2 week old grunting after breastfeeds and smelly nappies 😕

[pandapower]

Hello all, I know I shouldn’t be seeking advice on the Internet but more looking to see if anyone else experienced similar with their babies and found out what was causing their issues. I have already spoken to my midwife and the health visitor regarding this already but both have said it’s quite normal and to wait and see how he is in a few days time as he’s in no real distress and feeding well.

2 weeks ago I had my baby boy and whilst in hospital I unfortunately developed an infection. Thankfully it didn’t develop into anything serious but I was put on iv drips of antibiotics for a couple of days and then sent home with two strong oral antibiotics to take for a week. Cephalexin and metronidazole.

I noticed once we got back home and baby had passed all his meconium his nappies were very ‘eggy’ and sulphuric in scent and had a dirty nappy nearly after every feed. around 6-9 nappies a day. The MW and HV said that this is most the frequency is normal and the smell is likely because of the antibiotics I’ve been taking and should hopefully stop a week after I come off them.

It’s been 5 days since I’ve come off and in the last 24hours he’s been grunting after each feed and still smelling of eggs 😢 I’m wondering if it more caused by dairy, soy and lactose in my diet? I’ve decided to cut all those out from today for the next two weeks to see if there’s any changes.. would love to know if anyone else had a baby with an eggy bum too 😣

Oops! Sorry, I should have added the MW and HV said it’s quite normal for the breasted baby to have a smelly bottom if the mother’s been on antibiotics. And also his nappy colour is pretty normal too, like English mustard.

Had two kids with allergies from birth. First one the MW kept telling me to not be worried, it would clear up but never did and just became more obvious it was allergies. 2nd child I knew what I was looking for. I have to say, from your description (compared to my experience), it sounds completely normal. You may want to try and put a few drops of symprove on your nipple (and take it yourself) to make baby's gut bacteria better. Antibiotics of themselves can cause increased chance of allergies.

@seanceinterrupted thank you so much for your reply. I actually have a 3 year old that had food allergies but affected him more as an itchy eczema baby rather than a digestive intolerance. I think I’m just on high alert from last time and am prepared to go through the same things as before cutting things out from my diet but I really hope it’s nothing more than the antibiotics affecting him. I’ll update in a couple of weeks to let you and possible other searchers/readers know how we got on. Thank you for the reassurance x

If you've got allergy in the family, I strongly suggest you look into the EAT study and speak to your allergy specialist about early (3month) introduction of high risk foods. My DC3 did this when they showed signs and I had one Rocky month but never turned into anaphylaxis issues. DC2 was ana to loads of things so it was a massive improvement

Hi OP, just to add my thoughts. You say your baby is grunting... by that, do you mean making a grunty noise in his throat/ sucking in his chest a little when he breathes? I would get him checked out if so as this is a possible sign of infection and isn’t usual. Hope you are both ok

If he is ‘grunting’ he needs to be seen by a doctor as pp says.

I wouldn't be cutting anything out my diet. I got sucked into online CMPA groups and was convinced my boy had it, went to Dr and he said do not cut anything out of your diet and I didn't and I started to see my boy was just being a normal baby.

Take your baby to the Dr

Also, you’ve been off your antibiotics for 5 days, so this seems a long interval for this still to be affecting your little one’s nappies

Thanks everyone for all your advice and concerns ❤️ All really valuable words and insights.

An update on us is that after an extra week my son’s nappies have stopped smelling eggy! So it was definitely the strong antibiotics I had been taking that was altering his stools. It takes a week for the antibiotics to clear from my system and breastmilk and then a week to clear from his and an extra week to build up his depleted gut health and good bacteria again. So to anyone else who’s stumbled across this thread in a Google search, it’ll take a few weeks for things to go back to normal. I’ve been giving him optibac probiotic drops daily which I think has really helped him. Thanks for that important advice there.

In terms of his grunting, I should have made it more clear that the little one was more groaning and straining than grunting 🙈 turns out it’s just him working out his bowel movements and trapped wind.

I’m still keeping an eye on any tell tale signs of intolerances and allergies because of the history with my other son and his allergies to nuts and egg which he’s been slowly growing out of according to his annual blood tests. Fingers crossed it continues that way 🤞

Oh try bicycle legs and Tummy massaging going in clockwise direction to help with gas. (Or anticlockwise if rubbing his back) Also Infacol is good for trapped wind

That's good about the nappies going back to normal :)

That's great news that he is improving. I'm glad there wasn't anything serious wrong.