1 week old doing yellow water poos and vomitting after feeds

[MrsCravendale]

There's prob no one on here just now to answer this but I am just looking for some advice from parents who may have already experienced this one.

My LO was born a week ago and I have been breastfeeding since day one. He has been doing really really well on it but today he has had 5 nappy changes in the past 5 hours because he just keeps farting basically for long periods of time and waterlike yellow poo fills his nappy. It is not offensive smelling - just runnier than it has been.

Also, he threw up his last 3 feeds but does not have a temperature, is quite active and alert and has major problems burping after feeds so maybe it was caused by wind.

I have just spoken to the doctor on 24hr call at the hospital as we were given a number to phone if we have any questions at all and they dont seem too worried but I thought I would post here since the mums I know all have older kids and have blanked out the early nappy stage so don't really remember if this is normal. Also, most of them bottle fed since breast feeding wasnt as well supported or actively encouraged when they were new mums so probably haven't experienced this kind of poo anyway...

Thanks for any replies. If he hasnt settled by 9am I have to call GP. Health visitor is due tomorrow anyway so hopefully she will be able to physically check him over as well.

Once ds passed all the meconium, he started producing runny yellow poos, so it might be ok. However, if you want some more reassurance, next time the HV comes round show her your ds's pooey nappy and ask her to check. My ds (13 weeks) still poos up to 3-4 times a day, I seem to remember he pooed loads in his first couple of weeks.
When he is sick is it just after his feed - is he just bringing up excess milk?
Basically you have a muscle at the top of your stomach which helps keep stomach comments in. This muscle is very weak in newborns and this can cause them to bring back part of their feed up. Again my ds is still doing this, but not as much as he used to.
I think your ds sounds fine to be honest, especially as you say he seems content and active. You can use Infacol before each feed to help him bring his wind up, or Colief (though this is a bit more a faff as you'll have to express a little milk to mix it with but most people find it more effective).
HTH helps - and congrats!!
Can totally understand that you are worried, I still worry about my little man. But just wait until the milk starts coming out of his nose First time that happened I was scared out of my wits! Luckily lots of people told me it was pretty normal for tiny babies!

Oh yeah - milk out of the nose... That is a heart stopper!!! As is the amount they seem to projectile vomit and how far it travels. He seems fine now and has been happily sleeping and dreaming since I phoned the hospital (paranoid wreck that I am). I will keep a nappy for the Health Visitor like you say. That'll be a nice welcome for her!

Infacol - I will give it a try first and see how he gets on. Hopefully that will make a difference. Before every feed then? Thanks very much for the advice.

He is just so tiny and fragile looking that it is heartbreaking when you think they are unhappy or in any kind of discomfort but he's quite happy just now - or seems to be. He is very very greedy though so maybe he just overdid it with his last few feeds. He really was gulping it down.

Also, he has just started taking some night feeds from his dad in a bottle of expressed milk to maybe he's having problems adjusting his sucking from bottle back to breast?!? I dunno. I'll be keeping an eye on him today though after all that!

Thanks again for your post - you've really made me feel a bit better

No worries! I look at my ds and just want to protect him from the world. He was so scary when he was new, as you say they look so fragile!
There could potentially be a problem with introducing a bottle early on - there maybe nipple/teat confusion because the way babies suck at a bottle teat is different to the way that babies suck at your nipple.
Same with expressing it is recommend to wait until supply is properly established. But this isn't always the case.
I must admit I introduced a dummy when he was 3 days old advice is to wait a month to prevent nipple confusion but I never experienced that problem. However others might.
As always my advice comes with a disclaimer - there are lots of other people way more experienced in these matters than me

MrsC, thin watery yellow poo in a newborn is not uncommon - in a healthy baby who's thriving and feeding well then it's not an issue, though good the check with the HV who can see him.

Not a great idea to express for feeds at night at this early stage, really....your body needs the frequent stimulation of regular feeding to build up and maintain a supply, and that is crucial in these early days. If the bottles of expressed breastmilk allow a gap between direct feeds, then your milk supply could be affected.

The wind thing - if he has 'major problems' burping, maybe he doesn't need to burp??

Good point Tiktok... Maybe he doesnt need to burp!!! I never thought of that... He does tend to wriggle around and bring his knees up about 10 mins after the feed and needs burped then - just doesnt seem to burp anything up during his feed when he falls asleep at the breast then once he has burped he wants another feed.

Thanks for the advice though - much appreciated.

Hi there. my little chap did the same as your describing and was fine. Babies arent too good at regulating their intake when theyre cosy and enjoying feeding. As long as the poo isnt offensive and the sick not projectile, I wouldnt worry too much. I used to wonder if my baby even had any milk the amount he puked! But the HV was not worried as he was gaining weight ok. Ask yours when you see her for your own peace of mind though.

IME lots of baby sick / yellow runny poo all perfectly normal..

Even projectile vomiting is within the bounds of normal for a newborn. When I had something similar with DD2 it was because she was actually drinking more than she needed, because she enjoyed sucking. It would then come out at speed from one end or the other! I didn't do anything about it, apart from trying to make sure she definitely was hungry before feeding her. It settled down on its own at 6 weeks or so when she found her thumb and started comfort sucking that rather than me!

He hasnt spent much time awake since he was born and when he is awake he seems to want to eat all the time. He lies in his crib chewing his fingers/scratch mits/sleeves and if anyone picks him up (male or female) he starts rooting around most of the time so it is kinda hard to tell if he is looking for a comforting suck or if he is hungry. Last night he defo ate toooooo much so maybe I will try to give him a dummy or just let him suck his fingers when I know he has just had a feed...

HV wasnt too concerned as you say since the poo is not offensive, he dont have temperature and is responsive etc. They also said as long as poo is yellow and not smelly and they not bringing up every feed every time then they should be ok...

Argh! This is so tricky!!!

Glad you posted this Mrs Cravendale as my 13day old has been the same - feeds for 30-40 mins and then projectile vomits lots of it up. I've taken to giving him a dummy to hopefully help him comfort suck rather than be too greedy...

Just a quick bit of reassurance - pretty much everyone finds the first few months hard, and everyone worries about all of it too, no matter how confident they seem later on. Is the baby getting enough / too much to eat? Is he/she growing okay? Should they be doing that? Shouldn't they be doing this by now? etc etc. It is really tricky figuring out your baby but you do get there eventually! Course then they go and change all the rules on you, but thats another story...