Breastfeeding and green stools

[specialk]

DS is six weeks old. For the last few days, he has started crying not just after feedings but is sometimes crying while nursing or refusing to nurse. This is often after a few minutes after starting a feeding. Today, I noticed he has green stools for the first time. He has also been even fussier than normal.

Doc says there is nothing wrong with my milk or feeding process and to wait it out. She think it's likely he just has a bug. My gut says otherwise, and that this could be a foremilk/ hindmilk imbalance. I am already only feeding him from one breast at a time. I try to hand express a bit before feedings, though it's difficult when he is impatient to eat. He eats steadily for ten minutes typically, and up until this weekend always seemed satisfied after. He is also very gassy.

I just feel terrible that he is uncomfortable and just want to feed my baby.

May be a post and run as he is starting to wake.

[pitterwoo]

I tried working on foremilk/hindmilk first when dd had green stools (also super frequent). It turned out to be milk and soy intolerance for us.

The board was helpful and I made diet changes. Once I got my food sorted out, dd got normal stools pretty quickly.

[specialk]

pitterwoo how long after making dietary changes did it take to see an improvement? The doctor said that it isn't a good intolerance unless he's having diarrhea, but his stools are so watery normally I am not even sure how to tell.

Oops, you said pretty quickly. That's good news.

[bowies]

Could be a bug (my DS had it) or could be your body hasn't adjusted to his demand yet. I agree to wait it out and see - even when my DS had green poops in the early days, they resolved after a day or so and would pop back up occasionally as supply/demand synced up.

When my DS had the bug (common in infants) the green poop stuck around for about a week.

[specialk]

Did your kids cry while nursing from a dairy intolerance or the bug?

[heygrey]

R had green stools fairly often for stretches of time when he was ebf. i was freaked out and read ALL the things, tried every remedy i found on the internet. my doctor was right. sometimes green stools are just nothing and babies are just fussy and the two are not related.

a fore milk/hind milk imbalance is unlikely, especially if you are feeding one side at a time. the only thing i would suggest is to start on the side you ended with last time. so if he didn't drain the left side completely and only got the fore milk, he'll get the hind milk when he starts on the next time.

[rbp]

Dec 21, 2014 22:10:09 GMT -5 heygrey said:

R had green stools fairly often for stretches of time when he was ebf. i was freaked out and read ALL the things, tried every remedy i found on the internet. my doctor was right. sometimes green stools are just nothing and babies are just fussy and the two are not related.

a fore milk/hind milk imbalance is unlikely, especially if you are feeding one side at a time. the only thing i would suggest is to start on the side you ended with last time. so if he didn't drain the left side completely and only got the fore milk, he'll get the hind milk when he starts on the next time.

Yeah I'm puzzled by this because M has green stools fairly frequently, and our pedi said it was fine. She said that yellow, green or brown was normal. He isn't fussy in general and doesn't have any other issues, so I quit worrying about it.

[specialk]

Yeah, I am mostly just concerned because of the timing coinciding with the crying at the breast, which he hasn't done before. Fussy after, sure, but not usually during. Maybe it's not related, though.

[pitterwoo]

Dec 21, 2014 22:02:42 GMT -5 specialk said:

pitterwoo how long after making dietary changes did it take to see an improvement? The doctor said that it isn't a good intolerance unless he's having diarrhea, but his stools are so watery normally I am not even sure how to tell.

Oops, you said pretty quickly. That's good news.

Yep it was pretty quick, like a couple days to see improvement once I got my food sorted out. I was eating tons of dairy especially for simple snacks at the time.

She was sometimes fussy at the breast and would pop on and off and cry. It was so frustrating. I still don't know if she was crying from the intolerance or something else.

I don't know if your issue is the same or totally different, but if I could do it over I would just cut dairy and soy completely for two weeks and see what happens.

It took me a while and I only cut dairy at first. My doctor wasn't concerned so I was really on my own figuring it out. So good thing for this place.

