1 week old EBF baby with the runs

[elliejjtiny]

My 1 week old prem baby is in special care, aged 36+3 corrected. He's being almost exclusively fed with EBM. He's got the runs although no signs of a bug and nappy rash. The nurses think it's something I'm eating although I always thought it was a myth that what you eat passes through to the milk. I'm eating a mixture of MIL's home cooking, hospital café and takeaways . I'm also taking loads of painkillers and iron and extra fruit to try and help the constipation. Baby also has very low muscle tone which I think is causing the bowel issues.

When you say has the runs, what are we talking here? Sorry if this is patronising as sure you know already that EBF poo in a newborn is double cream thickness.

Doubt it's what you're eating ie. diet, not sure about the meds though. Someone will be along in a min about that.

Congrats :). Hope you're LO gets well and is home soon :)

Have no experience of this sorry. Is there someone specialising in bfing at the hospital that you could speak too?

How are you doing too?

Has the hospital got an infant feeding specialist, ask and see them if possible. Your diet isn't causing this (unless in serious allergy to milk or soya protein way which is unlikely and I suspect not what te nurses meant). And as a pp said, all ebf babies have the runs to some extent, if your baby has more of a problem than this you should be supported by staff who are not making inappropriate and inaccurate assumptions.

Hope you can speak o someone soon.

My dd had the runniest most liquid poos ever. For about 3 months. Totally normal for her.
What makes you think it's the runs?

Get a midwife to look at your baby's nappies.

It's not impossible that paediatric nurses don't recognise normal newborn bf poo.

The fact staff think it is something you are eating would decrease my confidence that they knew about bf.

It's the nurses in special care who think he has the runs. His poos look normal to me but I haven't had a newborn for 2 years so I might have forgotten what they are meant to look like. He does have nappy rash though but my DS3 had that when he wore Asda own brand nappies. Not sure what brand they use in special care but I've got pampers at home so I'll bring them in today.

What colour is it? When DS was EBF and had the runs (he caught a bug) it was green, spinachy and frothy. And would shoot out the back of his nappy.

As I said....you need a midwife to check.

It's just about possible that meds you are on may cause this.

But not your diet....not the fruit, not the takeaways, not your MIL's cooking.

Frequent, soft, liquid or paste like poo, yellow in colour, maybe somtimes green...all normal.

You will not have forgotten in 2 years what newborn poo looks like :)

Would be daft for you to worry about your intake of food or meds if there was nothing to worry about.

Why would diet not be causing this? Ds used to get serious running big poos for about 24hrs after I'd eaten anything with chilli or spices and for done reason broccoli and cabbage.

*some not done

Poo is yellow, liquidy and he usually does an extra bit as soon as you get the nappy off to change him . There aren't any midwives here. I go to the birthing centre for my postnatal check every day and the midwives there said the fruit advice was rubbish but they gave me lactulose anyway.

breast fed babies poo looks like korma sauce and is really runny. My DH kept worrying that it was the runs. When it was perfectly normal.

Sounds normal to me. You know you can Google this and it will show you pictures of FF and BF babies at different ages and what's within the normal range and what isn't. I would look and then ask the nurses directly what symptoms baby has specifically that make them think he has the runs and question it.

Kinda scary that they think he has the runs (but they're not sure?) and they think its what you're eating. Wtf? How is this helpful. Surely they should be advising you.

We took LO to OOH when he was little as thought he had runs. Pooed 14 times a day, yellowy brown, runny. Doc said it was just ebf poo. Plus he had prolonged jaundice (born 37+2) and his system needed to flush it out. Stopped at about ten weeks I think.

Lactulose for you? Because lactulose will go through your digestion and get into your blood and then milk and then into the baby's gut? Do they really think that??? How ridiculous and how flippin ignorant...you would never give lactulose to a 1 week prem baby anyway. Happily, the lactulose will stay in your gut and won't go anywhere near your milk or your baby. Blimey, now I read that it was midwives who gave you the lactulose to deal with what sounds to be a non-problem :(

cupcake maybe you noticed an effect of chilli or spices or broccoli or cabbage - it is possible that individual babies might have a rare individual reaction, even though it is biologically difficult to understand how. You noticed a difference in your baby's individual pooing 'style' :) As a general rule, though, soft frequent liquid poo in a young baby is normal and is just what happens - the OP's baby's poos sound normal.

Oh I see. Baby no 2 due anytime so its helpful to know.

Yes, if the do have an infant feeding coordinator you may need to be insistent that you speak to her.

Doesn;t sound to me that there would be an infant feeding specialist/coordinator. OP is going elsewhere (to birth centre) for post natal care. SCBU might be in a hospital with no maternity unit, and just nurses in neonatal care.

Nurses, even those in neonatal care, are not well-trained in bf. If they usually deal with very sick/vulnerable/pre-term babies, they may not even see many bf babies.

I once led a training session for children's nurses - I was taken aback by how little they knew about bf. In fact, it was worse than knowing very little - they did not know they knew very little and had joined the dots of not-knowing and had some very odd ideas (think 'feed every four hours 10 mins a side' sort of stuff).

Am at that one tiktok

Thanks everyone. I went in today and the nappy rash has gone. No mention about their previous poo concerns so I didn't mention it. I changed DS4's nappy while I was there and it seemed perfectly normal to me.

In SCBU, be wary of thinking that what one nurse says to you is 'what the medical staff think', it often can be just 'musings of that individual'.
And as individuals, some will be more educated about bf, some less so.

Good luck getting home soon :)