Lucas, he is a windy little chap too!

I faffed for a bit not drinking mike or orange juice and then upon recommendation of a GP friend I swapped to unpasteurised milk. It did seem to help but it may just have improved as he got older. I went back on ordinary milk (unpasteurised a pain to get hold of) and all is fine.

He still suffers with wind and we get the odd explosive poo but I suspect it's just something that gets better as they get older.

If she is happy that's the main thing :-)

[newtoedf]

TMI but is the poo watery or mucousy? My little boy had very runny poos but it was mucous rather than watery. He has a cows milk protein allergy and I found when I cut out dairy completely it helped. Reducing dairy made it a bit better but not completely. His main symptom was a very itchy scalp. You might need to give up for a week at least to see an impact though. The only problem is that cutting dairy out completely means nothing made with butter too so no biscuits or cakes and surely that's half the point of maternity leave!

[Ruth_Baldock]

Just watery, no mucous ATM. Tbh the thought of giving up dairy is mind bogglig to me. She's generally happy and putting on a lot of weight so maybe it's just one of those things?!

[buggie]

Sounds fairly typical baby poo! Reminds me of the poo-nami's Bugglet use to have (which always occured just before important appointments!).

Especially if she's happy and is doing so well with wt gain (she's only 5lb off Bugglet at the moment!) I'd not be too worried - if it was making her bum v v sore/appeared to cause her pain passing it, I'd be more concerned.

Are you still seeing MW's?? Maybe check with them when you next see them x

[Ruth_Baldock]

She just seems relieved after a large nappy fill-nice!

The only time she is bothered/unsettled is about halfway through a feed, but this is because of my over-active letdown so I'm sorted re: worrying about that ATM. We were discharged from the MWs yesterday, with my parting gambit being "see you next time!" I must be totally mental...

[Yak]

if it doesn't bother her, it sounds like you're doing fine. I think it's only if the wind / pooing is causing problems that it's worth thinking about dairy. I gave up for 12 weeks and it was a hard introduction to the demands of unconditional love - all that cheese, chocolate, ice cream and cake!

[KBN]

Ruth,

Another suggestion:

The watery poo you are describing is one symptom of an overactive letdown/oversupply - basically baby gets too much of "skimmed" foremilk as opposed to "full fat" hind milk and gets gassy, fussy at breast, colicky, spits up often and passes watery poo. I have same problem and have been told is unlikely to be dairy related.

These might help if you haven't alredy googled all in sight!

http://www.breastfeedingbasics.com/html/oversupply.shtml

http://www.kellymom.com/bf/supply/fast-letdown.html

I'm feeding lying down lots and drinking sage tea to reduce supply if that helps at all...

Hope you find the/a solution soon!

K

[LillyD]

Hi

I had the same thing with my baby - watery, mucousy, seedy and greeny poo - usually all at the same time, plus lots of vomitting and indigestion. Very worrying for me though the HV never got particularly worried about it. I think the problem was too much foremilk as well.

L

[Gubodge]

Green poo is often a symptom of a speedy let down. It's no problem for the child, just means that there is a proportion of the milk that is not properly digested (she'd still be digesting everything she needs, just consuming more on top of that.) You could try expressing a bit off before you put her to the breast.

Don't cut anything out of your diet without advice from a medical professional, but do keep a food diary to see if there are any other potential problems. If it really does turn out to be a problem with dairy then it could be up to 4 weeks before you notice a difference. How long it takes milk protien to leave the system varies, but it could be up to a couple of weeks for you, and then a couple of weeks for her after that.

For what it's worth though, my daughter had a dairy allergy diagnosed at 6 months so would have had it before that, when she was solely breastfed, and she never had any problem with her poos at that point. (Did after weaning, but that's a different matter.)

[BB100]

This was exactly what happened to my first child. Eventually she was shooting poo across the room (no joke) everytime I opened her nappy. Cutting the dairy worked for me but make sure you seek medical advice to ensure you get enough calcium in your diet.

[susyp]

if you cut out dairy just be aware that it takes 14 days to be eliminated from your system - so you might not see any change immediately. Have to say i did this after my daughter was confirmed as milk allergic and it made no difference, don;t know why. none of what you describe was what i experienced, she always had explosive poos but mainly from 3 + months the big symptom with her really was wind/colic. so hopefully just a pooy baby!

susypx

[WorkingMummy]

Best advice I ever received from a paediatrician: there are only 3 "bad" types of poop in an infant. White poop, (possibly indicating that baby is not producing bile and not digesting anything), red poop (indicating fresh blood/bleeding in the lower bowel), and truly, pitch black tar-like poop (possibly indicating bleeding higher up, perhaps in stomach). Every other shade of green, yellow, brown and beige, runny, seedy, lumpy, smelly, is all totally, totally normal.

I have very much needed this advice because I have a natural tendency to "read" nappies like a mystic reading tea leaves. And my anxiety levels have been tested by EVERY type of poop over the years. My eldest has even had to see the doctor with (at different times) bouts of absolutely white and absolutely black poop. Even then, she was completely well, nothing wrong with her at all. Just a mysterious, short lived little hiccup of some kind with her quickly growing insides.

Babies' insides change every single day. The environment they are in, the germs they breath/ingest, change every day. Their guts are not going to produce regular poopies of the same consistency, colour and smell every day. You are breastfeeding, which is great for your baby. Just keep it up, and try to focus on reliable indicators of health - like is your baby developing well and gaining weight bit by bit, at his/her own pace.

Don't read nappies, ever, is my advice. Just chuck 'em in the bin.