Moving to cows milk - the most horrific poos

[RandomCatGenerator]

Hi everyone

DS is 12.5 months old and the move to cows milk is going pretty well. He seems to like it and doesn’t seem bothered about switching formula for cows milk.

BUT…oh my goodnsss the poos. He’s doing 5-6 poos a day, they’re a dark green, almost black, a very thick consistency. And the SMELL. I almost retched while changing him today.

is this normal?

No I wouldn’t say that’s normal. Maybe a slight change in habits but that sounds quite extreme. Unfortunately GPs don’t tend to be that well informed on this sort of thing but I would get him checked over.

did he previously have regular cows milk formula?

Yep he had cows milk formula.

Its the sort of colour and consistency of his poo when he first started having solid foods…

My DS was similar not green but nasty poos.. we saw gp and are awaiting dietician referral.

Have a look at my thread from yesterday, there were some really helpful comments.

@RandomCatGenerator Did you get to the cause of the disgusting poos??? I could have written your post, actually I basically have but on a different thread before I found this one.
LO poos are absolutely horrendous since switching to cows milk. It can't possibly be normal, is it?

Hey @Bluestripeysocks - we’re awaiting a dietician referral from the doctor BUT we almost totally cut cut lactose out of his diet and the problem has resolved itself… I thought it might be lactose because lactose intolerance and lactose sensitivity are strongly represented in my family. So we give him lactose free whole milk, cheese and yoghurt - very wash adjustment to diet really although the lactose free alternatives are often pricier.

It has made a world of difference!

*easy adjustment

Did you just stop the formula and switch to full cows milk? You could try a gradual change over. 6oz formula with 2oz cows milk then 4oz & 4oz 2oz & 6oz etc over a few weeks giving his digestive system chance to get used to the change.. might be too late for this way now though. Did he have cows milk on cereal etc ok before?

@nottodaytomorrow we tried it gradually. Did not go well. He can take small amounts - if he has a normal petit filou he’s fine. So it’s not full on intolerance. It just results in absolutely foul poos, sometimes 7 or 8 of them a day.

My DD was the same after we first switched from formula to cows milk.
She had cows milk formula and was always fine with yoghurt
We checked with GP and she said apparently it happens often and told us to give lactose-free for a few weeks and then try again.
We did exactly that, we were giving her lactose free milk for about a month and then tried again and she was fine, no problems at all.