blood in baby sick....why??

[sunnyweather]

This morning my 3 1/2 month old was sick which was watery with a mixture of old and fresh blood in it. He is exclusively breastfed and my nipples are a bit cracked at the moment but I didn't think they had been bleeding . I took him to the GP and he checked him over and didnt find any problem.

I'm still worried , has anybody else had this happen?
It might be relevant that in the early days there was a query about him perhaps being lactose intolerant so I normally ddrink lactose free milk but had had some normal cream the day before ...dont know if that could cause this??

I should also say it was 2 hours after his last feed that he was sick.

This happened to my dd1, it was reflux. It cleared up on it's own really as she learned to sit & was weaned. But it was pretty frightening! The first time she did it was the day after we brought her home from the hospital! Worth asking your gp I should think.

My dd vomited milk with some fresh blood in it when she had her first bad bout of a sickness bug, they think it was from the excessive vomiting. She was 9 mo. It stopped quickly and wasn't in every vomit. Maybe your ds' blood was from your breasts. Don't hesitate to take him back to gp if you are still worried. Was it just the once?

Dd1 had this years ago. She had been being sick and cough and had a little cut. Amount of bloods always looks more when mixed in spit.

thanks everyone- good to hear other experiences that havent been too serious. there has been no repeat of the sickness but i do think he is a bit under the weather. ive been expressing milk and giving him milk that ive expressed and frozen before. i thought that this way i could keep an eye to see if there was blood in my milk(theres not) and also to give me a chance to heal up. Think i'll be ok to go back to feeding as normal tomorrow. Thanks again for letting me know your experiences.

Not sure about the blood but just a note about the lactose intolerance issue - breastmilk is full of lactose no matter whether you consume milk products or not. It's the main sugar in human milk, it's made in the mother's body.

Cow's milk protein allergy in infants is sometimes treated by the mum excluding dairy from diet - but lactose free milk would have cow's milk protein in it, like normal milk.

Why was your DS suspected of having lactose issues?

the lactose intolerance was suggested because he had lots of dirty nappies when he was tiny - i couldnt keep up and he developed nappy rash. i didnt realise it was an unusual number until the hv quizzed me on it and was shocked. i have taken lactose free milk ever since but not been particuarly strict about avoiding dairy as i was never convinced that it was a problem. he still has a lot of loose dirty nappies but less than when he was tiny - i think that is pretty normal for bf babies tho?

It's totally normal for bf babies to have loose nappies, BF poo is often liquidy in consistency. BF babies often poo at every feed, or even more frequently. Typically they start to poo less frequently as they get older but not always. The nappy rash is probably just a sign of skin sensitivity. The mind boggles at some health visitors' complete lack of knowledge of breastfeeding. Firmer, less frequent poo is typical of bottle-fed infants.

In the absence of other symptoms, I think you can safely conclude the lactose intolerance is a complete red herring. Like I said, the lactose-free milk as it won't affect the composition of breastmilk anyway, which is packed full of lactose no matter what you as the mum eats .

Thanks for that! V interesting and i can def. rule out lactose intolerance which is great. He is back to his normal self today and we are feeding as normal- I still wish I knew what caused the problem but fingers crossed it was a one off .

I'm wondering.... about the cracked nipples - is it possible you could both have thrush? I know sometimes when DS has had thrush he has had the odd sore bit in his mouth where the thrush patches have rubbed off.

Thrush can lead to cracked nipples. Signs would be a white coating on your baby's tongue and/ or white patches in mouth, discomfort when feeding, etc, and for you, itchy or burning sensations in your nipples. Symptoms can vary, and can be hard to spot inside the baby's mouth tho.