How to tell if three week old has diarrhoea?

[Genehuntssexyhands]

Disclaimer: I am a very anxious first time mum.

DS has been really unsettled yesterday and today - lots of wind, writhing with the wind, whinging after feeds not properly crying.
He’s combo fed at the moment as I had to introduced formula top ups but is also breast feeding a lot.

Today he has been doing a lot of dirty nappies that sound explosive and he has a gurgling stomach after feeds. DH has done most of the nappy changes today but they seem a bit watery whereas usually they are a bit more paste like (I guess because of the formula) although today and yesterday he has been bf more.

I just changed his nappy and it was quite runny and then he started messing while I was changing it and it came out like liquid :(

I don’t know if this is normal or not.

He doesn’t seem dehydrated, had lots of wet nappies, DH checked his fontanelle and it’s springy not sunken, and he’s still feeding a lot, currently constantly on the breast.

Yesterday night I had something with chilli in it without thinking and I’m wondering if that could Be it.

I’m also unsure of when I should go to the go/call 111 for advice as he’s so young, my gut instinct is to wait and see what happens over the next couple of hours nappy wise and then try to get an appointment for GP in the morning.

I’m just going to keep letting him bf as much as possible over night to ensure he gets fluids but just wondered if anyone had any advice and whether the nappy sounded normal or like upset stomach?

He’s very grouchy and seems in pain but he does suffer from wind so it could be that.

[SisterA]

Sounds totally normal to me! I felt like my DS just had a constant stream of poop exiting him until about 4 weeks-ish and then things started to slow down.

Breastfed babies can poop really frequently and it can be really quite soft. As long as it's good in colour I generally wouldn't worry.

In my experience if it's diarrhoea you know and you don't need to question it.

Congrats on your newborn :)

[Snowflake9]

Hey! We've all been there so don't worry. You seem to be doing an excellent job on bf , as poos tend to be more liquid like on breast milk.

Baby is probably just a bit windy as you say, if baby is unsettled with wind then lay him on his back and rock his legs up over his belly. This is what I had to do with my DS from a young age when I began combi feeding.

As long as baby is doing wet nappies, feeding you're all good.

[Discoballs]

It's more about colour when they're this age I believe. If it's yellow I think you're good. My DD was writhing and farting a lot and her poo was green so MWs were concerned. Turns out I switching boobs too soon when she was feeding so she wasn't getting enough of the fatty end part of the feed.

[Genehuntssexyhands]

Thank you so much. I feel much better now.
He’s actually been really settled tonight and only woken up to feed then gone back down, and nappies although dirty have all looked quite normal since
The only thing I struggle with is being able to tell if a dirty nappy is also wet if you see what I mean! But he’s definitely been wetting throughout the day.
Thanks for the colour wheel that’s really helpful.
And try to the steady stream of poo exiting. I didn’t believe people when they said we would go through so many sets of clothes... they were right!

[DesLynamsMoustache]

If you're using disposables, they have a strip on them that changes colour when it's a wet nappy.

[Genehuntssexyhands]

ah @DesLynamsMoustache thank you I thought they just changed colour when the nappy was full regardless of what was in it. That helps!