Green Poo

[showtunesgirl]

DD has done several green poos today. Could this be from the fenugreek I'm taking? She was fine all day but now is very unsettled. DH is trying to calm her down by giving her some expressed milk as even though she was feeding well all day, she's now becoming distressed when she's on the boob.

Green poo probably means she's getting all or mostly foremilk and not enough of the rich hindmilk. So probably just means you have to keep her longer on one breast to be sure she drains it.

She does drain it though and is on for quite a while until she's milk drunk and I hardly ever have to give her the second boob.

Green poo can be normal. It does not mean your baby is not getting enough 'rich hindmilk'. It does not mean you have to drain the breast. It's a common myth, often repeated on mumsnet, but there is nothing necessarily wrong with green poo and it does not indicate anything needs to change.

Breasts cannot drain.

There is a good explanation of foremilk/hindmilk and why in a healthy baby where bf is going ok no one needs to worry or even think about it here:

www.analyticalarmadillo.co.uk/2010/07/foremilkhindmilk-and-lot-of-confusion.html

OP, green poo can sometimes indicate a slight fever/cold - nothing wrong with green poo in itself. Maybe this is what is making your dd a little unsettled.

Having thought about it I think the being unsettled is more to do with being overtired. We were at a birthday party earlier today and she probably got overstimulated and overtired. DH put her in a carrier and she dropped off. I'm now feeding her.

I do think I might have a slight oversupply issue so will discontinue the fenugreek and will see how it goes.

tiktok she did have a cold last week but the green poo has been quite a lot and frequent today. However, aside from that and the overtiredness, she's been her usual happy self.

tiktok is there a problem if poos are green all the time?

Iggly, green poo is not a problem in itself. The reason poo is/might be/is occasionally/is always green is because after the last stage in the intestine, it has simply not hung around long enough to turn yellow (the environment of the lower gut turns it yellow).

This 'intestinal hurry' may be a result of gastric infection or fever or virus (such as you might get with a cold or diarrhoea), or perhaps the result of a slightly lower proportion of fat (which would otherwise slow things down). Mothers whose milk supply is more than generous may have babies who produce green poo - they may also be unsettled and they usually gain weight very well. This is where block nursing comes in. By turning down the production a notch, the baby gets less milk in terms of volume, and his milk has more fat in it. This makes him more comfortable and his poo usually becomes less green.

If it is something to do with food intolerance (maybe as a result of cows milk proteins in the mother's milk) or (very rarely) some metabolic disorder in the baby, there will be other signs inc poor weight gain, unsettled, miserable behaviour.

Hope this helps. There's no need to do anything about green poo with a healthy, mostly happy baby.

Glad things are better, OP. Why were you taking fenugreek?

I was taking it to increase supply for growth spurts and to bank some for a freezer stash.

However, DD has done her stuff I think and my supply has upped enough now so I think I'm going to stop taking it.

I have to say that it was extremely effective for me!

Thanks tiktok :)

Update. All poos are yellow today!

Fenugreek can increase stool movement in adults so there might be a chance it is doing so in baby hence the green stools (as you were taking fenugreek whilst bfing).

Not saying for definite of course - just a thought.