Blood/mucus stools in exclusively breastfed baby

[cdsph]

Hiya,

Can't seem to attach photos but was wondering if anyone has any advice or experience of our situation.

We've had runny, mucusy stools almost constantly since she was born, she is now 15 weeks and she occasionally will have streaks of blood in there too. Health visitor suspected dairy allergy (no other symptoms though) and so I've been dairy free for 5 weeks now and not noticed a single change.

Health visitor doesn't seem too concerned.

Her weight gain has always been on the lower end but she's within range and is a happy content baby, feeds well, no skin issues, never seems uncomfortable or fussy, sleeps really well.

Just worried about the blood every now and again? Any one else had something similar?

Will try and post photos!

[aprilshowers2015]

Hello, I've had the same with both babies. Have you been advised to cut out Soya as well? If it's CMPA the protein in soya is very similar to dairy and I was advised to cut out both, which worked for my daughter. Thankfully my son can tolerate soya because it's in everything.
If that's not the answer then you may need to look to cut out all the major allergens and do trial and error to work out what's causing it.

[cdsph]

See below for poo photos! Sorry if it’s TMI!

[cdsph]

@aprilshowers2015 thank you for your reply! No one has mentioned soya to me, and to be honest, no one seems that concerned, so not too sure if I should be making more of a fuss or if it's something that will eventually just stop?

[BubblyBubbler]

Defo looks like allergies. Try cutting out different allergen one by one to see if anything helps.

[BertieBotts]

You probably need to cut something else. Soya as mentioned is a common one and because a lot of dairy-free products use soya as an alternative it can be an issue.

Eggs are the other one, and possibly wheat - though wheat seems less linked to the dairy than Soya (most common) and egg (less common but still possible).

Can you ask GP for referral to dietician? I don't know if allergy skin testing is recommended/effective in this age group?

[cdsph]

I'll give the GP a call tomorrow and see if they will do anything. I think because she has no other symptoms of an allergy, and the cutting out dairy hasn't changed anything at all they seem unfussed.

[ShyLavender]

Sorry to jump on this - did you ever get this resolved? My little girl has similar and worried sick. Thank you.

[cdsph]

Hello!

Oh it's so horrible isn't it! So with many back and forths, GP, A&E, paeds etc all telling me it's 'just a random baby thing' we finally got a dietitian referral at around 6 months old. As soon as I told him the situation he said that it's 100% some form of allergy and couldn't believe I'd been fobbed off so many times.

So he advised that I went all in and eliminated soya, wheat and egg from my diet and avoided those while weaning. Within a couple of weeks her stools firmed up and she had zero blood, so we knew it was one of those 3. Turns out it's looking like a wheat allergy and we are now working with the dietitian on next steps. Wheat is fairly unusual, especially to be picked up in the breast milk but it just shows you it can happen and I was right to keep flagging it!

I hope you get to the bottom of it, please do push for a dietitian referral if you can!