vinegar poo! fish and chips anyone?

[treedelivery]

OK - so my 2 month baby has poo that is pure acid, smells of vinegar and dd1 has been known to ask 'is it fish and chips for tea?'

She's winfy, colicky, and finds opening her bowels a struggle. She has never done more than one every 3 days, even in the first month.

The poo has been known to foam.

What do you think?

Helllloooooo tiktok

tree, is she breastfed or bottle fed? If she is bf with occasional bottle, does the smell co-incide with the bottle?

To be honest, I have not heard of acid-smelling poo, and I would wonder if it is strong urine you are smelling - though that would be unusual in a young baby.

Sorry, not really any help. What does the HV say?

Usually these things - colour, smell, frequency - are nothing to worry about beyond the newborn stage in a baby who is otherwise well and thriving, but it might help to check it out anyway.

I can't really comment on the windiness and struggle to open bowels - some babies seem to struggle but the poo is soft, and some babies appear to be windy but are fine if they are held and cuddled, so the crying may just be a plea for comfort rather than a symptom of wind...

she is fully bf. It justseems so acidic.

Now the bf councillor around here says go dairy free for 2 weeks, which i am winding up to. What you think?

If the breastfeeding counsellor has evidence that acidic poo is linked to dairy in the mother's diet, then perhaps she can share it with you, so you can decide for yourself whether the evidence is strong enough for you to have the enormous hassle of changing your diet...and whether your baby's symptoms are worrying enough for you to do this.

It's odd for a bfc to suggest something as drastic as this, to be honest - are you sure she's a 'real' breastfeeding counsellor?

We had vinegar poo! No one else had heard of it either. It came and went and the HV consensus at the time was that it might have something to do with teething and lots of saliva (though 2 months is a bit young for that, but not impossible). We never really got to the bottom of it )excuse the pun) but it was nothing serious, DS was fine.

Tee hee - or an under cover midwife??

THB - she wasn't the type I felt I could ask this of, she was fairly scathing of all the advice and tips I had tried, and I agree the change is drastic [hence I am going slowly not cold turkey].

Interesting that it didn't leap out at you though.

SHe has offered me dietician referral i fwe see an improvement which is good.

Babies and their poo. Lordy. SHe has been a very very bad colicky one, so I wondered if the poo was a clue to what was going on.

If you have time, what do you think about the lack of regular poo in her first month-6 weeks? She gained weight and was wet so I was non-plussed. Everyone just said it's ok it's normal.

Seriously, treedelivery - was this person a real breastfeeding counsellor? I dont think a good (or real) breastfeeding counsellor is scathing of what you have already tried, and as I say, suggesting mothers change their diets is outside the usual boundaries of a bfc. A bfc would not be able to refer you to a dietitian, either - I mean, we can suggest you make your own arrangements for a referral but we have no powers to do it ourselves. I think she sounds as if she is calling herself a breastfeeding counsellor, which happens, because there is no legal protection of the name.

Most thriving breastfed babies poo a lot in the first weeks, every day. But some who are fine don't do this. Of itself, it's not an issue.

It's clearly an issue for you, and I really don't have anything to suggest as I have never heard of vinegar poo! A referral to a dietitian now might be helpful.

Than you TikTok - I'm just sort of 'niggled' by it, it's like something somewhere isn't quite right with her.
But in reality she is thriving and gaining weight etc, so I probably should just get over it. Call her a colicky baby and ride it out.

I'll look into the bf counsellor a bit more - she is at the bf cafe so I should be able to. Its at the local sue start center.
I'm glad to hear that you have known of babies not poo much in the first month - that I'll take as futher evidence all is well here.

I'll mull over the dietitian thing. I dunno.

tree - if you think something is not quite right, then you should be taken seriously. The baby cafe bfc may be a peer supporter, and if so, she is even more outside her boundaries talking about diet.

If she is a 'real' bfc, then as I say, she shouldn't be 'scathing' anyway - maybe she is clutching at straws with the diet thing and just does not know what to suggest. It's true that sometimes, symptoms of colic improve when mothers go dairy free (if that was why she suggested it, and not the vinegar poo thing, where I seriously doubt there is evidence) but it's a big thing to suggest ... though if you have tried lots of things for the colic it may be the one thing she thinks you haven't tried. And she did mention dietitian, which is good.

Indeed. I wasn't cross or afronted at all, as I know it's really hard when we just want answers and fixing and in reality there aren't any, she was probably just discounting the things I'd tried.

I didn't feel like questioning her though - she was pretty strong, but I think this is her way and proably a good one when people are anxious dribbling wrecks!

Seems it's just me with the vinegar poo then!

Thanks for your info tiktok.

We had vinegar smelling poo. My DH commented on it alot, and I had always wondered how poo could smell like vinegar.

It went away, and I havent thought about it again.

We had vinegar-smelling poo with DDs 1 and 2 on occasion - don't remember it with DD3 (8 months old) but that's probably coz I was too tired to remember my own name most of the time.

DD1 only ever pooed ever 3-4 days and, in fact, went 8 days without a poo when she was tiny. Nappies were always wet, so was told not to worry about it. She has had issues with constipation between 2.5 and 5 years old, but I have no idea if these two things are related.

all dd2's poos smell strong, kinda vinegary i suppose. i put it down to fermentation in the bowels? no other idea besides that.

I thought that foxcytocin.

She's had big troubles over the last 24 hours. She keeps squirting out bits of orange stinky stuff. Will keep massaging tummy as that seems to help [me feel usefull].

Tree I do remember a phase like this - IIRC it preceeded a week of green stringy poo that seemed to be linked to teething.

How is she on her tummy, can you lay her across your knee or does she yell? DS used to poo better when he was tiny if he'd had a bit of tummy time.

Tummy time - will try that.

Have had 36 hours of misery, and 10 weeks of..er...challenges. She screams in agony

my lo is 2.5 wks old and a lot of her poo smells vinegary and is an orangey colour. she is breast fed and occasionally has some formula in the evening if i have been too tired to find the time to express for the evening feed.

she isn't colicky but does get a lot of wind passing through.

i haven't been told to avoid anything...just not eat too much of the same thing.

it is quite a strong distinctive smell

This is all reassuring - I was dreading some awful allergy stuff!