Is this normal?! Nappies

[MoorGirl]

Hi all
DD is 12 weeks actual age, 7 weeks adjusted. She poos all the time! I am forever changing nappies 🤦‍♀️😂
Got to laugh, I feel she is fine as happy and gaining weight nicely, but we probably get through 20 nappies a day. When will it end?!

My child with allergies was like that.

20 poos? No that's definitely not normal!

@Lockdownseperation
I have wondered this. She had terrible nappy rash a few weeks back which I thought was as a result of me eating tomatoes so I’ve cut them out (she’s breastfed).

Any other symptoms? Mucus in poo? Vomiting? Pain?

@Lockdownseperation no, poo is normal seedy mustardy stuff. She possets a bit sometimes and is quite windy especially at night, I’ve been using Infacol this week which is helping get the burps up.
She does probably 4-5 proper poos, the rest of the time it’s little bits. No I don’t believe she is in any pain.

No that doesn't sound normal at all. The most my daughter has had is 6 poos in a day and I thought that was bad.

Are you immediately changing her? I find if I did that I would be changing her again in 10 minutes as she hadn't quite finished.

@latheritup I am probably a bit quick to change sometimes yes, because I don’t want the rash to flare up again. When she wakes for a feed at night I change her first, then usually have to change her again after. It makes for quite the interrupted night for both of us. I’ve been waiting for it to slow down thinking it’s just immature digestion 🤷‍♀️

During a night feed I only change if it's dirty rather than wet to not disturb her. Try leaving it 10 minutes before changing after she has done a poo, you might find less nappy usage

You change before a feed and then straight after? That does sound quite excessive.

DS always did a poo and then another one 5 minutes later, so I just waited until he was totally and fully done

Never had nappy rash once in 2 years

20 would seem a lot but I noticed you said 5/6 poos a day. My DS is 17 weeks and EBF and poos a similar amount- I keep wondering when he will be the ‘breastfed babies can go up to 10 days between poos’ that I was told- feel like I’ve been missold!! Haha

No it's not normal. I say this with a child who did the same (every nappy was a poo) and as a toddler still has 4-5 poos a day.
I also found that drs dismissed it because "babies don't get diarrhoea" and " breastfed poo is always runny" and "nothing wrong as long as they're pooing daily". These are all wrong.

I think it's good to change quickly but if you think she's not done hold the the nappy to cover and then blow or use a cold wipe to 'encourage'_the poo. Some babies (inconveniently) just don't like a pooing in a nappy.

My son is allergic to cows milk so I would cut cows milk out of her diet (and yours too if you are breast feeding) for a fortnight and see if it starts improving x

I only change if it’s necessary, but it always is as there is always poo! Little sharts in between proper poos. It’s driving me crazy!

@DwellInPossibility what’s your opinion on the cause?

I never changed before a feed (unless sodden) as after a feed there would always be a poo.

My DS did pooey farts all the time, such a waste of nappies 🙄

20 nappies isn't normal but it sounds like you're just changing them too often rather than your baby pooing too much. If you often have to change after a feed then I'd stop changing them before.

Allergy or intolerance would seem most likely. Try cutting common allergens out of your diet (one at a time for at least two weeks) to see if anything helps. If that doesn't get anywhere then it's rare but lactose intolerance does exist and would need lactase drops rather than cutting it out of your diet. Admittedly it would generally affect consistency but you've nothing to compare it with.

How often is she fed? Dummy? Some babies will poo every single time they're fed even if there's not much there, others need to suck to be able to poo. I think the muscles must be linked in babies. If she's the kind that wants fed constantly then it might ease up with weaning.

Exclusively breastfed? In an older baby it could be overflow from constipation but unlikely without formula or medication (the infacol sounds new). It's been going on too long to be a b ug, and I assume you'd have mentioned antibiotics.

Can you tell when she's pooing? If it was a constant leak I'd be much more concerned that it just being many small poos. If the muscles are doing the right thing then it must be digestion/diet related iyswim.

I would add that just because it's not normal, doesn't necessarily mean it needs to be fixed assuming otherwise happy and healthy. If it is an allergy then many are grown out of and you might just never know what's up. I never got an answer (and there was other indications of digestion issues in my case), but it is slowly improving.

@DwellInPossibility thank you for your reply.
Baby is EBF on demand, generally every 3-4 hours. Occasional dummy use but only started that within the last week. She’s very sucky. The poo is not a constant flow. Sometimes she cries when she poos but not always. An intolerance of some sort would make sense.

My DC2 was going through 12-14 nappies some with proper poos some like pooy farts. I switched to reusable nappies as it was driving me nuts. If I remember rightly it settled down about the 16 week mark.

@Blackbear19 yes that’s what we are getting 😬

Mine did that - seemingly endless poos for the first few months. Mostly bf, occasional formula top-ups. I spoke to GP about it and they were not that interested, other than to sympathise over all the nappy changes. I think it caused DD’s terrible nappy rash, and like you I changed nappy very regularly, in fear of the rash coming back. My own theory is that she was very tiny at birth and after, and her gut was still developing the ability to digest. It lessened around 3 months and by four months it was like a bad dream - fingers crossed it’ll sort ourself out for you too.

@Scythrop thank you, I am keeping everything crossed that this happens!