Warning - TMI and pictures - why is baby's poo green?!

[KeepCalmMumma]

Sorry in advance for the descriptions in this post...!

My 6 month old DD has been having a lot of bright green, mucus-y poos over the past week and I'm starting to get a little worried about what it could be. I'm planning to call the GP first thing tomorrow morning but wondered if anyone here might have had a similar experience with their LO and be able to offer some guidance.

We started weaning her a little early at about 4.5 - 5 months, but before that she was EBF (with expressed milk given in a bottle on some occasions). She took to weaning really well, we started with baby rice then moved to pureed veg and fruits, and very recently started offering greek yogurt, some bits of toast, pasta, egg, and some other non-veg items that seemed low-risk. We have offered cod, chicken and sausage when we've had them with our dinner (in BLW style chunks) but she refused all of them and we haven't tried since.

About 6 days ago she started having very green, watery poos with mucus multiple times a day. Before then, she pooed once every couple of days and it was as you'd expect from a EBF baby that was starting purees, so I had no concerns. I can't tie the start of the bad poos with anything in particular, but she's generally been okay in herself (other than a bit less settled at night) and hasn't got a temperature. When she does go, it often sounds very gassy. Any ideas on what this could be? I wondered if it was potentially an allergy, teething, or some kind of infection...

All thoughts welcome! Pics attached.

Hmm... it's difficult to say (teething, allergy, illness...), but both of my babies had green/mucusy nappies when teething or when they had a cough/cold. If ok in herself I'd wonder if it might be a food processing thing... have you give her anything unusual in the last week or so? Certain fruit and veg can do "interesting" things to poo when weaning!

Green poo basically means their digestive tract is inflamed and passing things through too quickly. This can be just because new foods need time to get used to. It could also be a bug. It could be an allergy. Non-ige allergies (which have stomach symptoms rather than breathing/anaphylaxis) often show symptoms up to 72 hours after the food has been eaten, so if it was a dairy issue and the Greek yogurt caused it then the resulting green nappy could be almost four days later.

@Poppins2016 I can't think of anything fruit and veg-wise, but she has had yogurt and bread which are both common allergens, I suppose. I'd be surprised as there's no history of allergies in my family or my DH's, but I guess it's possible!

@CuriousPorg thanks, that's interesting about the 72 hour delay. Would I therefore expect it to take 72 hours after the last time she had the relevant food to clear up? I've stopped giving her anything other than carrot now, which I know she is fine with as we spent about a week giving it to her with no issues (thankfully).

My DC had poo like that just before teeth came through, I think they were swallowing gallons of saliva as they were especially dribbly children.

@GloomySkies that's interesting, I also have a very dribbly child who is tugging at her gums a lot currently. I can't see any teeth looking like they're about to poke through though. She's chomping on everything at the moment but that's been the case for about 8 weeks now, so I didn't really think anything of it...

It's up to 72 hours, so a reaction could be an hour later or 71 hours later, that's why non-ige allergies can be so tricky to pinpoint (and they don't show up in allergy tests!) It can take weeks for symptoms to stop, it depends on how much damage was done to the gut.

@CuriousPorg I see, thank you for explaining. I suspect I'll just have to wait it out and try allergens again a little bit down the line!

I know there is a bad bug going around at the moment