Hi Mamas! Well, this is going to be one of THOSE questions. My 3-month-old son just went to the doctor to get his ears checked since he has a cold. The dr said that he had some fluid in his ear & put him on an antibiotic. He had an ear infection about a month ago & was on the same antibiotic with no issues. My question has to do with the color of his poop. For the last 2 mornings his poop has been a brick red color. The consistancy is the same, but the color is rather startling. I can't see any streaks of blood which leads me to believe that it's not blood, but I'm wondering if this is normal or has happend to anyone else. All of the internet research I've done has talked about various shades of yellow, brown & orange being normal, but nothing about a red color other than bloody poop. My little guy is happy & not in any pain. He's formula fed & the only change is the antibiotic regimin. Any thoughts? I thought I'd ask here since it's the weekend & I can't take him to the dr again until tomorrow.
Hi K.,
My daughter had the same type of antibiotic and the doctor warned me that her stool would change to red - not blood red but more red velvet cake red :)
A
Thanks for posting this question. I just changed my daughters diaper and was startled to find red colored stool. Because of your post and the answers that came along, I was able to discover the true cause for the red stool which in my daughter's case, is also due to Cefdinir. Thanks everyone!
Not sure about the poop but...I tried some Hyland's brand homeopathic ear drops on my daughter and was able to avoid what seems like 2 potential ear infections.
Give it a shot, a lot better on your little guys system!
Could just be the antibiotic. I know it's the same one as last time but since your DS is so young, he is changing daily and his body may be digesting it differently this time. I would call the DR. in the morning and see what s/he has to say.
Hi K.. That has happend with my son before. Is the medication omnicef or something like that? That is happening because the formula has iron in it and the medication is binding to the iron. I took my son to his ped and she had several cases of it and called the company about it and spoke with the drs there and thats what they told her. So its okay and talking to her she said some antibiotics can do that. So no worries for now unless you see blood in his stool. I hope your little guy gets better! E.
Omnicef makes their poop brick red. The doctor never mentioned it to me...but my sister is a pediatric nurse and told me she gets that question weekly. It is normal..and it does go away once they are off the antibiotic.
Hi K.,
We just took our 8 month old to the hospital last night because of this exact same issue (ear infection, happy baby, blood colored stools). I, however, think that my son did have blood in his stool, but I would describe the look of the poop the same as you have. The doctor agreed that it looked like he probably had blood in his stool. He was taking Cefdinir and she took him off of it and asked us to collect stool samples so they could run a lab test called cdif (I believe another poster describes it). We have an appointment tomorrow with our doctor to find out what we can do next since he still has the ear infection. My husband did some research on the antiobiotic at this website: http://www.jabfm.org/cgi/content/full/21/3/246 and the first paragraph notes that the stools can turn red and that there can be blood in the stools. I haven't read any further, but you may be interested in the study as well.
Good luck!
Hi! We just went through the same thing with our 10 month old son. He was on Amoxycillin for an ear infection which did not work then she put us on Suprax which is when the poop changed to a brick red color. After a lot of research into this on my own I found that it can be a side effect to the antibiotic. However our pediatrician took us off of it. We had his stool tested and found that he had developed C. Difficile which is a bacteria infection. We now give him Baby Maxi Dophilus every day which combats bad bacteria with good. You get it at Whole Foods. Unfortunately he developed another ear infection and we were put on a third antibiotic which hopefully worked. We go back today. Hope this helps.
K. -
It's totally normal with the meds he is on. No worries. My little guy has had a number of ear infections and 1 medicine turns it red (probably the same you are on) and one actually turned it a very appropriate shade of green for Chirstmas! It will stop when he is done with the meds.
K.
Gosh, do you really need to put the boy on another antibiotic?? He's only 3 months old! I would seek out another pediatrician who is not so anxious to jump to antibiotics - this can cause some serious problems for your child.
Yes, my son and daughter were both on Omnicef and both of them had red poop. It went away once they got off of the antibiotic.
This is a good guide to poop.
http://www.drjaygordon.com/development/pediatricks/poop.asp
If your son does become constipated, pear juice works well to loosen things up.
Best of luck!
