Brownish Green mucusy poo

[Katie T]

I have a question for you wise ladies. My sister has a 14 wk old who ever since her mature milk came in has had brownish green mucusy poos. Every diper change, she is fussy and spitty sometimes projectile She was born weighing 10 lbs 1 oz and at 3 months was up to 16 lbs so is gaining great. She is going to try and eliminate dairy from her diet and was wondering how long something needs to be out of your diet to see a difference if that is the problem food? Sorry this is all over the place kids are being crazy lol. Thanks for any ideas as to what is causing this and suggestions.

[Ruthiegirl]

Originally Posted by Katie T

I have a question for you wise ladies. My sister has a 14 wk old who ever since her mature milk came in has had brownish green mucusy poos. Every diper change, she is fussy and spitty sometimes projectile She was born weighing 10 lbs 1 oz and at 3 months was up to 16 lbs so is gaining great. She is going to try and eliminate dairy from her diet and was wondering how long something needs to be out of your diet to see a difference if that is the problem food? Sorry this is all over the place kids are being crazy lol. Thanks for any ideas as to what is causing this and suggestions.

Ahhh, green poop. Green poop indicates an excessive amount of lactose going through the gut. It does NOT indicate lactose intolerance and this is good news for your sister. Eliminating dairy from her diet will probably have NO effect on the poop situation.

You mention that the baby is gaining weight well -- this also indicates that this is not a lactose intolerance, but rather a foremilk/hindmilk imbalance. Truely lactose intolerant babies are rare and they tend to not gain weight well.

What green poop tells us is that the baby is receiving inbalanced milk, too much foremilk and not quite enough hindmilk. When the baby goes to the breast, the first wave of milk is thinner -- terrific for quenching a baby's thirst. When moms talk about having a strong letdown, this is what they are feeling. A heavy flow of thin, sweet foremilk. After the baby has nursed for a few mintues, the milk flow slows and the breast releases more fat. This fat is the gold of breastmilk. It is richer and satisfying.

When a baby has green poop, it lets us know that the overall composition of the feedings are heavy on foremilk. A baby who is nursing primarily on foremilk will be hungry! They will want more since they are not getting the fattier milk. So, they nurse more and more leading to the projectile spitting that your sister is seeing.

How to fix it?

More time at each breast. We need for the baby to completely empty the breast. This may mean that your sister will only need to nurse on one side per feeding if she has a larger supply of milk. But it is important that the baby empty the breast well.

If she nurses well on the right and the baby is sleepy and satisfied, she can then save the left side for the next feeding. If the left gets too full and uncomfortable, she can release a little either through hand expressing or pumping just a little (1/4 C or less). She should take care to not pump a lot at this point, since she really does not need to increase her supply.

Great article about foremilk/hindmilk imbalance:

http://www.llli.org/FAQ/foremilk.html


Scattered typing. Apologies. Nursing my own wee one to sleep.

[Katie T]

Thanks so much Ruthiegirl are you a LC? You seem to know your stuff. That leads me so another question my niece really will only take the left side only sometimes can my sis trick her into taking the other could there still b a imbalance?

[Ruthiegirl]

Originally Posted by Katie T

Thanks so much Ruthiegirl are you a LC? You seem to know your stuff. That leads me so another question my niece really will only take the left side only sometimes can my sis trick her into taking the other could there still b a imbalance?

No, not a LC. Just a La Leche League leader. Not sure what you mean. The baby prefers the left breast? Does she nurse on the right at all?

[EmilyG]

Thanks for the info, I decided to just join, rather than having my sister talk for me!

My baby is 3.5 months (15 weeks) and has had this greenish brown mucousy liquidy poop since my mature milk came in at 2-3 weeks. I wasn't too worried about it since she is gaining weight well, was 10lbs1ounce at birth and is now just over 16 pounds, but my mom suggested over the weekend that although she may be getting all the calories she needs, she may not be getting all the nutrients. This got me worrying!

DD nurses every 3-6 hours, probably about 5-10 minutes at each session. She mostly only nurses on the one side, I think the right flows too fast for her. I feed her on the left throughout the day, and pump the right once or twice a day. At night I can usually get her to nurse on the right since she's half asleep while eating. She doesn't take both breasts at a feeding. Is it possible that I make too much foremilk? I nursed my older dd who is now 4, until she was 18 months old, and never had any issues like this. I really hope it isn't a lactose intolerance, I don't eat meat, so I do eat a lot of cheese and dairy in my diet.
Thanks for any ideas!

[Ruthiegirl]

I have never read about a decrease in nutrient absorption in a baby with foremilk/hindmilk imbalance. Most babies I have seen with the green poops have been big healthy babies with no other symptoms. Does your mom have a reference? Was this something she has seen before?

And I would go slow before assuming an intolerance to cow's milk. Yes, some babies are sensitive to cow's milk and can be helped by reducing/eliminating milk in the mother's diet, but it is not as common as people believe.

The pumped milk -- does she take that in a bottle? Is there a bit of fat skimming the surface? You might notice this when you refrigerate the milk.

Do you feel that the breast is empty after your daughter nurses? Is the breast soft?

How are your nursing sessions? Does your daughter seem calm? Or is she active and distracted?

Is she eating/drinking anything other than breastmilk?

[EmilyG]

Originally Posted by Ruthiegirl

I have never read about a decrease in nutrient absorption in a baby with foremilk/hindmilk imbalance. Most babies I have seen with the green poops have been big healthy babies with no other symptoms. Does your mom have a reference? Was this something she has seen before?

And I would go slow before assuming an intolerance to cow's milk. Yes, some babies are sensitive to cow's milk and can be helped by reducing/eliminating milk in the mother's diet, but it is not as common as people believe.

The pumped milk -- does she take that in a bottle? Is there a bit of fat skimming the surface? You might notice this when you refrigerate the milk.

Do you feel that the breast is empty after your daughter nurses? Is the breast soft?

How are your nursing sessions? Does your daughter seem calm? Or is she active and distracted?

Is she eating/drinking anything other than breastmilk?

No, I don't think my mom had any real idea what she was talking about, I think she just threw it out there as a possibility, that maybe I should look into why she's not having normal yellow seedy poo.

Yes, I work weekends so she takes bottles of pumped milk then, and there is probably 1/16th to 1/8th of fat at the surface, you can clearly see the milk separated into three layers when it sits in the fridge, shouldn't I see a difference in her diapers after having bottles of pumped milk?

I don't always feel that she empties the breast at each feeding, often I think she gets mad when the flow of milk starts to slow down and pulls off fussing and wants to stop eating before fully emptying. She is a pretty fussy baby, she rarely seems contented to just sit. She also spits up quite a bit, my first never spit up, sometimes it's really clear and watery, but other times it's curdy, chunky milk. I just don't know.

She is EBF, she's never had anything but breastmilk.

[Ruthiegirl]

Your milk sounds wonderful. And it sounds like you are doing everything just right.

I should have asked this sooner, but is every poop a green poop?

[EmilyG]

yes, she's never had a "normal" diaper, I guess this is normal for her.
My husband thinks it's more brown than green.
With a foremilk/hindmilk imbalance, I don't really need to worry about her do I, just try to get her to nurse longer at each session, but it's not that big of a deal?