8 WEEK OLD BABY - poos thick, sometimes solid - anyone else??? (sorry if TMI)

[looneytune]

Hi

I am a childminder and started with an 8 week old baby on Thursday. After speaking with her mum, I'm after some advice about her poos as neither of us have seen anything like it with a young baby.

Normally (afaik) poos are runny and bright like mustard. This baby had a poo whilst with me and it was a darker colour, not at all mustard, and was really thick and sticky. Her mum said sometimes it's that compact, the baby can poo on a wipe!!! (she described it as being like a dog poo)

Whilst it's great that it's not messy, we're concerned if this means anything? Baby USUALLY only poos every 2/3 days and does get a lot of tummy discomfort, like she may be constipated?

Any suggestions? Or anyone else know of a baby pooing like this?

TIA

Bump

What milk is the baby on? Friend had moved her baby onto hungry baby milk in desperation, but the babies poos went a bit like you describe.

I'm not sure what milk as bottles already made up. I'll find out

bump

I think this can be a characteristic of bottle fed babies poos,I thought mustard poos tended to be from BF babies.
Only pooiing every 2/3 days does sound concerning. If she also has tummy discomfort, I think the GP or HV should be consulted.

Breastfed babies can be sensitive to the iron supplement their mum is taking. In my ds2's case it made his poo darker, thicker, and less frequent. As soon as I was told about this I stopped taking the iron supplement and within days his poos were normal in colour, consistency and texture.

Bottlefed babies can be sensitive to the iron in their formula, and I imagine that it would have a similar effect on their poo. Has she tried chagning to a different formula for several days?

I meant to write: normal in colour, consistency and frequency.

my 14 week old had this from birth till 9 weeks was on sma gold but hard for her to digest hence hard stools and tummy ache.

HV suggested aptamil swapped and much less tummy pain but still only poos every 2/3 days Hv doesnt seem to think a problem as poos soft and runny and as far as I am aware no tummy pain

Runny mustard type poos are usually breastfed babies. Formula fed babies often have firm formed stools.

My DS(6mo) is BF and only pooed every 4/5 days until we started to wean. As he only pooed every 4/5 days they were obviously higher in volume but also darker and firmer than some other babies. There was nothing wrong with him although he did get some tummy discomfort on a 'poo day'.

My daughter was breastfed and only pooed once a week. They were proper poos. She didn't strain. She wasn't constipated, it was just normal for her. Is the formula being made up in the correct manner. The advice is that bottles should be made up as an when needed and not stored and heated up later. She might benefit from a tummy massage after her bath and a few glugs of previously boiled cooled water to up her fluid levels if it is constipation.

Sorry for the delay and thanks to everyone who replied

chocolateface - I used to think that too but I've seen lots of bottle fed babies with the mustard poo too. But, it probably is that most BF have different poo BUT, baby is definitely in pain so something is going on. I know the mum has been to the Dr's and she says their answer to EVERYTHING is 'cooled boiled water' (drink for anything wrong, dab on skin when rash etc)

Prettycandles - thanks, will mention that to mum as she may not have tried switching milk.

ellieandhattie - thanks, will recommend that

missuspirana - thanks for that info, she is providing me with ready made bottles for me to heat. I will research some info on what you said and maybe do a newsletter as this isn't the only baby I look after (although other one gives me cartons of ready made milk to heat)

just a little note re ready made bottles, I do the water in the bottle and have one of those plastic containers with the compartments so I can add powder just before I heat the bottle or alternatively can she leave a box/tin milk at yours so you add powder just before feed?