10 wk old b/f baby - bright green poo... what is wrong?

[serenequeen]

hello all

a lovely topic for a sunday evening...

dd is 10wks tomorrow and is exclusively b/f. for the last week or so she has had very green poo ranging in colour from spinach to bright pea green. it also looks rather mucousy to me.

my first thought was that somehow she is not getting enough hind-milk, but - she is happily going 3-4 hrs between feeds in the day, sleeps from 7pm to past 6am, is generally calm and happy, alert when awake, able to "concentrate" on my face or her mobiles, seems to be meeting her developmental milestones - in fact seems completely normal. she passes a lot of wind, but never seems to be made uncomfortable by it.

i have spoken to the NCT BF helpline, but the counsellor was as flummoxed as i am.

i would appreciate help from wise mumsnetters on this - should i be worrying about her liver or gut (or other things that it has not occurred to me to worry about yet?)

TIA

[Gomez]

Hi - DD2 now 16 weeks went through a phase of really green/stringy/mucousy poo when she was a bit younger that your DD, about 8 weeks maybe. Lasted about two weeks and I have no idea why. She continued to gain weight during that time and like your girl was very settled, slept all night etc. It just stopped one day. I was convinced it was a hind/fore milk imbalance originally and spend ages feeding from the same boob just to make sure. Made no difference what so ever.

So no ideas as to why or able to offer advice but just to let you know you are not the only one. If she is well try not to worry.

[Aero]

Same for my ds2 - no other weird symptoms though so I didn't worry and it passed (no pun intended) pretty quickly. He's 8.5mths now and perfectly healthy - the only green stuff now comes from his nose - lovely! (not)

[tiktok]

It is flummoxing.....but there is nothing to worry about if everything else in your baby's development is ok.

[Ghosty]

My dd went through a stage of this too sq ... hv thought it was the hind milk thing so I worked on dd staying of one boob for as long as possible (In fact I remember she only fed on one boob per feed after that so for a while I was a bit lopsided at time )
For a while there were no other symptoms but at 8 weeks DD was also a bit sick and ended up having rotavirus (nasty sicky bug kindly given to her by her big brother) ... when she recovered from that her poos went yellow again.

[aloha]

Can I just say, SQ, that I am enormously jealous that you have a 10week old baby who sleeps 11hours at night. Where can I get one of these rare beings?

[serenequeen]

thanks all - these posts are very reassuring. i will just hang on for a while to let it pass unless she shows any other symptoms.

aloha - i am tempted to take the p* a bit and say it is all down to gf but since i haven't opened the book this time round, i think it is just good luck! i hope you are lucky this time.

plus she is so young it might all change next week, tomorrow or even tonight...

[handbagaddiction]

SQ, my dd went through this a couple of times when I was b'feeding. When I asked the HV, she had no clue what it was, but every doctor I spoke to about it said to me that a change back to green poo was often an indicator that they were fighting an infection/virus of some kind..(typically happened when dd had a cold)...so completely normal and would revert back to normal when the infection had passed.

[Wishywashy]

Hi,

I had the same thing per an earlier posting and my DS had a form of Gastroenteritis. DS had this for 6-8 weeks.

Please if you're worried see your GP and have a swab of stool taken as this will eliminate anything nasty.

Good Luck
WW

[libb]

We have the green poo thing too - I don't worry too much but I keep an eye open just in case.

Regarding your DD's sleeping pattern - yeah whatever!

[muminlondon]

I find it weird that HVs are so vague about this as I'm sure handbagaddiction is right, especially as it seems to last 1-2 weeks on average. If there are no other symptoms it must just show that their immune system is functioning well and it will clear up on its own.

[ernest]

tbh, i wouldn't worry. ds 1 had this. Doctor wasn't worried. In the end I took 1 of his nappies in & it was neon! then the doc sat up & took notice. All in all I've now been through 3 children,. they've all at some stage had bright green poo, for no obvious reason & all been fine. i'd just cherish the memory, see doc if really worried, but just chalk it up as one of those things

[serenequeen]

thank you everyone

i was hopeful today as we had a more yellowish tinge...

the things you end up worrying about as a mother...

[samsmob]

Green poo in a breast fed baby normally means that they are getting alot of fore milk and not enough hind milk. If i express some and give her a few bottles of EBM i find that her poos go a bit green. I dont know if it has anything to do with her having expressed milk and its all mixed up!

[madzach]

My 13 week old ds has had green pooh for 2 weeks now, we have all had sickness bug but ds cant seem to shake green poo is very well and sleeping 8pm till 7am ! Doc taken sample will see what happens !
gave a bottle of formula milk and went back to yellow for a few poos is it me ????

[chipmonkey]

having bfed 3 babies, all of whom have at green poo at one stage or another, I have finally decided not to be fazed any more, despite MIL commenting that it must be diarrhoea, EVERY time she changes ds3. Have just had MIL here for past 3 hrs by the way and dh is out, couldn't watch telly or go on Mumsnet or anything!

[TheDad]

Hi my DS (hoping that means darling son)sorry ladies im not up to speed on all this. Yes im a dad.

Anyway my DS has green poo but he's bottlefed. he doesnt have any signs of illness or dehydration.

Does this mean he has a stomach bug?. Should i be really worried??.

any help??? please

[chipmonkey]

I think if he's bottlefed its only a problem if the consistency of the poo is runny, if its pasty its fine. If he's otherwise OK I wouldn't worry!