Frequency and consistency - talk to me about breastfed poo

[wastingmyeducation]

Hello!
DS is 16 weeks now. He was slow getting rid of meconium and then slow weight gain for first 8 weeks. When operation fat baby swung into action, I gave up caffeine, and started eating oats, fennel tea etc.
He went from having frequent stringy sticky poos to doing big smooth ones every couple of days.
This week a big growth spurt has started, with not much sleep, and the frequent, sticky, stringy poo has started again.
About three weeks ago, I had a Pepsi Max and he did these horrid poos for the next day, so I was pretty sure it was the caffeine. But I haven't had any, other than chocolate, which I've been having all the time.

What do you think?

xx

Mine did this, went from double cream type poo around every other day back to more like earlier poos then back to double cream after end of growth spurt.I think the inital change may have been due to his digestive system and that we get the smooth ones when they are taking in more than they need. Educated quessing on my part, I never thourght I would be so obssessed by fecal products!

Just wait till you get to weaning !

My educated guess would be very similar to charitas's - hopefully they should go back to the every-other-day variety quite soon. Just be aware that growth spurts can last a little while (I think DD did a 2 week one once around 5 months - back to feeding every 2 hours came as a shock).

So it may not be anything I'm consuming?
I've been convinced it was. When it clears up I'll try having some caffeine and seeing what happens.
Thanks guys. The number of poos escaping my poor nappy folding combined with the lack of sleep this growth spurt has brought is doing me in! Well today marks week one of growth spurt, hopefully it won't be too much more.

xx

Intuitively changes to baby poos are either going to be due to change in baby's diet (which for BF baby = change in your diet), or change in what the baby's digestion is doing with that diet.

During the first year a baby goes through so many developmental changes. Some of those are mental, some of those are physical, but all of them tend to require an increase in nutrition. There are also some major changes to the gut itself, as it matures and becomes more able to deal with a wider variety of foods.

You say nothing in your diet has changed, so it seems unlikely that's the problem. Your DS started out with these poos, and they changed when you went on to a "high milk" diet - now their back it seems very plausible that your DS is just having a requirement for more energy and your supply hasn't quite caught up yet. It will .

Have you come across www.kellymom.com? There's masses of info on there about changes to the gut as babies grow. IIRC there are some quite major changes going on about now, so that might also be responsible.

Sorry if that's all stuff you know - I tend to find the less sleep I get the harder it gets to remember things and it helps when DH points them out.

Just as a side thought, have you considered using a few disposable nappies just until DS settles down again? Might ease the pressure on keeping the laundry under control.