toddlers and colostrum

[RobynLou]

I'm 30 weeks pg, DD was 3 in August, she feeds between 1 and 3 times a day.

For the past couple of days DD has been a poo-machine...
looser than normal, but not diarrhea. Last night she woke up at midnight with a nappy full
no temp and eating fine, she hasn't anything out of the ordinary in the past few days, and is perfectly happy in herself, so I'm pretty sure she's not ill, but my colostrum did appear a week ago, it's not affected her desire to feed at all (nothing does affect DD's desire to "feed", not even there not being anything there for 4 months)

I have heard that colostrum can cause loose bowels in toddlers, anyone got experience of this? how long could it last? will her digestive system get accustomed to it? not sure we could be doing with this for another couple of months, but not sure what the alternative would be - stopping feeding DD is not an option, she's a total boob addict....

Congrats on your pg.

I am afraid it does make poo looser (and more prolific) but the effect will lessen in time - well at least it did for my two (have nursed through 1 pg and tandem nursed through another). You can try giving things that would normally 'bung' up her digestive system to try to counteract the colostrum (I'm thinking things like banana or dry foods).

Plus I found that when the colostrum came in my DDs gorged themselves (it's v v v sweet and yummy apparently) so there was more of an effect than if they feed a more usual amount IYSWIM?

My pet theory is that toddlers get an immune system boost from the colostrum (6g/l of lactoferrin compared to 1g/l in mature milk) in preparation for the baby coming. No scientific research or studies done to back me up but it does make sense (at least to me)

Sounds like it probably is the colostrum. I was expecting this to happen with ds1 when I was pg with ds2 but it didn't which really surprised me, so sorry, no specific advice from me about it.. He too was a boob addict and also fed when there was no milk at all!

He called the colostrum "funny milk" and didn't want to nurse at all when the transitional milk came in. But, boy oh boy, he sure went for it when the "proper" milk came in shortly after ds2 was born.

I felt like he would never, ever stop, especially when his little brother was feeding a lot. But, by negociation, he stopped on his 5th birthday after 8 months of tandemming with his brother.

I hope it all goes smoothly for you.