Help, newborn with constant diarrhea!

[AlTaylor86]

Hi,

My 8 day old son has had persistent diarrhea for 3 days now and i'm starting to get a bit concerned that it's not clearing up. He's exclusively formula fed and took to it well the first few days with "normal" looking nappies (according to stool charts etc). For a few days now though he's been having about 6 bright yellow watery diarrhea nappies, sometimes with a bit of pea green colour mixed in. Last night when changing there was a bit of an explosion and it was mostly just "water" to start with.

I spoke to a health visitor yesterday who said it's not uncommon in the first few weeks and to monitor closely for dehydration, making sure he's being regularly fed to match his output.

Has anyone else experienced this/have any advice? The poor little thing seems quite uncomfortable when he's having one of his explosions and this just doesn't seem normal to me. My first born never had any issues like this so I thought I'd just check if anyone else is or has been in the same boat?!

What formula is it?

My little one recently had a similar problem but he was having 1-2 episodes a day and was 4 months old. He was absolutely fine otherwise. Spoke to GP after a week who suggested testing the poo but advised thay babies often have "weird poo"! Tests came back clear and it took a few more days for things to go back to normal. I'd suggest speaking to your GP first of all and hopefully they will agree to test if not now but perhaps in a few days if it continues.

@dementedpixie
He's on HiPP Organic. We used it with my first son and liked it as there's no prebiotic in it, so is typically gentler on the tummy apparently.

@ClaraTA yes I think a test would be ideal. It's such a tough time now though as our GP aren't doing face to face consults and will now only talk over the phone. Not the most ideal time to have a newborn who might need tests 😳 Will definitely call tomorrow though if it's still going on....

It does contain prebiotics- they are the Galacto-Oligosaccharidesmentioned on the ingredients. DHA also now needs to be added to all infant formula and its derived from fish oil.

Have you tried different formula? My DS had issues with specific brands (Cow and Gate was the other extreme with terrible constipation!)

Is he still having wet nappies? Are his fontanelle sunken? Look out for signs of dehydration.

@dementedpixie oh you're right, I just looked it up - I could have sworn when I used it for my first it didn't. Thank you for letting me know....

@Tajiri he is luckily - thankfully being a nurse i'm keeping an eye on all the classic signs including sunken fontanelle etc and for now he seems fine. Can't imagine his little tummy would be feeling great though!

Aw, hopefully it will clear up and you won't need to make the call but if you do need to go in I'm sure the surgery will have some good arrangements in place. When we had the test, GP didn't need to see my little one 🙂

Could it be dairy intolerant? I'll admit I don't know if there is dairy in formula? But those poos sound like my dairy intolerant baby's when I was breastfeeding him.

Yes, formula is derived from cows milk so CMPA could be an issue too if it doesn't clear up soon