To ask about your baby's nappies?

[worriedparentnotpootroll]

DD is six months and breastfed, now started solids

From about three months she has always had slightly mucousy nappies that in my opinion smell slightly acidic (not sweet smelling like when she was first born) and usually goes once a day in the morning, sometimes afternoon too.

We've tried dairy and soy free (me, as she wasn't on solids then) after she had a couple of episodes of blood in her nappy, and now I'm trying top 8 allergens free. Her poos are more solid as she's on two meals a day, but they still have that vinegar smell and I can see they are still sticky and mucousy (a bit stringy)

We don't have a history of any allergies in the family and I am concerned about excluding foods needlessly and thereby actually creating problems, although equally I worry that something is irritating her that I've not identified and her gut isn't healing.

She has been very drooly for months although no teeth yet, and she's recently started probiotics (dairy/soy free!) with GP's blessing.

Has anyone's baby had these kind of nappies and the problem has resolved? Or am I imagining a problem others wouldn't notice? (The blood was clearly a red flag though, although a small amount). I'm struggling to get perspective as whenever I've asked on CMPA communities there is some useful but some inconsistent information!

The vinegar smell started when my son was about 4 months and didn’t stop until he was teething properly, not just drooling. My entirely h researched opinion is that I think it’s the excess saliva that causes it.

The vinegary mucous thing for my son (ebf) was down to the drool/teething... he did get his first 2 teeth at 4 months though. Have you had a feel of her gums recently?

Mucousy nappies can be caused by the drool as they swallow a lot of it. Drooling can be caused by teething, which can start a long time before they cut their first tooth. Not sure about the vinegar smell though.

My son had the most horrific nappies. He had no known allergies. He had problems with ear infections and had grommets fitted at age 2. The disgusting nappies persisted. By the time he was potty trained around 3 they were much more normal.

Vinegar poos were always linked to teething for DS1. They were mucousy from the extra dribble too.

Milne always had vinegar smelling nappies, sometimes a bit mucusy though no other issues. I think it stopped when he was properly on solids, though don’t remember exactly when.

This is interesting. Thanks.

I might speak to GP about reintroducing dairy. I've been really cautious as she had a week of constant mucus and diarrhoea recently but I think that was a bug maybe follow by a temporary intolerance while she recovered.

The paediatrician I saw said not to ignore the symptoms - and I don't mind restricting diet at all if it helps, but I'm concerned it's not and could create a problem instead

she's following her curve etc and gaining well too

It could well be due to the teething, but I would do the dairy and soy ladders to be on the safe side and keep a food diary.

Also depending on how long you have been dairy free, you can become lactose intolerant as your body sometimes stops producing lactose in the absence of lactose. So if you have been dairy free a while It may be beneficial to take it slowly back into your diet so your body can adjust if need be

Two of mine had the most horrible nappies. One bizarrely turned out to have faecal impaction, diagnosed at age 4, but I have no recollection of a normal poo ever from
Him until that was treated. Very loose, frequent, voluminous, mucousy, undigested food fragments once weaned. Prior to his final diagnosis, he was dairy free for about 18m and soy free for the last 3 months of that time.

The other seemed to improve a little after toilet training (6 months ago), but not loads.

I think some people just have particularly revolting, loose, frequent poo. Sorry for the TMI, but DH does and always has since tiny.

In the absence of anything else, then it might be normal for that individual.

Yep my daughter's nappy smells like that when she's drooling loads

DS is allergic to egg and gets mucous nappies if exposed to it. Egg protein comes through breast milk. Recent research seems to show a very strong link between egg allergy and eczema too

My little girl had mucus, green nappies with streaks of blood in, it happened about 6 times with the blood. I took her to the gp’s 3 times and mentioned it to the health visitor. There were no patterns with it, and she didn’t seem to be in any discomfort.

Gp advised to monitor it and not change anything ( I bf her). I was advised to get her weight checked every couple of weeks.

All the symptoms eventually stopped and we didn’t find out the cause.

