Unsettled baby advice please

[emsylou]

Hello ladies. My ds is 9 weeks old and ebf. About 2 weeks ago he started to poo a lot more frequently literaly every time I fed him and being sick/possets during and after feeds. He also appears to be in discomfort and is unsettled a lot more than he was. His poo is green with bits in it and he seems to be pooing a lot more than he should. Night times and evenings are the worse as he seems so unsettled and in discomfort. I took him to see GP last week, he is gaining weight and not dehydrated but she did not give any further advice apart from thinking it may be a virus. From today I am removing dairy/soya from my diet but would be grateful for any ideas or suggestions anyone can offer please.

Babies do sometimes go through phases like this when they are fighting a virus - they are basically healthy, though. Sounds like your doc has come to that conclusion, and that it will go by itself.

Not sure why you would remove dairy and soy from your diet - that's hard to keep up. If you're ok with doing it, and feel your baby's discomfort is bad enough to try, then of course it won't do any harm....and it might just help, though if he improves you will never know if he would have grown out of it anyway! You would then have to 'test' the theory by intro'ing it again.

If it is a virus, of course, a change in your diet will make no diff.

Hope things get better soon.

Thanx tik tok, well an update. We have had a very unsettled night. My ds hasnt been able to settle to sleep properly, maybe sleeping for a few minutes then waking in pain and crunching legs up and settling again for a few minutes and so on. He continues to have green poo, this in isolation im not overly concerned about, its just the bouts of pain he is having...although at the moment he is laying down happily while i write this message. He is also drooling, not sure if this is related. He is going quite rigid when he is hurting, however the pain is not constant. When he feeding he is going on and off the breast during a feed and sometimes crying during a feed while on the breast, which is all heart wrenching as I dont know what to do to make it better for him. Hope you are online today tik tok.

Have you considered reflux? The on/off during a feed sounds like he could be in pain.

you are the second person to mention this...am going to look up now as dont know anything about it. thanx. i have a very upset baby in my arms. awwww

Thankyou rational brain having read about reflux i am sure this is what my ds is suffering with. this dosent account for the green poo I dont think. its horrible seeing him in pain. im going to try some of the recommended action and see if this helps. i have read that elevating the head 30 degrees when in bed will help but is that ok to use a pillow with a 9 week old. aaaaaaaaahhhhhh im so tired.

It might be you have an over active letdown or over supply. Similar symptoms to reflux. Kicks in as your supply goes up. Green poo could be due to high levels of fore milk. Rigidness and pain could be baby taking down a lot of air when feeding. Or it could be tongue tie where baby struggles to feed as tongue doesn't work well but if you have an over supply, it can be disguised.

I have had all of these with DD and reflux too! Takes a lot to resolved but best to try and make sure you rule out over supply and tongue tie before going down the road of restricting dairy or reflux meds.

Does your baby choke on feeding? Does your milk shoot out? Do your boobs feel quite full even after feeds?

Thanx for your reply iggly...tongue tie been ruled out by GP because I had some feeding difficulties in the beginning and ds tongue was looked at then. I do not have over supply, my milk does not shoot out and i always have to use both breasts in a feed...no choking when feeding, boobs are well and truly empty after feeds. I think he might be taking in more air when feeding but this is more likely due to the on/off feeding?
Wow you have had alot to deal with, its hard isnt it when they are in pain...ds has been asleep on me in the sling (so is upright) for over an hour and does not seem in any pain currently which makes sense if it is reflux.
I hope your dd is better now. Thanx for your advice, its really helpful

ive also just realised that the poo is haapening always when ds has a break from feed for burping and the poo feels like it comes out quite violently. i dont know if this gives any more clues as to the problem or if anyone recognises these symptoms?

Has anyone checke your latch to make sure he's coming on properly do as to reduce the air?

Dd's poos were always quite explosive and it felt like she was feeding to poo iyswim. They settled down once they stopped being so green and frothy - this was once I started block feeding to reduce the amount of sugary fore milk she was getting. I started off switching boobs every other feed (so she stayed on one side two feeds in a row) then kept using the same side until we found what worked. Mine was an extreme case as she ended up feeding from one boob only - and that's when she started pooing normally (no explosions, yellow).

Yes iggly saw a lactation consultant latch on al good although feeding more fussy now. An update...ds poos are now yellow again. He cannot settle at all at night with reflux so im vgoing to jump to the sleep section and post. thankyou all xx