Copious Frothy yellow newborn poo

My not-quite 2 week old, fully bf baby, has been doing very frothy yellow poos for 2 days. I'm working over time to feed on demand and make sure my boobs are well drained.

But when she starts pooing she doesn't stop for a while and it has given her quite a nasty rash around her bum.

I'm finding it really difficult because I feel constantly on demand and have to wait so long for her to poop when she's passed out after a feed, and then I have to unsettle her to change her nappy after all that.

Should I be worried and is there anything I can do differently so I could, I dunno, maybe go to sleep?


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It could well be totally normal. Is she doing well otherwise?
Is anyone in the house sick at the moment?
Might also be worth considering a reaaction to something in your diet. Or do you have a very forceful letdown?

I could be wrong but I always thought frothy poo meant too much fore milk??

Maybe try some lactation cookies or something to help "fatten" up your milk.

Good luck and congrats on your new baby girl.

I wondered that, so I started drinking lactose-free milk and stopped any coffee and chocolate. I'm not eating anything spicy and am not eating citrus.

Now my let down is quite strong. It doesn't squirt out or send her flying across the room, but it does run like a tap when she starts feeding. But I lean back a bit when I feed so it's not pouring down her throat.

Her poo is not green, which is what I've read indicates lack of hind milk.
I'm not sure I have time or ability to bake cookies, is there a food I can buy to fatten my milk?


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For us frothy poo = sucking in too much air with a feed and having to pass it with poo, hence the froth... Also 'windy' foods (onions cauliflower, lentils etc) made it worse


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It may well be the letdown - in which case it will probably sort itself out with a bit of tiem. You could try triggering letdown and letting her feed once it's slowed down a bit and see if that makes a difference. Also positional feeding - so more upright or leaning back so she's working against gravity may help.

Gree frothy poo can mean lactose overload - so maybe baby has had diaroeaha or you have a very forcefult letdown/oversupply and baby's gut can't quite manage all the lactose at once. Lactose is the naturally ocurring sugar in your milk, so I'm not sure that changing to lactose free dairy will make any difference to that :dunno: This sort of thing is temporary and fixes itself with a bit of time.

You don't need to fatten your mlik up :) Your milk is perfectly fine as it is. THe whole fore milk/hind milk thing is a bit of a misnomer and tends to get motehr's worried about their milk quality unnecessarily. The milk you make is the same, more or less, throughout the feed, what changes is the percentage content of fat, which gradually increases through the feed. It gets stuck in the ducts and flushed down with letdowns. So the fat content is higher still if you give a little top-up feed 30 mins or so after the main feed.
What you eat (or dont' eat) will make no difference to this process. And there is no magical time limit when fore milk changes to hind milk - as said, the milk doesn't really change at all - and most of the time if you follow your baby's queues they will get what they need.

Lactation cookies are supposed to be good for increasing supply, which doesn't appear to be a problem for you with all that poo :)

I think she is just getting the hang of poohing unfortunately.
How often is she feeding? and one side or both?

She feeds generally every 3 hours or less, I work hard on 1 boob before offering the other.

At times she cluster feeds like crazy and my boobs feel totally drained so I end up offering which ever feels like it has any milk left during those crazy feeding frenzies.

I just want some normal time after a horrible, rotten pregnancy. I feel I do everything right and don't get rewarded.


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:hug: FWIW my DS had the green frothy poo's for a bit too. I can't tell you how long it lasted, a few weeks maybe, but it did settle & all was normal again. We fed for 23 months :)
Maybe try a barrier cream like sudocream on the redness.

You are doing everything right kuraiza, I'm sorry you're not getting a break. Do you have people you can call on to come and help out a bit? Someone who could just hold her for a few hours and do the nappy while you take a nap even.
:hug:

Hi,

You are doing everything right. it all sounds pretty normal to me (and no you don't need to eat anything - not lactation cookies - nothing fattens up your milk, research shows that milk from all women is *just right*). If you change the nappy *right away* after feeding then it will look frothy - it can be ejected with force. If you let it settle in the nappy a bit you don't notice it. Most mums do have a relative oversupply, but it sorts itself out very quickly. Feeding on demand means feeding when she wants it and for as long as she wants it. Feed her, then if she is settled go and sleep - if she needs a nappy change you will hear about it, but if not you might just grab a few extra minutes sleep - could make all the difference.
Do you use wipes? Sometimes the chemicals can be a bit harsh on that little bum, sometimes a warm wet facewasher might do a better job. And some zinc or other nappy creme might help the rash. Do you have help around the house? Mum or partner around? A friend who can come and watch the baby for a while - do the nappy change and settling while you grab a nap?

Congratulations on your bubba girl!! DS was the same, also poo'ed after EVERY feed so was changing him ALL the time and got rash from wiping so much. I used to leave his nappy off for a while after changing and used powder with cornstarch and it worked great.

Thank you for reassuring me that it's normal. This morning my boobs feel really empty after she cluster fed until 1am, but then she slept until 6am so I'm surprised my boobs aren't exploding. Is my supply messed up?

I try not to worry but breast feeding didn't work out with my son and I've been blaming that I gave him a dummy and introduced ebm from a bottle too early (and I didn't eat or drink enough), so I'm doing everything differently and still feel like I'm struggling.

Dh tries to help but he's mostly helping by looking after our toddler, and he tries to let me sleep in the morning, but I do everything through the night so at least one of us can function through the day. We have no family around to pitch in.

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First of all, your boobs will never be empty. Its suprising, but they can be on there for hours & you can still squeeze a few drops out!

Secondly, what you eat & drink will not, ever matter. Your breast milk will take everything it needs from your body for your baby, then whatever is left you will get. Which will make you tired, thirsty & feeling not so great, but you never have to worry about your baby not getting enough for those reasons.

Thirdly, your supply is not messed up. Supply = demand. The more your baby feeds the more your body will make. Your bub will go through growth spurts where she will seem to be feeding constantly day & night. It will last a few days til your body catches up, then she will settle again (& probably feed a little less, so you may have an over supply for a few days). Your body will adjust everything accordingly & you'll never have to worry about 'quality' :)

You just need to look after you. Make sure you're drinking plenty of water. If you're worried about anything with bubs, output is the best key ;) Wet & dirty nappies say more about her feeding than anything else, & the fact that she's doing plenty of poo's says there's plenty going in!

It is all very confusing & takes a good few weeks to get the hang of it. Just take it a day at a time & in a few weeks you won't even know what you were worried about :)
You're doing great :D

Your supply isn't as vulnerable as you think.
If you feed DD when she is hungry - and she seems to have the hang of letting you know.
If you keep an eye on her weight gain and her poos and feed her more often if either of them stop
then you will be fine.

She will have more hungry days and less hungry days, but that is normal.
Getting her to empty one side before having the other is a good thing, and crazy cluster feeding followed by a big sleep is also a good thing.

Have you tried lying down to feed her - with her lying on her side? She may still be a bit tiny, but once she and you get the hang of it it can mean that you can both get a wee nap.

You sound as if you expect your supply to disappear. The only ways that can happen are:
*you get pregnant or take the full contraceptive pill
*you don't feed her often enough (but you definitely are!)
*she can't suck properly (but she's poohing great guns, so you know she can)
*you take pseudoephidrine (but the supply usually comes back)

You are doing really well - he's hoping for another big stretch of sleep for you both tonight!

Thank you everyone. Why do I need so much reassurance, but I do.

I'll relax now and just get on with it and stop worrying.

:-)

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