blood in poop

[nintendork]

Hey mamas.  Our LO has been experiencing blood in his poop and our pediatrician had me remove milk and soy from my diet to see if it is a food sensitivity.  This morning marks 7 days since changing my diet and LO had his bloodiest diaper yet.  We are going to call the pediatrician when the office opens but I was wondering if anyone else has been through this.  Any advice?  

[PatioGardener]

It can take several weeks to eliminate cow and soy protein (if you eat beef you will want to stop that too). And there are so many hidden sources as well - do you have a list of those too? There are several mamas here who are dairy and soy free who I'm sure will post it if you don't.

I think I remember reading that over active let down can also cause problems with blood in baby's stool, so working on that may help as well.

And seeing baby's doc asap!

Hang in there!

[Llyra]

My son had blood in his stool as a newborn. We eventually narrowed it down to casein intolerance (dairy protein). (He is also soy-allergic. He's four years old now, and outgrew the dairy problem, but soy is definitely still a no-go.) It can take several days to a few weeks for the dairy to clear your system. However, if you've eliminated dairy and the diapers are getting MORE bloody, I think I'd be alarmed. It may be that something more is going on here. It could be that you are still getting some of the offending foods somehow (look for hidden dairy and soy in packaged foods--- it can hide out under many names). It could be that it's a different food that's causing the issue-- eggs, for instance, or something else. It could also be that this isn't a food intolerance at all, and further testing is needed to determine what's going on. I think you're right to be looking for medical attention-- I would be doing the same.

Overactive letdown would not be my first thought here. Blood in the stool signals an injury to the intestine. Overactive letdown often leads to too much lactose, but the usual symptoms of that are green, frothy stools, not blood. Sometimes the cause of blood is fairly innocuous, but sometimes it's not, and it's worth taking very seriously.

I sure hope you find out what's going on here soon, and that it turns out it's no big deal. I was so worried when my DS was having bloody diapers, so I can imagine that you must be so anxious.

[PatioGardener]

Originally Posted by Llyra 

Overactive letdown would not be my first thought here. Blood in the stool signals an injury to the intestine. Overactive letdown often leads to too much lactose, but the usual symptoms of that are green, frothy stools, not blood. Sometimes the cause of blood is fairly innocuous, but sometimes it's not, and it's worth taking very seriously.
 

good point, Llyra. my thinking was more on the lines that oald might make the symptoms of an already existing milk/soy sensitivity worse.(but I can't remember where i got that notion, and with a teething 10 month old my sleep/memory is not what it could be!)

I also agree that more blood after cutting out foods is alarming, and worth an urgent trip to the ped.

[danipoppins]

My 5 yo had mucousy bloody stills as an infant and it was b/c of dairy. Just went to the ped thus morning w/ the 3 week old. I asked her what to look for in terms of anaphylaxis/allergy b/c DS is ana to peanuts and we didn't know until he directly ingested it. She said bloody mucous in stools.

Other big offenders to consider are eggs and gluten. You could also keep a food diary for you and if you're not seeing blood with every stool, maybe you can make some connections with what you're eating that might be the cause.

[ibusymomto5]

My 3rd dd had some blood in her efb poop within the first couple of weeks. For us, I was not eating/drinking hardly any dairy so didn't really think that was it. What we figured it out to be was a citrus allergy. I had been drinking tons of orange juice and eating tomato foods, and as soon as I stopped those the blood went away. Each time I tried to add it in over the next several weeks she would immediately have little bits of blood in her diaper and even get rashy little bumps where the poop had been sitting. She finally outgrew it after 6 months or so. So, maybe try eliminating something else and experiment to see if it helps?