[mandymay]

Dec 21, 2014 22:33:06 GMT -5 specialk said:

Yeah, I am mostly just concerned because of the timing coinciding with the crying at the breast, which he hasn't done before. Fussy after, sure, but not usually during. Maybe it's not related, though.

He could just be going through his six week growth spurt and fussy too. You might want to wait it out a bit and see what happens. I'm sorry you're going through this though. It's so frustrating when they can't just tell you what's up!

[winemaker06]

Ugh, I remember those days so clearly!
If you're not worrying about why the baby is fussy, you're wondering what you're eating or doing that could be causing it.

We had lots of colors including green, and mucous, and who knows what else. I did have an oversupply, compounded by pumping extra (several times a day) as suggested by my hospital LC. Once I stopped any and all pumping and the baby was a little more than 2 months old it all resolving. It really helped to not pump so my supply could adjust to exactly what he needed.

I realize you may not be pumping at all. But just throwing that out there!

I suspected an imbalance as well but ultimately just time and patience helped. You're doing the best you can, and hopefully you figure it out or the baby grows out of it, and soon!

[undecidedowl]

I would wait it out first to see if it resolves itself. Green poops tend to come and go without ever knowing the cause. Also, 6 weeks is supposed to be the peak of fussiness and a growth spurt.

[gretchenindisguise]

I'm currently dealing with green poops too, which I assume are due to imbalance. My kiddo isn't fussy but the poos are a lovely shade of green. It seems like sometimes after a bottle they trend back to yellow but we haven't gotten back to full time yellow. I'm already block feeding and pumping my overproducer before nursing so he doesn't fill up on foremilk but my guess is that it won't completely return until I go back to work next week and I'm in an actual pumping/feeding routine. The bonus of well mixed bottles at daycare will help too I think.

[pinotgrig]

Dec 21, 2014 22:27:32 GMT -5 rbp said:

Dec 21, 2014 22:10:09 GMT -5 heygrey said:

R had green stools fairly often for stretches of time when he was ebf. i was freaked out and read ALL the things, tried every remedy i found on the internet. my doctor was right. sometimes green stools are just nothing and babies are just fussy and the two are not related.

a fore milk/hind milk imbalance is unlikely, especially if you are feeding one side at a time. the only thing i would suggest is to start on the side you ended with last time. so if he didn't drain the left side completely and only got the fore milk, he'll get the hind milk when he starts on the next time.

Yeah I'm puzzled by this because M has green stools fairly frequently, and our pedi said it was fine. She said that yellow, green or brown was normal. He isn't fussy in general and doesn't have any other issues, so I quit worrying about it.

All this exactly. I remember going to his pedi for a regular check up and was all prepared to talk about a hindmilk/fore milk imbalance and she was all "green poops are totes normal, imnalances are rare".

When you say he is fussy while eating, like normal fussiness? Or something more, you think?

Eta - just saw he's 6 weeks. That's prime fussy time and should be getting better soon. We had shades of light green to army green at that age. As long as there's no blood, you are most likely ok.

Hang in there - you're doing a great job! The fussiness should start to improve soon, you're almost there.

[Deleted]

Foremilk/hindmilk imbalance isn't a serious thing. It's not something to stress over.

www.llli.org/faq/foremilk.html
kellymom.com/bf/got-milk/basics/foremilk-hindmilk/

I'd try some breast compressions to help speed the flow a bit and make sure he's emptying one breast before moving to the other.
www.breastfeedinginc.ca/content.php?pagename=doc-BC

Babies are gassy. They outgrow it. Your doctor sounds pretty mellow, which is good.

[gretchenindisguise]

This has been a good thread to read. It calmed my worry about As green poops so thanks for that

[thatgirl2478]

We're dealing with green poops too. From the beginning of the month. We have no idea what they are but the pedi wasn't concerned.

I had read that an actual intolerance would show up as diarrhea, vomiting, rash, eczema, etc... Plus, nothing in my diet changed.