Cant figure out what LO's sensitivity is

[Anonymous]

My LO started having green poops at around 7 weeks. I never knew to look for mucous or didn’t really understand exactly what that meant so I don’t know if she did or not at that time. But even before than I remember her poops smelling really bad and thought it was strange that everyone kept telling me that breastfed babies poop don’t stink. Anyways at 9 weeks I noticed a few diapers with strands of blood in them and they ran tests on the poop and it came back okay so they told me to eliminate milk and soy. She does spit up a lot but it doesn’t really seem to bother her. She does have dry skin but really no other symptoms that I can think of. I did the MSPI diet for 5 weeks and I would have more normal diapers but mostly they were some type of yellow greenish with a little mucous and little amount of seeds. So then I decided I was frustrated that things haven’t gotten completely normal and did the TED for 3 more weeks. The only thing I did a little different was eat steel cut oats with pumpkin in the morning. Still once in awhile she will have a more mustardy poop but it seems more liquidy and hardly any seeds if any at all. But mostly green poop. I went for her 4 month appointment and I had them do an occult blood stool sample and it came back positive. My pediatrician says that as long as she is gaining weight and is happy not to worry about it and to stop the TED and just stay on the MSPI diet. She thought I was being too drastic and that she says there are probably a lot of babies who are normal that would have a positive occult blood stool sample if they tested every baby. So I just as at a loss at what to do. I have been losing weight pretty quickly but I am not starving myself by any means. I just figured that after doing the TED for a few weeks everything would be back to normal and I could start adding food back in. So I have started just the MSPI diet again for the last 2 days and of course there is gross amount of blood in her poop and she seems more fussy than normal but I don’t know if it is from the vaccinations or is it my diet. I just need some advice since I don’t have much support except for what I am reading on the internet. I just don’t want to do more harm than good!!!!

[Anonymous]

First of all, you are doing great mama! Great job making it this far w/ your diet & breastfeeding, etc.

Okay, so is she having stinky gas? The key to your diet & exclusively breastfed babies is that if she is having stinky gas, then she is reacting so something in your diet. If she isn’t having stinky gas, then she isn’t.

Where it gets tricky is that it’s very possible to not have stinky gas (so your’e on the right diet) but to continue having mucous &/or blood in the stool. It takes a while for the LOs colons to heal (fwiw, it took my 2nd ds 6 wks of TED & no stinky gas before the blood & mucous stopped).

So… I would track the stinky gas. I would also go back on TED. While tracking stinky gas, I would wait until 4-5 days of no stinky gas, then call that your ‘baseline’. Then, continue that diet until the blood & mucous goes away. Then, your db has baselined. Then, you can consider adding something to your diet. If after you start TED again after 4-5 days she’s still having stinky gas then she’s reacting to something in the TED & you’ll need to adjust (my dss reacted to 3-4 things in TED)… but don’t worry about that yet- we’ll deal w/ that if we need to.

Hang in there- you’re doing great!

[Anonymous]

Like Erin said good job for hanging in there and sticking it out. My LO started having green mucuosy stools at 7 wks, he’s 4 months now. I am currently milk/soy/egg/nut free and for a while I was wheat free as well. I’ve since added that back in and he seems to be doing okay. I did notice that it took A LONG time for the mucous to go away, the blood went away pretty quickly (visible blood anyway). I feel like a diaper inspector because I’m constantly examining his diapers! Anyway, I felt like my doctor wasn’t very helpful and didn’t really listen to me either. Her answer for me was formula, and since I actually work for a formula company for this exact thing, I’m not against it, but also wasn’t ready to stop Bfing and felt like they offered NO support!!

I understand how important “normal” poop can be, I found a link on Baby Center that showed pictures of poopy diapers that seemed to help. As for your elimination diet I would recommend following your gut and going with whatever you think is the best for you and your baby. I also found this website (infantreflux.org) to be great for TED with support and recipes, etc. Luckily my little guy doesn’t react to fruits/vegetables/meats, so I really have a pretty good variety in my diet. You’re not alone!!! Good luck and you’re your babies best advocate so do what works for you!

[Anonymous]

Thank you so much for your words of encouragement, It was definitely a booster to hear someone else say that I’m most likely doing the right thing.

