dark green bowel movements

[Anonymous]

Owen is 6 months, but was born 2 1/2 months early. He is breastfed and is currently taking Zantac and Prevacid for reflux. He doesn’t seem to be bothered by reflux, other than when he spits up he occasionally coughs. He is EXTREMELY spitty. I don’t know how he still gains weight with the amount that he spits up every day. And I know it can look like more than it is – the NICU nurses did the test with us of pouring water on burp cloths to see – he honestly spits up A LOT. And he will spit up after not eating for 3+hours…curdled looking milk. But he gains weight fine and doesn’t seem to be in pain, so the Dr is good with it, but it doesn’t really sit well with me.

But, what has me concerned right now is he has dark green bowel movements – they have been this way for quite some time, and I think there’s mucous in them – they’re “stringy/slimy.” I gave up milk products for 9 days about 3 months ago because he was fussy, but it didn’t help. Although he’s not fussy at all anymore. He also always has this little rash on his chin (gets really red after feedings) and sometimes it’s all over his face, although not red.

Otherwise, he’s a very happy baby, great sleeper and doing well.

What I’m wondering is, can having reflux and being on the meds he’s on cause him to have the dark green, mucousy bowel movements or is that definitely an allergy? His Dr isn’t concerned because he’s not fussy and is gaining weight. And the rash on his chin – could that be caused from acidity in his spit up – maybe the medications aren’t right? Am I just worrying about something that I shouldn’t be? Should I call his Dr again – do I need to see a pedicatric GI?

JennieBean52009-08-04 14:12:39

[Anonymous]

My daughter was an extremely spitty baby. I had to nurse with TOWELS because using a burp cloth was like trying to mop up the ocean with a tissue. Once she stared on Prevacid, the spit up stopped bothering her, and yes, like Owen, she would spit up 3 hours after she ate (curdled looking milk). At 5 weeks she was diagnosed with MSPI and I went off of dairy and soy (and a bunch of other things that I sucessfully added back in 6 months later). Her poop was almost always green, she had occult blood in it and she had a rash on her face all the time (we thought it was baby acne until I cut out the dairy and soy). It took a full month of being off of dairy and soy for us to see any kind of difference in her poops, the amount of spit up (she still spit all the time, but the amount was less, but it was still a lot compared to other babies) for the rash to go away and for her fussiness around nursings to decrease. All the docs told us 2 weeks minimum, but I tell other moms that a month is more like it see a change. I went off all hidden and obvious dairy and soy. Oh, and she gained weight too. She’s small, but she did gain weight. Go with your gut. Stay off of dairy for at least two weeks and see what happens.

[Anonymous]

Yep, we had one of those champion spitters here as well! We did the towels too, and we also purchased a lot of cheap door mats and put them wherever we fed Dylan as it was a guanantee we would get one good one during all burps, so we would just hose them out once a week and try to keep the floors as well as possible. But he spit up at least (no joke) at least 12 times every feed and could be HOURS after he ate. So frustrating, but once he was out of pain, I just had a laundry problem until he grew out of it. I think sometimes their BMs can change for a lot of reasons, GI bug, but if you do what Kayln’s mom suggested and try a true dairy/soy free diet for more than the two weeks, then you will know for sure if that is the culpret.

sounds like you guys are doing great and congratulations on your NICU grad!!!

Ann Marie

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