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vinegar poop?

20K views 18 replies 13 participants last post by  MaxiMom 
#1 ·
Last week ds (4.5 months old) had really strong vinegary smelling, green poop, and was really crabby. As soon as that cleared up, he came down with a cold. Now that the cold is done with, the vinegar poop is back. And he cries all day. Plus, he is nursing like crazy too. He won't sleep during the day unless he's still on the boob. He's night waking a lot more too, and his feedings are lasting longer. Anyone know what this is? And what the vinegar smell is from???

Ami

ETA: He also has a redness all around the inside of his butt cheeks--where both meet. Looks like irritated skin, not a yeast rash. I hope that makes sense, lol. I am just using olive oil on it as a cream each diaper change but it doesn't help. I was using desitin, but gave that up when it wasn't clearing up. I use the unscented hypoallergenic wipes but am going to switch to water soon.
 
#2 ·
Sounds like it could be a food sensitivity popping up. Same thing happened to my DS around that age. All of a sudden dairy and soy were horrible for him. The red ring around the anus is usually a clear sign. I think mine had more foul smelling poo as well around that time. Maybe try cutting some things out of your diet and see if it helps. The nursing all day could also be a growth spurt.

eta: and I have always found Weleda Diaper creme to be the best at clearing up any rash, often overnight.
 
#3 ·
My baby girl has had this for three weeks now. I took her to the doctor, they don't know what it is (he is not a pedi). Also, her BM are soft, almost diarrhea. I stayed off milk, dairy and eggs for about a week, the first two-three days she went back to normal poop, then it was green and smelly all over again, so I gave up the diet. She also has bad eczema, that cleared up the first couple of days, then it reappeared. We have an appt. with a gastroenterologist, but it is in February (we couldn't get an appt. sooner), so I think I will go back to a more strict elimination diet, to see if anything helps. I will post again if there are any changes, please let me know how it goes for you too! Ah, my daughter has also been teething, but the teeth are out and her poop is still soft, smelly, and has mucous in it.
 
#4 ·
Thanks for the diaper cream suggestion, Angelika. I've done the elimination diet & found that corn, potatoes, garlic & onions cause gas. I'm allergic to milk so I don't eat any. Small amounts might get past me--but this change has been recent. Is it possible for him to suddenly develop another allergy?

Dulce_mami, I visited his ped & she was no help--just said everything was normal. Like the severe colic that lasted all day for 13 solid weeks was "normal."

I may try the chiro again, he helped a lot with the colic. I have a feeling tho that the first thing he's going to take out is grains. Appparently since lo's tummies are permeable at this age, any grain protein or gluten can cause major reactions.

I thought it might be a tummy bug but from what? I'm almost neurotic with how often I change/clean things that come into contact with his mouth.
 
#5 ·
What is going on with these docs??? I suggested my dr. when my DD was around 4 months that my daughter may have allergies and he said something like: you can look up foods on the internet that cause allergies and try to eliminate them, but you will drive yourself crazy with this, so basically it's not worth it
: I really like him (he was OK with no/delayed vax, he insists that kids should get only good healthy foods etc.), but this thing with the allergies has been driving me crazy and he did not help much with it.

I am now almost convinced that my DD has some food allergy/intolerance. I worried so much about her especially since she gained very little weight after 4-5 months (she is now almost 17.5 lbs at 11 months and was 7 lbs 14 oz at birth). Anyway, I am back on the elimination diet, I hope in two weeks I will have some answers.

About your daughter, JTA Mom, are you sure she had a cold? My daughter has had many ``colds" over the past few months, red watery eyes, a lot of nasal drainage, night sweats, followed by digestive problems that I now think were episodes of allergies.
 
#6 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by dulce_mami View Post
My baby girl has had this for three weeks now. I took her to the doctor, they don't know what it is (he is not a pedi). Also, her BM are soft, almost diarrhea. I stayed off milk, dairy and eggs for about a week, the first two-three days she went back to normal poop, then it was green and smelly all over again, so I gave up the diet. She also has bad eczema, that cleared up the first couple of days, then it reappeared. We have an appt. with a gastroenterologist, but it is in February (we couldn't get an appt. sooner), so I think I will go back to a more strict elimination diet, to see if anything helps. I will post again if there are any changes, please let me know how it goes for you too! Ah, my daughter has also been teething, but the teeth are out and her poop is still soft, smelly, and has mucous in it.
I think returning to the elimination diet is a good idea. It usually takes more than one week for the body to recover when you eliminate a food you (or baby) are sensitive to. Many people with sensitivities don't notice symptoms if they eat the food once, or even right after eating it, but rather if they eat it regularly they get symptoms regularly. If you suspect dairy, I'd give it a month for sure.

On the rash thing...I have used olive oil or vitamin E oil for certain raw skin issues, but I mostly just use cornstarch. It works great to keep them dry and clear up the problem.
 
