Sorry, but I need to know about bf baby poo - experts please

[NoviceKnitter]

I've been wondering how you tell if baby has diarrhea so asked the health visitor yesterday. She showed me a diagram thingy (nice) which showed it should look like porridge. If it looks like gravy it's diarrhea. Based on this I think my DD has it alot of the time. But I'm also wondering if the health visitor is showing me bottle fed poo just as she measures DD against a bottle fed weight chart. If not, and she really does have the runs quite a lot, what does this mean, and what can I do?

[notnowbernard]

I found exclusive breast-fed baby poo to quite often look like a mustardy coloured gravy a lot of the time. That leaked. A lot.

Someone with more info will reply soon, I'm sure.

[theUrbanDryad]

ok - what colour is it? my ds' poo was bright yellow (we used to call it the arse mustard!) and quite runny. how old is your LO? until he was 4 or 5 months, ds' poo didn't "firm up" (ew) and even now, when he's eating 3 -ish meals a day, it's still quite runny.

ask your hv if she's showing you ff pictures. she also shouldn't be measuring your dd's weight against ff charts - in the red book there are 2 different charts for bf and ff babies.

is your dd happy otherwise? does she seem in pain when she poos?

[NoviceKnitter]

Thank you - I thought this was likely to be the case. DD v healthy and gaining weight. I had assumed her explosive poo was normal till yesterday, but tbh I always take what HV says with pinch of salt. Doesn't always have seeds in though, sometimes pure gravy. Mmmm!

[theUrbanDryad]

also - my friend's bf dd who is 2 now still has very runny poos. i think it's to do with how easily digestible breastmilk is, but i could be way off the mark...

[TrinityRhino]

All 3 of my 'exclusively bf till 6 motnhs' babies had poo that never looked like porridge was alwasy mustard coloured liquid with itty bitty bits in it sometimes.

also with a bf baby I found that it goes green if they are teething so don't panic about that either

[theUrbanDryad]

TR - my friend told me that if their poo looks like spinach then it means they're not getting a good mix of the fore and hind milk. but ds' poo always went spectacular when he was teething - with spectacular red bum to match bless him.

where's hunker or tiktok when you need them?? yoo hoo!!

[NoviceKnitter]

Hi Thanks, yes it's mustard yellow ( with occasional green ones but mostly mustard) she's 3 months and otherwise totally well. Based on what you're all saying I think it's fine and just another example of HV wrongly assessing bf babies on ff criteria. By the way, my red book only has one weight chart. At least I think so - will go and check now. I ignore what the hv says about DD's weight as I know that on the WHO bf charts she's above average weight, even if below on FF chart.

[TrinityRhino]

urban
actually yes, I was told that and found it to be true occasionally when I had a grizzly baby that just wanted to suck for comfort and not actually eat so was on and off the breast all the time probably just getting fore milk then you get grreen nappies

but deffo happens when they are teething and yes also with a horrid red bum too

[NoviceKnitter]

PS but really bad that she told me should look like porridge - some mums would accept that their baby's poo should look like po;rridge and then spend god knows how much time worrying and trying to work out what they were eating that was upsetting LO. Why aren't HVs trained properly on BF babies???

[TrinityRhino]

my redbook only had the ff charts and when I asled one of the hv for the bf charts she said they don't exist, it's a myth


SO when I went to visit my mum way down south(we are in scotland) and weighed gecko the hv there said 'oh you should be using the bf charts' and went and got them for me.

OH yes I did go and show them to my hv MWAHHH haaa haaahaaaaaa she went awfully quiet

[NoviceKnitter]

We challenged our HV as she was making a fuss that DD had dropped from 75% at birth to 25% - we said yes but is this a FF chart and she admitted it was and that WHO were introducing new BFing charts - but if she knew about them begs the question why making fuss about DD's v g weight.

[phdlife]

agree with everyone here, ds used to shoot bright yellow soup ( just what you all wanted to know over brekky, right?) under force. out legs, up back, etc.

his only went green when it was very hot.

[theUrbanDryad]

OMG - that's really awful! my hv at least assessed ds based on bf charts - even though she did accuse me of sneaking formula to him! sounds like your dd is doing fine NoviceKnitter, ignore your stupid hv. agree with you that she should be stopped giving out such crappy advice though - if you can bear it, complain to your practice manager. i did, every time my hv or gp gave out dodgy advice (like when she told me i could wean ds at 11 weeks! pmsl!) i think i have a black mark against my name in their books now but i don't actually give a flying fuck hoot!

[phdlife]

[kiskidee]

i would judge it by its smell. exclusively bf baby poo has a mild smell to it. diarrhea poo will have a awful smell to it. maybe i am wrong though.

[loler]

My (fantastic for a change) hv told me about the smell too. Often not much difference in consistancy but the runs smell really bad.

[vole3]

My ds is exclusively bf and I will never eat chip-shop curry sauce again.

[theUrbanDryad]

phd!! hi! sorry to have missed you on the other thread...i wasn't ignoring you, i just caught up with something else i think!