Gassy baby, 24 hours crying, green poo

[Teoroy]

Hello dear mums,
My baby is 4+ weeks old and is exclusively breastfed. For the last week she has had predominantly green poo.The HV said I shouldn't worry as long as the baby puts on weight. The baby was having the usual evening colic but for the last 2-3 days she hasn't been able to settle at all. She's been suffering from a lot of gas (that started 3 weeks ago), we can hear a gurgling in her stomach and she farts a lot but with visible difficulty and pain. Everytime she feeds she would pull out and start crying. A feed could last for up to 1.5- 4 hours with the intervals of crying/ attmpts to burp/feeding. She is very gassy.
She would feed for 30 seconds then start crying again, pulling her legs up and pulling with her hands my hair, clothes etc, becoming all red and hot in the process. It is visible she is a lot of distress and in my opinion this behaviour is not a typical colicy behaviour.
She has had cranial osteopathy, colief and infacol with no success.(I have lessened the amount of dairy and have been drinking lactose free milk.)

Do you think we need to go to the GP?

Is this colics?

What can I do in order for her to settle easily?

thank you!
teo

Have you had her latch checked? She may be taking in too much air with her feeds as a result of a poor latch?

There are plenty of things this could be so you need to really eliminate what it's not. I'd call a BFC (numbers on my profile) and get your latch looked at.

Are you in any pain? These are common symptoms of thrush or fast letdown (is the crying during let down?)

Try having a look here to narrow it down.

Soundslike colic to me. It's grim. TBH, I don't think anything works, you just get through it.

HI Teoroy, did you have a particularly difficult birth? Is your lo wanting to feed constantly? Just this sounds a lot like our DS2 was, he had a jammed neck from a ventouse delivery and was feeding constantly (as we later found out) as the sucking action was easing the pain in his neck but the result was colic from overfeeding. We saw a chiropractor who specialised in the treatment of babies, we didn't see immediate results but 3 treatments in and he was like a different baby. He was very windy though up to weaning, we found colief did nothing but infacol worked wonders although it did take a few days to kick in. I've got no experience of dairy intolerance so can't help with that but I believe it takes a few weeks for all traces of dairy to be out of your system and you have to exlude all dairy for it to be effective. If her poo has just changed in the last week could it be worth taking him/her to the GP to rule tummy bug etc out? Also have you had reflux ruled out as I think pulling away and crying during feeding is classic symptom and is inability to settle as the acid washes up the oesophagus (sp?) when the baby is laid flat HTH

I'm with hoochie. Lactose free milk is useless from your baby's point of view, because it's usually the cows milk protein that they react to, and not the lactose (breast milk contains lactose anyway, as it is just milk sugar).

Give up all dairy for 10-14 days and see if it makes a difference.

my DD1 was like this and it calmed down when my milk supply settled and my let down wasn't so rapid...green poo is a sign of alot of fore-milk which would go along with that. It gives a baby gas if they're unsettled at the breast.

try expressing a bit into a muslin just before a feed and latch on and off when baby is spluttering.

for gas put baby on tummy across your knee for a while and also put baby on back then bend and stretch baby's legs for 5 minutes and then wind.

Hello again,
I got in touch with a bf counsillor and hope she'll be able to help. She is not crying during let down and I do not think I've got thrush or at least she hasn't got the typical white coating on her tongue.

I had a c-section so it wasn't a particularly difficult birth. We havn't been to the GP yet.

Regarding a diet, which foods do I need to exclude? Milk is present in so many things....

Teo, I wouldn't bother with messing with your diet tbh.

Once again I'm with hoochie! If I'd tried giving up dairy sooner then dd wouldn't have spent 16 weeks screaming for 20 hours a day whilst I was fobbed off with the idea of 'colic', and we'd all have been a lot happier!

I'm afraid that you will need to give up all foods containing milk to test this properly teo, but if you're cooking fresh meat and veg then none of them contain dairy, and nor does dried pasta and other grains, so a normal healthy diet will do it for you.

Try not to substitute too much soya though, as this can affect a good percentage of milk intolerant children too. Use rice or oat milk where you really need some (makes a good rice pudding too!).

I was told it was a dairy allergy when my baby had similar symptoms. I had also tried everything imaginable to relieve baby's win and distress.

But it wasn't dairy allergy or intolerance.

Before you go down that route, please speak to a BF counsellor.

Some questions:

• do you appear to have a lot of milk?

• do you appear to have a strong 'let-down' reflex: ie does the milk let down or flow forcefully? You can tell if this is the case sometimes when a baby pulls off when the milk starts to flow fast, or chokes and splutters or coughs... You said she pulls off - is it when the milk starts to flow fast?

• are you feeding from both sides?

In my experience (and I've had 3 babies with exactly these symptoms) the problem MAY be overupply: the things you describe are classic.

There is a simple trick to try and solve it: single sided 'block' feeding. Simply feed your baby from the same side in any 3 hour period. If this does make a difference, then you will know this is the problem. If it doesn't you can explore the dairy issues.

What you do is for example, feed from the left side at 12 o clock. then if your baby calls for a feed again at 1pm, you feed again from the left side; right up until 3pm. If baby wants feeding at 3pm you feed from the right side, and carry on feeding from the right side any time they want feeding up until 6pm. And so on.

This - if it is an oversupply problem - will help even up your supply, will help get rid of the wind and green nappies, and should help baby settle into feeds more. You should only have to do it for 2-3 days to make a difference. But if you have a real lot of milk you can carry on until there is another growth spurt or they no longer seem satisfied after one feed... but better to talk to a BF counsellor for advice. Failing that have a look at the kellymom website for advice on oversupply/overactive letdown...