#7 ·
Is your ds feeling better, JTA Mom? I think my daughter is getting worse despite my diet. She used to have about 2-3 poopy diapers a day (after she got sick) and they were soft. Now she has about 5 or 6 and they are diarrhea. She has been eating very little over the past couple of days and she has a dirty diaper within 10 minutes after she eats. I thought I will wait a week to see how the diet is working, but I may take her to the dr. again tomorrow : (
 
#8 ·
We had this with my DS2, my immediate thought was an allergy, but I couldn't find anything that it would of been. We did some more research, and noticed that the green, smelly poop would happen right around when he was about to break a tooth in. I read that excessive saliva can cause the poop to be green.
 
#9 ·
I heard the same thing about the poop color, Jes. But I don't see any teeth. How long does it take for a tooth to come thru?

Dulce_mama, it might be some allergies. Ds is still fighting the stuffy nose (always the last to go), but he always wakes up with some stuffyness since he was 2 weeks old. He is better in moist conditions and during the rest of the day.

I took out any & all sources of dairy (broke down & ate some pumpkin pie
), and the poop color has changed back to yellowish. But the smell is still there. His poor bum is all red! The hypoallergenic wipes are burning him too. I feel so horrible.
Anyone tried mixing lanolin & olive oil together as a cream? I'm thinking of trying that.

But the first time he had this, dulce_mami, he acted exactly like your daughter. He wasn't really interested in food, and lots of poop. Keep offering lots of nursing. And rush change those poopy diapers. Honestly, if she's otherwise acting ok, no fever, the pedi won't do much other than check for blood. Like the smell, color & consistency doesn't matter.

Is she otherwise okay?
 
#10 ·
My family doc said that teething can cause the green smelly poop because the pH of the saliva changes at the start of the teething process (presumably it's part of the process of getting ready to eat solids). But I think an elimination diet of at least two weeks is also a good idea.
 
#11 ·
I am sorry to hear about the diaper rash
My DD had several episodes, one in particular was awful, it lasted over a week. We finally got rid of it by letting her stay during the day and at night naked (only the butt, of course). It was summer, but still kind of chilly in the house, so at night I would wrap her in a blanket, very loosely. We put a cover over the mattress, and yes, it was lot of laundry, but that finally worked. Also during those days I just washed her butt with water after pooping and dried it and put nothing on it. I think it took less than two days to get better. I gave up the wipes completely, my DH still uses them, he does not like to wash poop
Also, we used cloth diapers in her early months, unfortunately, I had to give them up, it invariably gave her diaper rashes.

My DD's poop was back to being just soft today, so I am postponing the visit to the dr. She is happy during the day, but she sleeps poorly during the day and at night, I don't know if she has cramps and kind of forgets about them while she plays.

Hope we all wake up tomorrow with no more worries of poop, diaper rashes or other problems for our children!
 
#12 ·
I agree with PPs:
1-- DD always has the green, mucousy poop when getting a tooth *or* when she has a runny nose for any other reason.
2-- I don't use wipes at all any more. They were causing (or maybe just exacerbating) a pretty bad rash. I use Viva select-a-size paper towels (torn in half) moistened with water, and they work wonderfully.
 
#13 ·
I just posted on this subject too. So the watery green poop is ok for over a week if it's from a tooth? I've kept her bottom in pretty good shape by changing her immediately and just hanging her bottom over the sink and rinsing it, so at least I don't have to worry about that too!
 
#14 ·
DS has been having the green soft poop lately. Just today, I noticed it definitely has a vinegar smell to it and came searching for this thread. I know that he's teething right now, so I'm thinking that's probably it. He doesn't have any rash, just the vinegar smelling poop. Whew! lol
 
#15 ·
In order to stop the green poop, eliminate sugar, sugar substitutes, fruits (inc. banana, avocado, oranges, etc.), juices, soda, chocolate, alcohol, from your diet. Some foods such as yogurt contain sugar so that would also have to be eliminated. In a few days the green poop should be gone.
 
#16 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by mamavegan View Post
DS has been having the green soft poop lately. Just today, I noticed it definitely has a vinegar smell to it and came searching for this thread. I know that he's teething right now, so I'm thinking that's probably it. He doesn't have any rash, just the vinegar smelling poop. Whew! lol
My daughter just started to have green vinegar smelling poop. Same as your DS, no rash but just green poo. (I'm suddenly hearing James Doohan in my head exclaiming "It's green?!")
 
#17 ·
I gave my daughter more chicken and even some steak (I was worried that she is losing too many calories since she is eating very little and her weight is already on the low side) and her poop became darker and instead of the vinegar smell, it has more of a foul smell. But the BMs were a little harder, so it seemed to work against diarrhea. See what happens tomorrow...
 
#18 ·
I'm so glad this thread is here--DD has had diarrhea twice today and tonight it smelled strongly like vinegar. It kinda weirded me out. She had thrown up a couple of times yesterday so I thought maybe she has some kind of bug... But she also just had a tooth break through yesterday... We'll see how she is tomorrow morning...
 
#19 ·
Ok, mine started the green mucousy poop,too. Her bum and labia are all red, poor thing. I thought maybe it was something she ate, dd was happily gnawing on a pickle at dinner last night.
She has no allergies from me as far as I know and my diet hasn't changed.

However, she is teething really hard right now. At nine months, she is getting her sixth tooth and I think more are coming in on the bottom.

Thanks for the info, ladies! Hope all your babes are feeling better.
 
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