GREEN POO??

[owlgirl]

I have a 3-4 week old newborn. She is EBF and we're CDing. She goes through about 15-20 prefolds a day. Lots of poos and pees. I have noticed some are greenish. Same consistency as the yellow seedy ones but wondering why they are green. She cries and had us uo until 5am last night, eats every 1-3 hours and I have reading a lot about latose allergies, etc. Of course I am playing different scenarios in my mind, Is she colicky? Gassy? Allergies? I do have a 'forceful' letdown reflex....anyway, I am a bit delerious so I'll stick to the main ?? Does anyway know if green poos are normal??

[Knitting Mama]

Green poop that is not mucousy is a hallmark of hindmilk/foremilk imbalance, which is very common with a forceful letdown. Kellymom has a great article on what to do to help with it. Basically block feeding is the way to go, but here are details:

http://www.kellymom.com/bf/supply/fast-letdown.html

[whozeyermamma]

Exactly what Cecilia's mom says.

I had the same thing - and block feeding fixed it.

[eleonrauis]

My older DS had some green poo that was caused by my multivitamin.  I never would have figured it out if I hadn't forgotten to take them with us on vacation. 

[JudiAU]

Do you take an iron supplement? Very common cause of green poop. Not harmful at all.

[northcountrymamma]

NAK...

Just dealing with this exact same thing...except one full day of block feeding fixed it and we are back to yellow.  

Now if we can only figure out this diaper rash (with hemp CD's) and the excessive spit up 

[MadTown16]

My son will be 4 weeks tomorrow and almost all of his poops are green.  They had all transitioned to yellow during the second week, but have been green for the past two weeks and they're pretty watery.  Everything else with him seems normal though, so I haven't thought too much about it.  I don't have any suggestions or ideas, but now I'm also wondering if I should be concerned.  I don't take iron supplements--just a probiotic and placenta capsules at the moment.  I already do block feeding and it hasn't changed his poops yet.  I'll be curious to know if you figure it out.  

[LaydieBugs]

We had that too, about the same time period I think.  I didn't have a forceful letdown but it still seemed to be oversupply, so I tried block feeding.  It did the trick.  My midwife had warned me when he was born, that constant switching from breast to breast was overrated.  A few times since I thought the problem returned, but it was the diapers ... his first diapers were bleached flats, and his second diapers were unbleached.  The tiny bit of difference in color makes his poo look green.  

[FarrenSquare]

Originally Posted by MadTown16 

My son will be 4 weeks tomorrow and almost all of his poops are green.  They had all transitioned to yellow during the second week, but have been green for the past two weeks and they're pretty watery.  Everything else with him seems normal though, so I haven't thought too much about it.  I don't have any suggestions or ideas, but now I'm also wondering if I should be concerned.  I don't take iron supplements--just a probiotic and placenta capsules at the moment.  I already do block feeding and it hasn't changed his poops yet.  I'll be curious to know if you figure it out.  

Watery isn't ideal. Your LO is probably getting too much foremilk. Definitely try block feeding: feed from one breast for several feeds before you switch, that way your son will have a better chance to get that creamy thick hindmilk.
 

[P.J.]

Originally Posted by JudiAU 

Do you take an iron supplement? Very common cause of green poop. Not harmful at all.

Wow, I didn't know that. DS had a lot of green poop when he was a newborn, and I always worried about it, and both my midwife and pediatrician said it was not a big deal. I was taking iron until DS was about 6 weeks old. I wonder if that had anything to do with it.

He does still get a green poo every now and then though.

[sssheri]

My best advice is to not worry about it if it is occasional and if your lo is is gaining weight and is otherwise healthy. They seem to get some random green poo from time to time. The crying doesn't mean she is necessarily in pain either. My ds cried all the time up until 6 weeks and I thought everything might be the culprit (forceful let down? gas? allergy? colic?). Turns out she just wanted to be in the womb. We also didn't realize we needed to give her lots of naps, which led to better sleeping at night and less crying during the day. Carrying her in a snug moby wrap while bouncing on an exercise ball helped a lot. She started to calm down around 6 weeks and each week as she gets more and more aware of the world is much less fussy. Now she pretty only cries when she is tired. Every baby is different but I wouldn't start looking for medical reasons for her crying just yet. I hope you are able to get some sleep soon!

[crystal_buffaloe]

Occasional green poop is a variation of normal. Frequent green poop, especially combined with fussy/gassy behavior could mean:

• oversupply
• dairy sensitivity
• virus

When my LO had a period of vexing green poop, it turned out to be oversupply (which sounds like the case with a lot of other PP as well). We did block feeding for a while (and built up to a 6-hour increment at one point) before the poops turned back yellow.

[owlgirl]

UPDATE...resolved with 6 hour block feedings!! YAY!! THANKS!!!

[Knitting Mama]

Excellent! So happy to hear it, mama!

[crystal_buffaloe]

Fantastic news!

You can ease back into switiching sides every other feeding after a while, too.

Very glad to hear that it's worked out!

[northcountrymamma]

great news mamma!

Originally Posted by crystal_buffaloe 

Fantastic news!

You can ease back into switiching sides every other feeding after a while, too.

Very glad to hear that it's worked out!

how long before one can do this??