The short story: 6 month, 3 week old baby is having poops with lots of mucus in them and I am trying to get his digestive system happy.
The long story: We've had problems with mucus in his poops off and on since he was born. He has reflux, which he is taking Prevacid for that. I tried cutting out dairy for 2 weeks when he was a month or two old but I didn't notice a difference so I stopped. We introduced some solids just before he turned 6 months old, rice cereal, oatmeal cereal and butternut squash. At the same time I started eating more nuts and chocolate (around Halloween) which I had previously eaten very little of. After two days of squash he got VERY gassy, waking up every hour or two at night and passing gas. I stopped the solids and cut the nuts and chocolate back out of my diet. After that the gas went away (mostly) but he had several days of green mucusy poops and then just more normal color but still lots of mucus. The pedi checked and there was microscopic blood in his poop. Around this time we also stopped his Prevacid and he started spitting up more but was not fussy about it so I thought it was okay. Then one evening he spit up dried blood, his pedi said he probably retched hard enough that he tore a small blood vessel in his esophagus and to put him back on Prevacid. We did and no more bloody spit up. I have tried probiotics (for me and him), I am block nursing, only one boob for 3-4 hours at a time so I don't think foremilk/hindmilk imbalance is the problem.
The pedi feels it is something in my diet. I've been off wheat (or any gluten), and dairy for 5 days now. I'm probably getting some trace amounts of soy but no major amounts. His eczema actually looked a little less red today but I think he's still got a fair amount of mucus in his poop.
Can mucus in the poop EVER be normal? It has come and gone ever since he was born though I am a little perplexed as to why it is more consistently there now than when I was consuming whatever I wanted to eat. He used to have at least some good seedy poops but now there is mucus in every poop. He goes once a day usually. I'm also getting a little confused about what "normal" even looks like and can only find a few pictures here and there on the internet. He is teething and I've heard that can produce some mucus, but again, I don't know how much is normal. I'm guessing anything that has a slick look/texture to it is mucus?
I'm a little discouraged and feeling guilty about the fact that I really want to eat wheat and/or dairy by Thanksgiving, but I don't know if that's enough time to give the diet a chance. We'll be at my in-laws and it's going to be hard for me to be on such a strict diet. (I know this may not sound strict to some but it is for me.) It would help if I could introduce one or the other back into my diet before then to see which one is the problem (if it is even one of those things). This is assuming the poops get better in the next week or so. I don't really know which food to start eating again/how much to put back in my diet or if I should. The diet is really tough for me, I keep obsessing and googling things about food allergies. I am already underweight and have lost even more weight recently because it's hard to eat enough. I am a fairly picky eater but I am trying to branch out and try to eat healthier.
How much of a problem is mucusy poop, assuming that baby is not having any other symptoms? He gets fussy but I am pretty sure that it is due to teething and just in general wanting attention and not wanting to play by himself.
He has always gained weight just fine and was 18 lb, 13 oz at his 6 month visit.
The long story: We've had problems with mucus in his poops off and on since he was born. He has reflux, which he is taking Prevacid for that. I tried cutting out dairy for 2 weeks when he was a month or two old but I didn't notice a difference so I stopped. We introduced some solids just before he turned 6 months old, rice cereal, oatmeal cereal and butternut squash. At the same time I started eating more nuts and chocolate (around Halloween) which I had previously eaten very little of. After two days of squash he got VERY gassy, waking up every hour or two at night and passing gas. I stopped the solids and cut the nuts and chocolate back out of my diet. After that the gas went away (mostly) but he had several days of green mucusy poops and then just more normal color but still lots of mucus. The pedi checked and there was microscopic blood in his poop. Around this time we also stopped his Prevacid and he started spitting up more but was not fussy about it so I thought it was okay. Then one evening he spit up dried blood, his pedi said he probably retched hard enough that he tore a small blood vessel in his esophagus and to put him back on Prevacid. We did and no more bloody spit up. I have tried probiotics (for me and him), I am block nursing, only one boob for 3-4 hours at a time so I don't think foremilk/hindmilk imbalance is the problem.
The pedi feels it is something in my diet. I've been off wheat (or any gluten), and dairy for 5 days now. I'm probably getting some trace amounts of soy but no major amounts. His eczema actually looked a little less red today but I think he's still got a fair amount of mucus in his poop.
Can mucus in the poop EVER be normal? It has come and gone ever since he was born though I am a little perplexed as to why it is more consistently there now than when I was consuming whatever I wanted to eat. He used to have at least some good seedy poops but now there is mucus in every poop. He goes once a day usually. I'm also getting a little confused about what "normal" even looks like and can only find a few pictures here and there on the internet. He is teething and I've heard that can produce some mucus, but again, I don't know how much is normal. I'm guessing anything that has a slick look/texture to it is mucus?
I'm a little discouraged and feeling guilty about the fact that I really want to eat wheat and/or dairy by Thanksgiving, but I don't know if that's enough time to give the diet a chance. We'll be at my in-laws and it's going to be hard for me to be on such a strict diet. (I know this may not sound strict to some but it is for me.) It would help if I could introduce one or the other back into my diet before then to see which one is the problem (if it is even one of those things). This is assuming the poops get better in the next week or so. I don't really know which food to start eating again/how much to put back in my diet or if I should. The diet is really tough for me, I keep obsessing and googling things about food allergies. I am already underweight and have lost even more weight recently because it's hard to eat enough. I am a fairly picky eater but I am trying to branch out and try to eat healthier.
How much of a problem is mucusy poop, assuming that baby is not having any other symptoms? He gets fussy but I am pretty sure that it is due to teething and just in general wanting attention and not wanting to play by himself.
He has always gained weight just fine and was 18 lb, 13 oz at his 6 month visit.
