A very sticky (and green) question

Hi ladies,
I find the best info on the whole internet is from these BB forums so I hope you can help with this:

Did your breastfed baby do green stringy poo? If so, what were you told caused it?

My baby is 3 months old, and in the past week, her poo has been a bit of a worry. My GP told me it could be due to her not getting enough milk. My health care nurse (who rang the paed) said too much milk:rolleyes: and not to worry about it because the weight gain is good (though still 3rd percentile). so it's a bit contradictory.

another theory from the health nurse was wind and pushing the poo through so fast it's not absorbing water??

Hope you can give me some ideas.

P.S Sorry to get detailed but the green poo is sometimes sticky and stringy, sometimes smelly and like tonight the smell is like fresh bread (yeasty? and sweet).

Have you been on ABs at all Murph? When you say stringy, do you mean slimy, mucousy?

When I was on ABs, DS had lots of wind and slimy green (somewhat explosive) poos.
ABs = diarrhoea. Diarrhoea strips gut of lactase, which is the enzyme that breaks down lactose. So baby can't handly lactose so well, so they get a lactose overload = green, runny poo.

A similar thing can happen if you have a very fast letdown, and/or too much milk.

Does she gulp or pull off when you first let down? Have lots of gas? That can be a sign of a fast letdown. Try feeding in a more upright position. Or, try triggerin letdown first, then put her own once it slows down a bit.


At this age they may go a week or so between poos, but they should not be formed at all, liquid is the go. If plenty of wet nappies, gaining weight, alert & happy at least some of the time and developing otherwise, then I don't think it could be a problem with supply.

Why not post in the breastfeeding problems & support section? You'll get the experts over there;) Oh, and you can always give the ABA a call. They'll set you straight :)

Hey Murph

As you know I'm not B/fing Tara but in regard to the "poo" issue, she is on Lactose Free fomula and her poos used to be green and quite runny. I think it was due to a wind issue as since I've started adding the thickener to her bottle I also gave her Infants Friend wind drops (all natural) to make sure that she didn't get constipated and she now has gone back to having normal Mustard Yellow poos although still quite runny. I stopped giving her the drops after a few days once I knew that she was fine with the change and ever since then she has not had a problem with wind at all.

Maybe it is a wind issue and some wind drops might help, Tara was never very windy or showed outward signs of wind it was just her nappies that told me that she was keeping a lot of it in.

Thanks Marcellus and KellyD for your replies.

Marcellus, no I'm not on Abs, and I don't think it's a diarrhoea thing. I guess it is slimy and mucousy looking...eeeww! Other times it is like bigger sized curds (not turds:p), like fatty globs of milk. It might be an idea as you say to ask over at the BF thread. I was told not to worry, but it just doesn't seem like everything is right and I googled like mad lastnight and keep coming across the feeding imbalance theory of too much foremilk.

She is a bit windy (always has been, but I thought all babies must be like that. She likes constant movement and being carried in the leopard lie (tummy down on your arm) and we give her baths to calm it at its worst. Maybe I should try those drops.

My milk does come in very fast and I have just bought a hand pump for expressing to help take the pressure off and I do lie down for some feeds and try to watch our positions.

I'll keep trying and see if things settle down. She is generally very happy, so not too worried. Thanks guys.xo

Yeah, sounds like it's probably a forceful letdown. It'll sort itself out once she gets older, most likely. don't worry about the foremilk imbalance thing - i've read posts from Barb saying that's a bit of a myth.
no turds is good ;)
Again, I recommend the bf forum or aba for expert advice. Sounds like you're doing pretty well to me

Hi Murph,

Just thought I'd pop in and share our experience off this. I had a really forceful letdown for the first few months and quite bad oversupply, so my DD was often getting green mucousy poos as well as bad wind/colic type symptoms.

It did go away on it's own - both as DD got bigger and more able to digest large amounts of milk better, as well as my letdown and supply eventually settling down (after 4-5 months).

One thing you can try and do if you find it is happening on a given day is to keep offering the same breast at feeds for a while - this might allow your DD to take in more fattier milk that comes later in a feed - BM becomes higher in fat content as a baby gets closer to "emptying" the breast. So if you keep offering the same breast first for a while (I used to offer the same breast first for up to 3-4 hours at times) then your DD will be getting fattier milk. This fat can then help slow the passage of milk through the digestive system, allowing the lactose to be broken down more/better before it is eliminated. The more lactose that is able to be broken down the less green poos/wind she may experience.

This didn't always work for us though - sometimes when DD had a really big feed, she would digest and eliminate it quickly and still end up with green poos/bad wind even when she'd had lots of fattier milk - I was told that when babies are young, the larger the quantity of milk taken the quicker it is moved through their digestive system, fullstop.

Don't worry about the curds in her poo either - these are fairly typical at her age.

Sounds like you are doing all the things that a good to help with forceful letdown, so keep doing those as they can make a good difference too.

One thing to remember is that green poos on their own are nothing to worry about in a breastfed baby- it's not abnormal and is only a symptom of the way your baby is digesting their feed. If she's not overly windy or distressed with the green poo and has lots of good weight gains then I wouldn't worry about it too much - it will get better in time, on it's own, and may even come and go which is normal too :) If she is struggling with wind and is uncomfortable, then try the one-sided feeding and see how you go. Wind drops might be worth a shot too, but TBH I found that they didn't help DD with her "rear end" wind at all - only to help get her burps up, which she could do anyway when given enough time to burp.



HTH, and hope things settle a little more with your DD - they will in time :hug:

Hello again,
I just found some of these later posts and wanted to thank you for your advice and update you on our situation. I have been doing the things you suggest for dealing with forceful letdown and like you said, it has eased off. On it's own,the green poo is not a worry, but I guess just a sign to adjust things, burp longer and really find that blasted wind. I've been getting the wonderful runny gorgeous mustard poos most changes now and it makes me feel like a good mummy...how funny is that? Happy dances all round for the mustard, sweet smelling curdly poo:dance: Green bad...mustard good. It always comes down to a mum feeling like she should be guilty for something hey?

Anyway, I notice at the windy times is when it happens, so I am doing all I can to counter the wind. I'm finding that helping her to move her legs and get her kicking in her activity centre really helps and she is farting like a champ and then the lovely poo comes through. Never thought in a million years poo would make you feel all warm and fuzzy:o I think maybe the foremilk /hindmilk is a myth too as it doesn't make much difference and I have tried it all...including one side for half the day.

Thanks again,
Murph

Yay Murph

Before trying Tara on the wind drops she always seemed to have green poos and since having the drops for a week her poos then changed to the mustard colour. She hasn't had any drops for weeks now and everythings still going good from that end so maybe just those few days was enough to get out what was trapped inside and I think now as she has gotten older and her system is maturing she can now deal with any wind herself.