Erinntx-when you ask about stinky gas, do you mean just passing gas or that the poopy diapers stink? I need to keep better track of the dirty diaper smell. It has been going on for so long I can’t seem to remember if they are still really stinky since I didn’t realize that was a problem for so long. But in regards to her passing gas, I have never noticed a foul smell and don’t really hear her pass gas like she use to. And when I evaluate her diapers they shouldn’t be liquid where the diaper soaks it up completely correct? Should be more pasty with seeds? And the diapers will have a smell but nothing foul correct? I guess it is hard to that my LO goes to daycare 4 days a week but you think it is okay to ask the caretaker to note the characteristics of diapers?

Also I know you have learned a lot through your own experience but where did you feel like you got the most help with a GI doc, ped, allergist?

Thanks for everything

[Anonymous]

One more thing. I have a question about finding my baseline. So I make sure for 4-5 days that there is no stinky gas/diapers. Then wait for the blood and mucous to go away. When you say blood are you meaning visible or when it is tested? And when all those things are gone then I found a baseline and then start adding foods one by one? Not to get too personal but since on the TED I have noticed I have stinky gas which I think it is the Jennio ground turkey. Do you think I should try a different brand of turkey or try a different protein since it has affected me this way?

[Anonymous]

Sorry for all the questions. What multivitamin and calcium supplement should I take or should I wait for a “baseline”

[Anonymous]

You know you brought up a good point about the “stinky gas” (baby) because my guy had losts of gas and discomfort but nothing really smelled bad, including the diapers. So I was never able to base anything on the smell of his gas, but since being on an elimination diet he certainly doesn’t have gas like he used to. Does that make sense? I’m not sure about the baseline per say, because I feel like I never really got a good one, maybe Erin can help with that?

As far as the diaper consistency, my LO is still pretty runny, the doctor said it was okay, and i consulted a lactation consultation who said she wanted more seediness to it, he doesn’t always have the seeds like my other two boys did, but he’s growing really good and hitting milestones so I think he is still getting the proper fat he needs? I haven’t taken him to a GI, but we’ve seen the regular ped, an allergist and a lactation consultant. The allergist was the most helpful, second by the lactation and then the ped.

I take a multi-vitamin and then an extra calcium pill. I bought them at the MOM”s market… do you have one of those? It’s My Organic Market, I’m sure any organic market or co-op in your area would have supplements you could take. The ones I bought specifically say that they are allergy free and list what they do NOT contain, like milk, soy, wheat etc.

As far as your own personal gas, would you say you’re eating healthier than before? More fruits and veggies?? It could just be your own body adjusting to the extra fiber these foods naturally have in them.

And finally, I definitely would ask the daycare provider to track diapers and just jot down what they find…I don’t think that’s too much to ask. My opinion anyway… especially if you tell them you LO is having some allergy/intolerance issues.

[Anonymous]

The eating more fruits and veggies would make sense with my problem. I guess I never thought about seeing an allergist, I will have to look into that. Did your baby have green mucousy poops too, or are they more of a mustard color but runny?

[Anonymous]

I mean actual stinky gas (usually the actual stool is stinky too but I’m talking the gas). Yes, usually when db is reacting to something the gas is more frequent, can seem painful, etc. But most dbs pass gas fairly frequently until 9 mths or so – usually (if db isn’t reacting to something) then it’s odorless.

Yes, diapers shouldn’t be all liquid, but they might be. I wouldn’t worry so much about the consistency for now. More that there’s no stinky gas, no mucous, no visible blood. They should have a sweet smell (similar to butter popcorn). But, just so you know, w/ dbs w/ intolerances it’s fairly hard to get to the sweet smelling diapers consistently (at least in my experience).

I think it’s totally reasonable to ask daycare to track the diapers. I would make a chart though for them -something that has a place to note: color, smell, consistency (liquid vs. more seedy/pasty), mucous, & visible blood.

As far as doctors, I’ve learned a lot & got a lot of great info from all of them (ped GI, allergist, general ped., dietician) but honestly, not many of them were worth much (not trying to be rude, just honest) until after ds was 12mths old. I got a lot of guidance here, but learned a lot (a LOT) on my own through trial & error. Most ped aren’t that educated re: breastfeeding in general, add in dietary restrictions & most are clueless. My ped GI was a bit more help but again, not a ton (though they both- ped & Ped GI totally supported bf’ing, didn’t want me to stop, etc). In most cases, taking db to the allergist isn’t reliable before 15-18 mths old. We went for 1st time @ 16 mths old & got a lot of great confirmations. Our allergist offered to do some preliminary testing w/ Tate (my 3rd ds) @ 10 mths old but cautioned the accuracy… we decided to just wait till 15-16 mths old like we did w/ Evan. The dietician has probably been the most helpful overall but a) we only see him b/c Evan was labeled ‘failure to thrive’ & b) it’s helpful info for food directly to Evan, not w/ bf’ing.

