Black baby poo [contains pic - content warning added by MNHQ]

[Babyoyster2]

Hi all, looking for advice on baby's poo. Currently 8 weeks old and tonight has had Black in his poo, I have seen this in smaller amounts over the last week. Ds on lactulose twice a day and regularly needs a half glycerol supp to poo ( all consultant prescribed) Context- has had issues since birth with bowel/tummy but no solid answers yet, has had barium swallow/enema, biopsies to rule out hirschsprungs which did cause bleeding but was temporary and over almost two weeks ago now. He has also been on neocate milk for the last four weeks. Any ideas or advice what could be causing the black. No temperature present, generally fussy and colicky baby and no change to his usual temperament.

Given the history I'd get checked out. The normal colour of baby poo on an amino acid formula is khaki green. It could be the start of the change to this colour from starting formula but I'd err on the side of caution

Could it be the iron in the neocate causing it?

I will get him checked out just to be on the safe side with his history, thank you for your replies. He has been incredibly sick today but we have good days and bad days with that despite omeprazole and gaviscon! Sick is just milky, no added extras. Does neocate have more iron than a standard dairy formula?

What dose of omperazole is he on? My daughter only gets any benefit from omperazole when she is on the maximum 3 mg/kg dose. It means she's often on the maximum dose for her age and needs domperidone as well to keep her reflux under control.

My daughter has a coconut allergy as well as cmpa and others so could only have alfamino which is another amino acid formula. If they aren't settling on neocate it might be worth asking about alfamino instead

I think it does. It turned my friends babies poo black

He is currently on 15mg , 2x10mg tablets dissolved in 5mls of water and given 3.75mls of that to give the highest dose in the smallest volume due to his sickness. We may need to revisit the dose when we see the consultant again as he's up to 13lbs. I'm not sure how much scope there is for upping with him being as young still.

I have considered a possible coconut allergy as he has a rash on neocate still but I don't think they are prepared to do any official testing at this age except to challenge which seems terrifying considering what we have been through the last 8 weeks. I hope that it is down to iron, we have handed in a sample today to be tested.

He has been admitted to children's ward today and referred to a GI team at our closest children's hospital after they have confirmed that it is blood.

That's 2.5mg/kg if 13lb (5.9kg) which is a good amount. The maximum for under 2s is 3 mg/kg or 20mg so once they are 6.7kg (14.5lb) and on 20mg it can't be increased further. If reflux continues to be an issue there's a little scope to increase the omperazole if their drs decides it's necessary but they are close to the top dose for infants. My daughter maxed out the omperazole when she was 5 months and was 2y before it could be increased again which was how we ended up on domperidone too.

I'm sorry to hear he's be admitted but hopefully they can get to the bottom of it all.

Hi i am on researching after similar thing happening to my 8 week old daughter. Looks very similar to the picture you posted. Previous blood in stools so is on neocate but sunday and foday there is black. I brought her to a&e and was told it wasnt blood and just something that happens but i wasnt 100% happy with the explanation or lack of from the dr.
Can i ask did you ever find out what caused it? I hope everything is well with your little one and you got the issues sorted, i see it was a few months ago this happened.

Hi, sorry to hear you are going through similar. Is your little one on any PPI medication also? Omeprazole/esomeprazole etc? I found that the combination of Neocate and omeprazole caused alot of black and the switch to esomeprazole reduced the amount, but it was still there alot. I was assured by the head of GI that the black bits were not blood that I was seeing. I felt how you feel and wanted evidence of this but never got it. LO ended up having a surgery on his bowel due to other issues and has since stopped all PPI medication due to drug induced liver injury. His stools are almost completely black and pasty now which from what I have researched, can be absolutely normal on Neocate. It's hard to accept that when you are worried, I totally understand. If you are still worried, push for a GI appointment.

Aww that sounds terrible for your LO, i hope they are doing better now after all that? Yes shes on lansoprazole and neocate so maybe that is the cause of it. I feel better about it from hearing your experience with it. Thankyou very much for getting back to me