WWYD - 3mo old and mucous poop = food allergy?

[gumshoegirl007]

My DD is now 3 months old and about 3 weeks ago we began to have some poop/spit up issues. She's EBF. For the first 2 months of her life we had no issues with her poop or spit up.  She transitioned from the newborn pooping frequency to pooping every 3-5 days with the characteristic yellow/mustardy poops, often smelling like vinegar, that were really huge.

Suddenly about 3 weeks ago she began to have these really large spit ups, she was pretty gassy, was considerably more fussy, and her poop went mucousy.  It also increased in frequency to the point where she was pooping 6+ times a day, however, the amount she pooped each time would diminish as the day went on.  I started to keep a food journal, but didn't really see anything.  We also went to the doctor for her 2 month check up and had her look at the baby's bum for the allergy ring and she said everything was okay.  After a week, this subsided and DD"s poops went back to every 3+ days with the consistency and smell you'd expect from a breastfed baby.  We thought that she perhaps had a virus or something.

Last Saturday (1 week ago), this all started again (minus the excessive spit up and fussiness) and we've been at it for a little over a week.  She's pooping ALL of the time.  I'd guess 6-8 times a day.  I'm changing her diaper more often because of poop than pee!  In the morning, there's more of it, but it starts out as yellow coloured with a lot of mucous and seems quite watery.  As the day goes on, she poops less each time, but every time she passes gas it's accompanied by poop.  Sometimes just a shard.  It starts to contain modest green hints as the day goes on but it still remains mucousy (although not as much).

This time, there's been no changes in her personality or her sleep patterns.  We also weighed her again on Friday and she's gained 2lbs in 3 weeks (1.5 weeks of which had this funky poop thing going on).  She's getting a bit of diaper rash because I think the poop is acidic, but I don't see that red allergy ring around her anus.  She's also begun to drool a lot coinciding with this bowel change.

Does this sound like a potential allergy to you?  Since she's gaining weight and not having gas or being fussy or really having any temperament changes, should I be concerned?  What would you do?

[changingseasons]

With the spit up and poop changes, I would be looking for food triggers. Have you tried removing common allergens from your diet to see if things change? Dairy and soy are the most common triggers for babies, followed by things like eggs, gluten, and corn. And make sure to continue the food journal if you do make changes to your diet.

[Naturallove]

My nephew had similar issues, mucous poop and all, at about the same age and my SIL lactation consultant told her it was because he wasn't getting enough of the rich hind milk. She started making sure he drained at least one breast during each feeding and the problem cleared up right away. Good luck!

[LittleKind]

I had the same problem! So frustrating and doctors dont know what to tell you. I went on a strict elimination diet for 6 weeks of only rice, millet, pears, squash, turkey, lamb, potatoes and sweet potatoes because those are the least allergenic foods known....and baby still had problems. Started at about 3 months just like yours.

I asked on these boards, too, and was told (like the poster above me said) that it was a foremilk hindmilk issue. I was skeptical because the frothy green slimy poop was terrible and often bloody!

Here's what I did to get him more hindmilk, and it worked! You may have oversupply and not know it.

Take no "milk teas" or suppliments

Nurse only on one side  for as long as possible. If baby pulls off and is still hungry, continue giving the same breast over and over.

Switch to the other side when it becomes uncomfortably full.

If you're like me, both breasts will begin to feel too full and leak, but your body will get the signal its making too much milk (meaning most of the milk is watery, high in lactose, and irritating to the guts without enough fat to balance it). Your body will begin to make less milk, higher fat milk, and baby will get better.

Anytime I start producing more milk again, baby gets fussy and gets green stool and I know I need to restart the procedure above. The first nilk is always higher in lactose, the later let downs are higher in fat, Make sure baby drains the breast.

Last, it is tempting to just pump off the first milk and then give baby a chance to nurse, but this will increase demand on your body to make milk and make things worse. Good luck!

This is where I got the info that helped me.

http://www.llli.org/faq/oversupply.html

[gumshoegirl007]

Thanks everyone for your replies.  I'm thinking it may be a combo of allergies and a foremilk/hindmilk issues, but I'm hopeful it's just the later and I'm thankful you brought that to my attention..  So far I've been able to eliminate soy and peanuts as possible allergens. We had a reaction after eggs this week, but it was also an engorgement day, so I'm retesting eggs today.  So far, she's having great poops!  If I get an all clear on eggs, I'm going to try dairy tomorrow.  I've eliminated all obvious sources of dairy for the past 2 weeks and there's been overall improvement, but we've had some bad days here and there.

[LittleKind]

I am so glad you're having success and baby is doing better. you are doing great for her by investigating this and keeping up with breastfeeding. Good work, momma!

One more thing, our son drools like mad and gets a diaper rash when he is starting to teeth, even if we cannot see any teeth coming through yet. He was about 3 months when he started teething. So that may be a contributing factor to the drool and rash issue, too. So glad to see everything is working out!

[BabySmurf]

it's sooo hard figuring this stuff out since there can be many potential triggers! i'm also going through this with my DS, although my pedi said that my son was just colicky when i asked him about things at around 3 months, so it took a little while longer for us to start the process.  IME the oversupply syndrome poops are very green and frothy looking, and the allergy poops are a more yellowy green with the mucus.  so if the poops aren't bright green, i would lean more toward the allergy.  (note that dairy can take up to 3 weeks to get out of your system).  mucus can also be caused by an excess of saliva being swallowed, but usually those poops are more acidic and will cause an acid burn (again, this is what happened for my DS).  the other thing that has been happening to us is that DS seems to have only had a bad reaction to dairy when I ate a lot of it, but now that i have cut down on the obvious sources, he is MUCH more sensitive to it.  poor kiddos!!!