Green, frothy and mucousy poo in ebf baby

[lookout]

Ds is 17 weeks, good weight gain, and after some inital problems, feeds well. For about a week now he has had the most atrocious poos, very smelly, different shades of green and frequently frothy (I can tell when he poos with the nappy undone). There is also sometimes some mucous in there, a bit kind of stringy.

Is this normal poo or something I need to do something about?

Hi lookout,
This happened with me a few weeks ago when my little one was also 17 weeks. Lasted just over a week and he is all back to normal now. I put it down to a bug and he had very very red cheeks so could have also been some teething pain. He was still the same happy baby so I didn't worry about it.

My DD has this on data when her teeth are giving her a lot of trouble. Someone told me it is to do with the increased volume of saliva they swallow.

Thanks for the replies. I had wondered if it was teeth.

Is it nothing to do with a foremilk/hindmilk imbalance? Or an allergy? If it's the former I don't know how to get him to feed longer on a side before swapping. He never stays on longer than ten minutes. Then the next feed I swap sides - is this not right?

Mine sometimes feeds for two minutes and he is done. Seems to snack all day instead of having long feeds. I thought this could have been the cause too but he is still snacking and poos are back t o normal.

DD is the same atm.

Not foremilk/hindmilk, never need to worry about that. Unlikely allergy unless you've drastically changed your diet. Probably teething.

Thanks for the replies. I googled the poo thing and the foremilk/hindmilk thing was what came up, that's what made me think of it. He also has some eczema which was what made me think of the allergy. He is definitely teething though. He seems happy enough in himself, I mean apart from the sore gums, he definitely doesn't have any tummy pains, so maybe it will just go away by itself.

Thanks again.

Don't worry about foremilk/hindmilk imbalance. Apparently that used to be a common problem in the days when all mums were told to 'feed on five minutes each side'. Yet another one of those problems caused by rotten old-fashioned BF advice.

But if your DD comes off the boob himself and then wants the other one, he's showing you exactly what he needs and you're going with him - that's good!

Green poo in an otherwise healthy BF baby is pretty common - I think it's usually put down to tummy bug or teething.

Okey doke, I'll try and stop worrying about it then! As I said he seems fine so hopefully it will go soon - it's really pretty gross!

We've had a couple of rounds of this with our EFF baby - once around the same time as you, about a month before his first bottom teeth appeared, and another round over Christmas and his top two teeth are now just cutting. He was otherwise perfectly fine, I was worried as DH and I both had a bug, so first time round called the Dr who suggested Teeth. I believe the saliva/minor bug explanation (if it's sore, they're also putting EVERYTHING into their mouths so more likely to pick something up).

I do feel for you OP - they are grim, nappies and nappies of really stinky wet poos that leak wildly, and this went on for about 3 weeks before clearing. I ended up spending days at my mum's in the week so someone else could change some of them, the smell got stuck in my nose so I felt it was always with me!

dizzy thanks for the sympathy. Just spent another 5 minutes at the sink, for the third time today, scrubbing the revolting green slime from his vest . He is so definitely teething (dribble, red cheeks, everything in his mouth!) that I will put the nappies down to this and hope they get better soon! Thanks for letting me know there is light at the end of the tunnel!

I've got a washing up bowl for soaking the stains in bio powder before they go in the machine with everything else. Seems to help a bit but they are grosssssss.

ALotToTakeIn me too . However these really toxic green ones also require a scrub with my special olive oil soap before the soaking begins. I am now an expert at stain removal. I hate having to kind of rub the slime off with my hands before the scrubbing begins though, makes me squirm every time.

I must be a right domestic slut for not scrubbing these ! My poor washing machine! I would usually whop them in with some non-bio powder and oxygen bleach on quite a hot wash (50 or 60C) and the stains (mostly) came out - got to the stage of not even putting them in the basket, but filling up the machine and setting it off when we'd reached critical mass (including muslins, about once a day).

Still pretty relaxed about stains in baby clothes as mostly from supermarkets so anything spectacularly grim would go straight in the bin. The worst times have been when he soaked through his vest, babygro and onto the grobag, waking up crying at 4am. No fun.

dizzy, no, I'm just a clean freak when it comes to clothes. Most of ours are second-hand too so no idea why I'm so precious about them haha!