Does anyone really know why poo might be green?

[fadingfast]

DD, 5 months and exclusively BF. Her poo is often quite greenish in tinge - sort of yellowy, browny, greenish. It does seem to vary a bit from day to day. Completely different to that of DS, who had textbook mustard yellow poo.

Do I need to be concerned about this and does anyone have any theories about what might be causing green poo? Am paranoid about possibly allergies (esp dairy) so could this be a sign of a reaction to food I'm eating?

It could be that she's not getting the fatty hind milk. Do you swap sides during a feed?

Yes I do swap sides at each feed, but only after she's had a good go on one side and seems to have lost interest. Mind you, I do have a fast let down so I wonder if perhaps once it slows down she is more interested in the other side?

I've found that if I failed to notice the poo and he's been sitting in it for a while then it goes green.

xx

It could be that you are swapping before the hind milk comes in. Try giving her a break and putting her back on once she has settled down.

Green poo is on the normal spectrum - it really does not matter in a healthy thriving baby.

It might mean the milk she is getting is proportionately less fatty than someone else's milk - poo turns yellow when the 'transit time' is slightly longer - but guess what? It is not an issue. The baby will be getting the fat she needs, but as an ingredient in proportionately larger volumes of milk.

Feeds don't normally need to be 'engineered' to ensure non-green poo....fadingfast, just accept this is the colour of your healthy little girl's poo, because it doesn't matter one bit!

DS2's was green when he had an umbilical infection - he got very ill too though and was a lot younger - 1st 6 weeks (went to skin and bone).

And it wasn't really a tinge- it was dark green- seaweed colour.

DS3 had problems with cow's milk, but no green poo.

ds has had a variety of poo colours! from bright green through orange to yellow, with green common for a few days at a time right up until he started weaning. I worried about it for ages, tried one sided feeding, but nothing changed and in the end he kept growing absolutely fine, and I stopped worrying maybe your dd is just like my ds?

Thanks everyone. She is a happy and thriving little soul and sleeping brilliantly so it sounds like I don't really have anything to worry about (although that's never stopped me in the past!).