Bloody Stool

Hi R.,

Actually, bloody stools are not so uncommon in younger ones, under 1 year. Our daughter had some blood in her stool at around 4 months old. To make a long story short, the reason for that was her immature digestive system...and the lesson learned for me, was don't let anyone freak you out- My pediatrician had us doing tests of all kinds, trying to diagnose her as lactose intolerant, made me go off all dairy (I was nursing) for 6 weeks, it was really frightening. Whatever you do, DON'T LOOK ON THE INTERNET FOR ANSWERS!!!! This will only send your stress level through the roof. My father in law is a heart surgeon and has been one for going on 45 years. He talked to the Chief of Pediatrics at his hospital for a second opinion while this was happening to me-and the bottom line was- if your the white's of your childs eyes are white, they are smiling, happy, eating and doing their business...they are more than likely to be just fine. The real technical things you want to look for are- is the blood red- if so, that can be as someone above mentioned constipation, basically a tear. Now if it's black, that usually means it's older and has traveled from the intestine through the stool. I would absolutely take her to the doctor, but please don't let them run a million tests without first getting a very educated DIAGNOSIS, not symptom treatment, while they freak you out and later tell you she shouldn't drink whole milk and should switch to nonfat, or something minor like that. The Chief of Pediatrics told us that the worst thing my pediatrician could have done was to stress out mommy.

Good luck with this, I hope this helps a little, though my situation was completely different being that she was so young, (she's now almost 3 too) but I wish your family the best and for a simple solution!

Take care,

S.

R.,
My daughter had this....it was food allergy. True if it is hard and she is constipated could be tears. This is also a tell tale sign of a food allergy. Did you introduce something new? I would urge you to call your pedi. My daughter was severly allergic to dairy/soy called MSPI. She sees a GI doctor and an allergist. I don't know what kind of advice one of the other people was giving you, but food allergies can be very serious so please do not ignore.

I would call her pediatrician as soon as possible. I have never heard of a young child having this and it may be no big deal--but better safe than sorry. A bloody stool isn't normal for anyone I don't think. Good Luck!

Are the poops a little big and hard? Could be a fissure which are basically small tears or cracks in the skin of her bottom. A stool softener would definitely help out to give those a few days to heal up.

Yes. My daughter gets it occasionally. We went through a whole doctor thing too. They found that it was because her stool was too hard and would cause anal fissures (tiny tears) as she would strain to eliminate. We've got her on a high fiber diet with plenty of water (important). When she's had the bloody stool thing again, then I give her a stool softener and she's good to go. The blood tends to be bright in color, and it didn't alarm the doctor. It just looks scary to us!

Dear R.:
You may want to try some stool softener, if she is constipated. But you need to take her to a doctor first. Take note of the foods she ate in the recent days or weeks, especially if it was something new.

Regards,
W.

First i would call the pedi just to ease your mind it could be nothing and it could be something, there could be many reasons for this. When my oldest son was little, he had alot of red "poop" we rushed him to the er freaking out they admitted him ran tests ect, anyway to make a long story short it was some antibiotics making his "poop" look like it had blood in it. It happened again when he was around 2 1/2 (not so much though) again i freaked and took him to the dr. he looked at him and asked some questions and it turned out that he was constipated some and his "poop" was "too big" for him to push out and it cut him a little. I would just call anyway all they can do is say its nothing to worry about and then at least your mind is at ease. Good Luck!!