Hope your little one is ok xx

One of mine had foul vinegar smelling nappies. I eventually put it down to 'one of those things' and related to nada. She was breastfed, allergic to nothing, weaning well, teething without problem...nothing of note.

My daughter is currently producing some impressive stringy nappies as she’s teething. She’s 8mo and has 7 teeth but still getting the mucus. She’s also had her first episode of slightly sore bum with it so I guess that’s the acidic part too. She has no known allergies but does occasionally come out in hives if given a runny egg, fully cooked egg is fine!

@Bambamber I had heard something about that, it's interesting thank you. Yes indeed will do the ladders just in case.

If there is a problem there I absolutely don't want to make it worse but it all seems a bit stab in the dark! The food diary is a good idea especially now she's eating different things herself.

@Viper84 thank you, I'm glad your DD is ok... do you happen to remember roughly when it stopped?

@dragonmummy17 I wondered about that. I've not seen a link so far but have tried avoiding eggs for last week or so. I assume like milk protein it takes a few weeks to leave system

@bonzo77 gosh that sounds horrible for you all, how did you get to that diagnosis and dare I ask what was the treatment? Did it resolve things? Does your DH have any discomfort or is it just one of those things for him?

This is all very encouraging thank you - I'll clearly keep an eye on and an open mind but it's reassuring to know other babies have had the same and it doesn't necessarily point to anything

My DS had nappies like this nearly the whole time he was teething. Luckily they all came through pretty quickly.

My dd went through phases of having green mucousy poos, if I recall they were quiet acidic and burnt her bum a bit too. No blood though. Ebf but she does have allergies to some nuts. It never bothered her so I never eliminated anything from her or my diet. I assumed it was either teething or some kind of slight infection that took a while to get over. She grew out of it and has very healthy bowel movements now. I guess if she has an allergy it will become apparent as you start to wean?

@NoParticularPattern egg protein changes when cooked so it is possible to be allergic to egg but not react when eating cooked products with egg in (sorry if you already knew that!)

I did a crazy exclusion diet when one of my DCs was young, but thank goodness got to stop it when we ended up under the care of a specialist paediatric gastroenterologist.
He said that cow's milk protein intolerance is very rare and the evidence suggests that it is extremely unlikely in babies that haven't had formula in the first 4 months (the article linked has proper citations).
However there is a huge amount of selfdiagnosis as well as overdiagnosis by non specialist medical people, that can give a different impression. The poos sound still fairly normal to me, and i agree with you about a big risk of excluding foods, especially with no allergy history in the family and no other major signs.

www.clinicaladvisor.com/cmece-features/identifying-and-addressing-infant-allergy-to-cows-milk-protein/article/320066/3/

@Stuckforthefourthtime

That's interesting, thank you - I hope your DC is well. The only thing I can think of as an indicator is that I was on antibiotics twice very early in her life (bladder infection two days after she was born and mastitis at about two weeks old - the only times I've been on antibiotics since childhood)

I'm trying to follow GP and paediatrician lead rather than self imposing diets but the advice seems based on very little. The paediatrician did say cows milk/soy before we'd even finished our sentence and the GP sort of went with what he said on follow up. We have taken a sample in for reducing substances this week but I don't think it can tell us much except perhaps if she has temporary secondary lactose intolerance after damage from something else

Will discuss with him next week and then maybe ladder back and see if it makes any difference while keeping food diary.

She's had horrendous nappies with tiny blood streaks today again (three very wet mucous poos in a row this afternoon) so maybe there is something going on

It's so hard to know ☹️ She seems unsettled feeding but I don't know if that's because of my milk or because she already has a dodgy tummy from what I've been eating and the milk sets it off

It was around the 6.5 month mark.

One possible cause could have been that it may have been a small tear which would explain the blood. Sorry for the tmi, but she used to strain even though the stools were loose which may have been the cause. This wouldn’t have explained the other symptoms though.

Hope you’re little one is ok and you get some answers soon

Other than the nappies are you seeing any other signs of issues?