Baby poop - too watery?

[Bbhow11]

My baby is 3 weeks old but was born 5 weeks early so is technically 38 weeks and her poops have been very violently farty since bringing her home from the NICU.

Her bum hole now is very very sore (open sores) which I am assuming is because the poop is so watery it’s acidic? I’ll attach a photo of her normal bowel movement.

She is bottle fed on Aptamil pre made.

I have seen the GP and the HV and neither have been any help in advising if it’s normal, they say I could try changing milk to CMPA milk but then it may make it worse and also say it could just be because she’s early.. but equally say it could be a CMPA allergy?! So many mixed messages. Her bum sores are literally open wounds at this point and are NOT thrush.

Bottom line is (literally) I need to get her bum sores cleared up and if it’s the poop causing it I really want to try and get it sorted ASAP so any advice is appreciated!

If you're not already using it, I have found metanium works way better than anything else on the bottom in this kind of situation, helps break the cycle regardless of what's affecting the poo.

Possibly a total red herring, but when you say Aptamil Pre-Made do you mean the little bottles ready made up? Just because we had a spate of babies at work who had terrible terrible nappy rash / sores whilst on the ready made stuff and it improved massively when they switched to the powdered versions of the same brand. We speculated that they were reacting to some sort of preservative in the milk.

was she exposed to antibiotics in NICU or during labour? that can mess up newborns unfortunately.

That said, I'm not sure those poos are actually abnormal are they? my baby was born at 37 weeks and has very watery poos too but I think in my baby's case they are normal. Is she going very frequently? I'm wondering if the frequency could explain the rash. if you are using wipes perhaps try switching to cotton wool and water to give a gentler and more thorough clean.

Does she seem in pain a lot? I would expect a CMPA baby to have colicky stomach pains and probably signs of eczema too.

Yes thats exactly what she’s on. She was on it in the NICU so we have kept to it but I do have powder here so I will def try swapping!

Got Metanium being delivered today.. almost impossible to get now I had to pay £20 for some off eBay 🙃

She did have antibiotics yes for the first few days under sepsis protocol but luckily she never had it. She doesn’t really seem in pain, I’d say she’s fussy after one or two feeds in the day but the fussiness is mild compared to a lot of babies I’ve seen with milk allergies.

I have been using only cotton wool and water for days now with no improvement to her little bum.. sudocreme, sudosalve, Vaseline, next on the list is Metanium I’m just waiting for it to arrive later!

The only thing that helped (my daughter had it severely) was nappy free time, lay them on a towel and take their nappy off, doesn't matter if they mess but the air does it so much good.

Change her nappy more often as soon as she wees / poos
Clean well and use metanium

second the lots of nappy-off time, and also gently using a hair dryer on it regularly throughout the day (obviously test it on yourself first so not too hot).

Vaseline over the metanium op it stops urine/poo sitting on the rash and always works wonders for ours

Just had a closer look is that mucus ?

It is, yes.

@Bbhow11 Ask to trial some dairy free formula or hydrolysed formula, mucus is indicative of cmpa. Both my babies have it !

Mucus along with the nappy rash points to cmpa imo. How many dirty nappies is baby doing a day? And are they explosive ? Any reflux too? Sorry haven't read the full thread

Btw my first baby didn't develop any eczema until she was about 4 months old (she was on hydrolysed formula from 8 weeks old and all symptoms cleared up but weirdly eczema developed later on, so then we switched to completely dairy free and it went away) and second baby with cmpa has no eczema at all!

Might be worth trying a different brand of nappy? Our daughter didn't get on with Aldi premium nappies - resulted in horrendous open sores that metanium didn't help with. the only thing that cleared it up was some steroid cream from the GP, changing the nappy brand and lots of nappy free time.

She’s having anything up to 10 nappies a day, most if not all of them are explosive fart poops. She doesn’t really have reflux just normal possiting every so often.

She was only 4lb2oz born so has been in Pampers as they were only ones accessible in her size! Hoping she will be able to fit into other brands to try soon 😅

Metanium has been discontinued - that's why it's so expensive. There's a couple of other threads going about it. Once you get the sores healed, I find a preventative application of bepanthem at each nappy changes helps to stop it coming back.

You should have the contact of a SCBU nurse who supports after discharge? We used to get periodic check ins from them. It might be asking if there is someone you can chat to about it given baby's history and the mucus might suggest something else going on. But I would say that both of mine had very watery poops when very little and then they sort of started to solidify as they got bigger and taking on more milk.

DD1 had the sepsis antibiotics (she did have sepsis) and i wish I'd got some probiotics into her so that might be worth asking your SCBU nurse about as well? I can't recommend any as I only found out about doing this after she was much bigger.

@Bbhow11 That's what dd1 was like, up to 10 nappies a day here too and that is a lot, and always something in them even if just a smear. I'd try the formula !

Formula change has done the trick.. her poop was too acidic and burnt her skin so she’s on CMPA formula now :)