Constant poonamis, at the end of my tether

[nanoghost]

Posting here for traffic. Asking for advice now because I genuinely just don’t know what to do anymore. My little girl is 8 months in a few days, and since she was born we have dealt with near constant poonamis, every poo, even small ones have shot straight up her back. Even now at least 2/3rds of her bowl movements are straight up her back.

it was the same when she was EBF, on comfort formula, and now on normal second stage. We’ve tried every nappy, sizing up vests, changing her straight away it just doesn’t matter. We have the same issue in pull ups as we do normal tabbed nappies. She is weaning now, but swallows very little. I never dealt with this with my first.

We have to change her outfits multiple times a day, I can’t go anywhere without at least 3 sets of clothes for her, we never dealt with this from my first. All her clothes are stained, she’s big and is just going into 9-12 which is when we started saving back clothes from her older sister and it’s heartbreaking watching all her things just get ruined. We are always having to wash the car seat covers, the bouncer, it’s exhausting.

Has anyone dealt with anything similar? If so what helped? I’m tempted to take her to the doctors but feel like we would just be laughed out.

Thanks for reading.

It’s pretty normal I’m my experience, the poos will become more solid obviously when she is eating more solid food. One thing that I did which is quite unusual is that DD was quite regular and predictable when she would need to go, so I would hold her over the toilet at those times or before putting down for a nap etc. (a bumbo toilet seat is good for this age). I also started with baby sign language so she could communicate with a hand gesture when she needed to go, not sure what age that was.

Things we found helped.

1. size up the nappies
2. Get reusable nappies. We played around with cloth inserts inside disposable and / or using shell cover over the disposable.

When my kids has diarrhoea the towelling inserts were life savers.
We had a bucket and a load of napisan and soaked them.

Cloth nappies stop poonamis. We never had a single one using them with DD1. We used a mix of cloth and normal nappies with DD2 and had poonamis with normal but never cloth again. Even just one of the reusable covers over the top of normal nappy should help.

However her poo will change consistency now she’s on solids and become less liquidy so they will start to reduce from now on.

I second/third cloth nappies, definitely worth a try, they do hold this kind of poo so much better than disposables!

Starting solids really helped us! Every poo was a soupy explosion while EBF. Since about week 3 of solids she has been consuming enough that the poo is less liquid and therefore less explosive. How long have you been weaning? Maybe speak to HV if that has been two months and she is not managing to swallow?

We also use bambino mio reuseables which are elasticated at the back and thighs. They hold better than any disposable.

Edit: Cross posted with so many others! Cloth might be your way forward! We have had only 1 explosion in cloth.

If her poo is that explosive. Have you tried removing lactose or dairy?

We had poonamis for medical reasons- which wont be relevant to you as you would already know

I used to put another nappy horizontally around the waist and then always always have them in a vest
(Obviously had a bit of naked time at home)
But if it was hot the vest was their top/outfit.
Now there are plenty of pretty ones that weren't available when DC was young.

We’ve tried every nappy, sizing up vests, changing her straight away it just doesn’t matter.
Changing straightaway is standard and there isn’t a reason not to, but other than that it’s probably just the shape she is and that will change when she starts running about.

Turn the top of the nappy over. So there’s a fold at the waist to catch everything.

DS turned out to be milk intolerant. We were struggling right through his toddler years. We had to buy clothes when we were out, as he could get through more outfits than we could carry.

Yes, when I was EBF we removed all dairy as she had awful colic. No difference. I think comfort milk has reduced lactose/ it’s more broken down and it’s still constant.

Yes I know changing straight away is standard, but we literally drop everything the second we hear any kind of fart/ bowel sound to change her

Cloth nappies worked for us. Never had any leaks. I met lots of parents who said they couldn't cope with the extra washing, but it seemed like they were doing more washing than me when every nappy change was a full outfit change!

Amazing, thanks for suggesting cloth. I’ll grab some of the outer covers and see if they make a difference.

I like the rascals nappies that you can get in Tesco they are a bit dearer but worth it in my opinion especially the nappy pants . Much better quality than other nappies . Other than that maybe try and buy darker clothes . My ten month olds clothes are absolutely wrecked anyway from dinners etc . I don’t remember my firsts clothes being as wrecked but maybe I was more vigilant when I’d more time on my hands !

We have tried rascals in the past with no luck. We’re using pampers premium at the moment, and also no luck. With my first we’ve always just used pampers and I can count on 1 hand the amount of poonamis she had

I’d second (or third) cloth nappies. You can usually change the fold/popper pattern to adjust much more closely to the child’s shape. Way way cheaper, nicer and not the “too much work” people think. (I have 5 children very close together)

I might try the doubling up in nappies. Yes she’s always in a vest and they do catch the majority of the stains. When we’re just home and it’s warm enough she’s just in her vest to reduce washing etc

How many do you think I’d need? My oldest has just turned 2 so also has a lot of washing herself haha

I agree with cloth nappies, used them with all of my DC and almost never had this issue. Plenty of massive explosive poos but they rarely escaped the nappy. I recommend the two part ones rather than all-in-ones.

Were there any other symptoms apart from the bad nappies? I did cut out dairy for a few weeks when she was EBF with no change but we might try again. Can imagine it’s difficult to pick her up a dairy free formula now though

could it be these days that women try for a baby later so there’s more pressure to do it in a certain time frame, and more factors to take into account like the woman’s job and therefore they want more control and tests, and timings etc give that control

For cloth nappies, numbers depend on your system. What I did was have a bucket with a lid that stood in the sink in my utility room. Fill it about half full with water and a few drops of teatree oil. Take off the nappy, bin the liner if pooey, drop nappy in the bucket. Early evening, empty water, stick nappies in washing machine, tumble that evening, fold back onto shelf in the morning. So about 9 nappies? Depends on how many you use normally. It’s easy. No shopping trolly full of nappies.

@nanoghost did you cut out all dairy, not just the obvious. Also some people can be allergic to soya as well as dairy, and many dairy alternatives are made of soya.

Thanks for this. We don’t have a tumble drier so will probably have to get a few more. I’ll try the outer covers over disposables first to make sure they hold the poop before committing to a whole system- which I can imagine is quite an expensive initial cost! Although cheaper long term

I’ve not got much to say on the poos that hasn’t already been said, but for the stains nothing works better than sunshine! Get the clothes on the line or even just on the windowsill, and you should find they have disappeared by the end of the day.