Extreme poo

[shakespeare]

Hi - I have 10 week old daughter who is breastfeeding and poos constantly. I change here at every feed and about every 2 hours during the day. It is very rare to find a nappy without poo and she ususally poos another 2 - 3 times while I have the nappy off (the carpet below change table is already in a rather sorry state). Not surprisingly, I am constantly battling nappy rash (BTW have found Desitin and water with Symphony paper towels - NOT baby wipes - the most effective combination to keep it at controllable levels.).

My baby books all tell me not to worry if breastfed babies only poo once every few days after 6 weeks of age. I haven't been able to find any literature about babies pooing too much - should I be worried at the frequency at her age? She was born three weeks early.

[Rell]

I wouldn't worry too much. From my experiance when my two were breast feed they pooed all the time like you have experianced, when they changed to formula that is when the poos were every second day. If you are worried ask you child health nurse.

[jarrahsmumma]

hiya,

i had a very pooey bub as well 3-4 times a day, my mum said that she used to have a friend who had a bub that pooed before and after a feed until 6 months. i think if your bub is still weeing alot too and seems happy and well then they probably are ok.

peace
natalie

[Grapefruit05]

Hi,
I have a 7 week old who poos at every feed (every 3-4 hours), and it has been green the last couple of weeks (sometimes flourecent looking/khaki). My peadiatrician said not to worry unless he has a fever or is very unsettled. He seems quite content & happy though, I was just wondering does anyone else experience green poo? not sure if my diet is affecting it (I am breast feeding).

BTW, my bub got nappy rash in the early weeks as I was using huggies baby wipes (they say it is alcohol free but it still smells like it contains alcohol), so I started cleaning his bottom using cotton wool balls & water, he has not had any rash since. I have also been using Bepanthen ointment (this is different to the cream which is medicated, this is just lanolin so acts like a barrier cream).

Hope that helps.

[shakespeare]

I did speak to child health nurse last week, who told me any amount of poo is normal with breastfeeding - heaps or very little. She suggested that I try to cut back on number of feeds each day (as Susie was also wriggling around a lot during feeds and fighting a bit - perhaps not really hungry). This seems to have had some impact, the darling is only pooing about 10 times a day now instead of 15.

Re green poo: Susie has these fairly often - looks like she's been eating pistachio nuts. Its quite confronting, particularly under fluoro lights in public change rooms. The nurse also said green poo was nomal.

[Grapefruit05]

Since my last posting re green poo, have taken bub to the GP, she thought it was due to my diet, and since I ate quite a lot of chillies during my pregnancy, I figured it was ok to eat it now.. how wrong I was! Since cutting chillies out of my diet bub has been doing the yellow poos typical of breast fed babies and only pooing 3-4 times a day.
FYI: some of the other foods she suggested are common problems are: broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, chocolate, dairy product... the list goes on really and they're everyday foods, so its trial and error I guess... :)