Re: Baseline, I’m talking about waiting for visible blood & mucous to stop. Yes, when all stinky gas, mucous & visible blood is gone for 4-5 days you can declare ‘baseline’. Then, you can start trialing food one by one. Usually, I would eat it 2-3x/day for 4 days in a row to be sure before I declared it a success.

I had lots of stinky gas myself w/ the turkey as well. Consequently, my ds was intolerant to turkey (took me a while on TED to figure this out). BUT, even now when I eat ground turkey (ie: I made turkey meatloaf last week) I have stinky gas after so maybe it’s just a difficult protein for some ppl (you & me lol).

Multivitamin:

The multivitamin is this: http://wholesalesupplementstore.com/daily-total-oneaday.html

They are vegetarian capsules & free of the ‘biggies’ (milk, soy, gluten, etc). I haven’t had any issues w/ them.

Calcium supplement:

The calcium I used to take is just the generic “calciumcitrate+” from my grocery store (or Target). The only thing about these is that one of the inactive ingredients is starch. SO, I didn’t start these until Evan started tolerating more foods (although I’m sure many babies could tolerate them fine).

Here’s what I take now:

http://www.country-life.com/moreinfo.cfm?Category=25&Product_ID=393&CFID=1794275&CFTOKEN=43446469

Hope that helps! Hang in there!

[hellbennt]

Erin is our expert on TED, lol!

in the meantime, here are some of ‘her’ links, and other links, too:

Erin’s sticky: https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=12948&PID=105126#105126

More Erin: https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=13175&PID=106395#106395

Erin post: https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=13576

Great anne post: https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9242

Exposure to foods & blood testing: https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=12993

Sheri’s allergy/intolerance explanation: https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=10223&PID=87638#87638

Another Sheri explanation- intolerance/allergy post:

https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=11579&PID=97442#97442

Accuracy of allergy testing & great post by sherri explaining IgE and IgG (intolerance/allergies) https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=10815

(sue again, replying to gina- breastfeeding info to (TED)https://www.infantreflux.org/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=11324&PN=1

[Anonymous]

Lol Laura- I was posting the same time (took me a while w/ lots of distractions to respond/type it up).

[Anonymous]

Yes, my guy had green mucuosy poops with blood streaked in it. The diapers never had a ton of blood but it was visible and you could see it. The ped took a stool sample to rule out possible bacterial infections and when that was negative we came to the conclusion he had food intolerances. So that’s when I started eliminating things. I think the most shocking was the green color and mucous. There was a TON of mucous.

Like Erin said, even though my LO is still experiencing “watery” stools he no longer has any mucous or blood and the color is that normal bright yellow. And although it has a smell to it, it isn’t bad, it’s more of a yeasty sweet smell. And that’s not all the time, sometimes it doesn’t smell at all.

In any event, you’re doing great. It’s not easy being restrictive with my diet, especially because food is my friend LOL, but I think the trade off is worth it!

[Anonymous]

LOL! I just re-read my post, and I guess saying the blood was “visible” and “you could see it” was fairly redundant!!! It’s time for bed I think 🙂

[Anonymous]

Thanks for all the help. I went and bought some of the country life total one day and their calcium supplement. I was so excited last night she had a pretty normal looking poop. There was no green color definitely more yellow/brownish no mucous but no seeds either. Then during the day her poop goes back to yellow greenish with some mucous and some seeds. There went my excitement 🙁 Now I am just over analyzing everything I ate within the last 24 hours. I did eat some lays natural sea salt potato chips that were new but there is nothing in the chips but sea salt, potatoes and sunflower oil. Nothing new that isn’t in my diet already.

[hellbennt]

you’re doing fabulously!

how is baby’s pain?

hang in there!

ps: when you get a chance…

please go to the upper right-hand corner of this screen and click on ‘Settings’ and, from there, you can edit your Signature and let us know how old baby is (can be month & year), name (or nickname), breastfeeding, TED diet (or what you’re eating), what meds and what doses and form of meds and how you’re administering-thanks!

[Author]

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