Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

Please or to access all these features

Children's health

Mumsnet doesn't verify the qualifications of users. If you have medical concerns, please consult a healthcare professional.

5 month old with bad reflux... now dark green poo with bright red blood?

42 replies

eandz · 08/02/2009 23:42

my son has had really bad reflux for the past few weeks. he is 22 weeks old. we have been in and out of the hospital for the reflux, he's been given renitidine, domperidone, gaviscon and we've been using pregestimil and nutramigen interchangeably. his poo has been going from butter yellow (where it actually smells like butter popcorn) to dark green/blackish poo and today there has been bright red streaks in the stool itself, not from his anus or skin. we looked through another diaper his dad had changed and its dark green (the color of over boiled spinach) but when you mash it with a wipe there is a little bit of red residue as well.

dosage: .4ml of renitidine 3x a day
.5 domperidome 3x a day
two satchets of infant gaviscon per 9 ounce bottle usually 4 bottles a day.

tried colief, infacol, gripe water--

this past week all our appointments have been canceled with specialists because of the weather and because no one in london seems to be able to cope with snow. the week before i did take him to a private doctor who sent us back to st marys

we have an amby nest, i wear him in the sling at all times. he won't be put down, and the rare occasions he will be put down he is always on an incline. he did decrease his feeds over two weeks ago, but has gone back onto feeding to the normal range (36 ounces daily) used to drink 42 ounces but it was thinner formula.

he still is vomiting exorcist style, but he did stop for a few days, but it's started up again in the last 72 hours.

i've started two threads about my sons reflux, at one point we thought it was pyloric stenosis, but nothing not even severe reflux has been diagnosed. i know i'll end up in the a&e at some point, but i need to calm down first.

is there anyone else who has had this? please tell me it's more common than i think.

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
AbricotsSecs · 10/02/2009 07:25

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

eandz · 10/02/2009 18:28

he's still throwing up. his poo sell like marijuana and old green tea. green/black stools with white chunks.

i have to wait another 2 days before i can demand ANYTHING. I can't handle waiting.

with this reflux thing, i'm incredibly worried and stressed out. i went to see some mn'ers from my postnatal threads and Noah was being good. but then I bumped his head on this metal thing, but since he's still seems ok I didn't take him to A&E. I was tempted to take him in and just pester about to see the paed consultant about neocate though.

OP posts:
AbricotsSecs · 10/02/2009 19:11

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

AbricotsSecs · 12/02/2009 19:03

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

AnnasBananas · 13/02/2009 10:50

We had the dark green poos with Gaviscon and dd was constipated and howled all the time.

IME living with reflux was hell for everybody. I can hardly remember the first eight or nine months, I think I was in a fog of depression/sleep deprivation.

Although we continued with Gaviscon I don't really think any of the meds work 100%. But any improvement is a bonus so stick with it. I can't offer any other advice except to say it does get better in stages, you'll notice an improvement with the introduction of solids, then when they can sit up in aided ( do you have a bumbo seat or similar, or activity centre thing they stand up in and spin around in?) then around 10 months you'll find you're about 80% there. After one year life will be so much better you'll hardly recognise your own child.

Hugs to you ((())) You have to ride it out.

eandz · 14/02/2009 21:18

well, things have gotten a little better.

we saw two doctors a pediatrician and a pediactric gastroenterologist. i had scheduled to see them privately (they also work the nhs circuit) but when they heard what had happened they saw me right away on the nhs side and were both, kind and quick.

i feel guilty for being such a pita when i saw them.

gastroenterologist: Mufta ElTumi
pediatrician: Nathan Hasson

both great, they work together on some cases.

OP posts:
AbricotsSecs · 15/02/2009 18:58

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

eandz · 17/02/2009 21:20

they have given him neocate lcp,

dosage of renitidine: 1ml x 3 a day
dosage of domperidome: 2.5ml x 3 a day

omeprazole once daily

since the vomiting hasn't stopped and there has been no weight gain we'll be talking/scheduling an endoscopy.

they are still treating him for both cmpi and reflux (not sure why though)

OP posts:
AbricotsSecs · 19/02/2009 00:30

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

thinkingabout3 · 19/02/2009 08:47

Nutramigen causes green poos and you should have been told about this when it was prescribed, it says so on the tin, at least it used to. I don't know about the blood but hope that it is now sorted. I would also ask about NEOCATE and if you are in london get yourself an appointment with Warren Hyer or Mr El-Tumi the best paediatric gastroenterologists around. They deal with this all day long

thinkingabout3 · 19/02/2009 08:49

Just realised that you saw ElTumi and got the neocate. Can you tell that I have been where you are? Best of luck, it's very hard but you are in really good hands now.

eandz · 19/02/2009 10:00

thinkingabout3

how long did it take to get better for your lo?

it was good for a few days, but he's starting back up with the stiffness and screaming. the throwing however is constant dribble now, kinda like a very very very slow tap and it's all milky.

the projective vomit is back too, but the quantity is much smaller.

should i still be worried? i have an appointment today so will bring it up there too.

OP posts:
thinkingabout3 · 19/02/2009 11:17

It got considerably better immediately and he stopped crying all day which was just a revelation but continued to dribble sick for quite some time. Our issue was milk intolerance rather than reflux. I wouldn't be worried, just ask at your appointment. Glad things seem much better for you

eandz · 19/02/2009 21:01

they told us it was cmpi as well but won't say for sure. so we're on neocate lcp these days.

so far his symptoms are better but they are still here.

if he's got the highest dosages of all the meidcines and on neocate what else could it be?

he's bee upped to 3.5ml of domperidome 4 times a day and 1.4 ml of renitidine 3 times a day. plus one omeprazole and they've told me to go back to baby gaviscon.

if he doesn't improve in 72 hours they will do an endoscopy. (i really don't want this)

OP posts:
thinkingabout3 · 19/02/2009 21:43

Sometimes all they can do is to control it until they grow out of it. If he's settled and gaining weight then I really wouldn't worry about the rest of it. The main thing which changed for us was that he stopped crying all the time and the allergy induced excema cleared up within a few days and had only flared up again when he has had too much dairy. He's now 6 and has been on cheese and yogurt since about 18 months. However, he refuses point blank to even try cows milk so I have no idea if he can tolerate it or not, I suspect he can but have nothing to support this. Are they referring you to a dietician to advise on weaning dairy free? My DS was fine on soya so it was relatively straight forward to wean him but many babies who are CMPI are also intolerant to soya and that can make weaning more tricky.

I hope that they don't have to do an endoscopy, but if they do I am assuming from who you are under that you are being seen at The Portland, you can be assured that you are in very safe hands.

thinkingabout3 · 19/02/2009 21:48

The other thing which helped us massively was cranial osteopathy. I would give that a try too.

eandz · 20/02/2009 15:50

saw a dieticia, and an osteopath.

OP posts:
New posts on this thread. Refresh page
Swipe left for the next trending thread