My 5 1/2 week old baby, who is exclusively breastfed, has had at least one mucousy stool each day for the last week or so and has been congested at night (but not during the day). My older son had a cold so the baby may have caught that. The baby has been somewhat fussy in the evening, but he does not seem extremely fussy at other times or paritcularly after eating, and the evening fussiness seems to be pretty normal to me. I have not seen any blood in his stool. I don't want to jump to the conclusion that he has allergies, but also don't want to be too cavalier about it. The pediatrician said to watch for blood in stool, but otherwise not to worry. Any thoughts? Any suggestions on how best to cut things our of my diet to see if it helps?
You may want to try to cut out diary products, such as cow milk. Increase brocolli and other foods for the calcium.
You might want to try organic or soy milk for substitution.
I haven't seen what others have written, but my advice is to keep eating healthy and what you are used to. If your child HAS a cold, it will probably clear up just when you change your diet...so what cleared him up??? If it's still a problem after another week, just keep calling the doctor - get it in his medical record so if you go in after a month, the doctor has the information to take the next step in determining its cause.
I was told to cut things out of my diet for my first born. Messed up my digestive system and caused even more problems for me. It didn't help my baby and our adjustment the baby either!
S.,
I wouldn't worry about it yet, just keep an eye out for any possible blood in his stool and any increase in fussiness and diarrhea (constant runny stools, usually green). Those, along with a drop in weight gain would be clues of an allergy.
I would not cut any thing out of your diet and I would definitely Keep Breastfeeding! I sometimes think the formula companies want you to get worried about allergies so they can sell more hypoallergenic formula...well, my child was allergic to that too! Breastmilk is best! Good luck to you.
J.
Sounds about how my baby was at 3 weeks. She was mostly fussy (screaming) at night and slept all day. She had mucus in her stool also and when I looked really close saw very small pin size spots of bright red blood. It would have been hard to miss. She was also only congested at night. She was gassy all the time though and cried out just out of nowhere and not necessarily after nursing. At first she doesn't seemed bothered but gets consistently worse the longer I am eating dairy or soy. She also gets eczema on her legs, arms, and face again getting worse the longer I am eating dairy and soy. Her symptoms went away after a few weeks of being off soy and dairy. She's 7 months now and still breast fed. She is growing out of it but I can not have dairy everyday and only cheese and some soy. I'm not sure if your baby has an allergy but thought my experience with a dairy allergy may help you decide. Also while we were trying to figure out the problem not many people, meaning doctors, family, friends, or other moms, had much experience with this so I only had myself and the internet. Going of dairy is what convinced me. I was definitely willing to give up dairy to continue to breastfeed. The first month is the hardest then it's not so bad after that. Good luck and I hope you find an answer soon.
My friend's son had mucousy stools starting at 4-5 months or so. It turns out that he was allergic to something in her milk, and she is now on a protein and veggie diet, with no dairy or soy, that seems to be helping. If it continues, I would probably check with your doctor just to be sure that he's just sick, and it's not an allergy.
i was told to cut out dairy (just make sure you are getting your calcium)
good luck!
I don't have any ideas about the diet part, but I know that all of my kids would get mucousy stools when they had congestion as babies. I just assumed it was due to them swallowing all of the yucky stuff in their sinuses and throats while sleeping. I may be wrong but I have four and they always turned out fine. Hope this gives you peace of mind if not help!
Take a stool sample up to your pediatricians office to have them ck for blood in it. My son is allergic to milk (and eggs) and when we were discovering this we never saw any blood in his stool but when it was tested it was there.
I wasn't able to breastfeed but I am sure others will be able to give you advice on eating to eliminate and see how that helps..
good luck.
It doesn't sound like your child is having a strong reaction to dairy if that is indeed what is causing the problem at all. I would give it a week or two to see if getting the cold out of your house makes a difference.We just did a dairy free diet at my home for my daughter and it was incredibly hard. Milk is just in so many things other than obvious dairy foods. Breads, crackers, just about every cookie in the store, anything in the middle of the grocery store is liable to have milk. To check for allergies you are supposed to do a complete elimination diet - so that means no forms of milk whatsover.
The most likely case is that your child is just suffering from the cold too. I wouldn't go dairy free without eliminating the illness as a cause first. All that being said, it is great that you are so aware of what is going on with your baby. There are just so many weird pooping issues that happen with infants/toddlers - it always gets me worried too. I can't wait until potty training when I don't have quiet so much knowledge of what comes out - it will surely be better for my nerves.
Breast milk is the perfect food!! Keep it up and you will have a very healthy baby. Perhaps the baby got a virus from your other child but with lots of breastmilk the baby will recover speedily. Don't worry Mom. You are giving your child the best! AF
My breastfed son had a milk allergy that we discovered when he was 4 months. He had small streaks of what looked like old blood in his diaper. Turns out he was getting the milk protein from all the dairy I was eating. I switched to non-cow products, and he was done with the allergy by the time he was one. Now he drinks milk like a champ. I don't remember there being any mucous in his stool, so I think yours may indeed just have a cold. Good luck!
My six-month-old daughter has a suspected allergy to dairy and soy, and we found this out mostly through her extreme irritability, which began by three weeks of age. She would scream during most of her awake hours, and always had a bloated, gassy tummy. She struggled to pass her gas and seemed in terrible pain until she did. As she is breastfed, we first eliminated dairy. When the problem only partially resolved, we went to see a pediatric gastroenterologist who took me off of soy as well. By this time, my daughter was nearly three months old, but within two weeks, she became a MUCH happier baby. Still, though, we did some Hemoccult tests (wiped some of her poop on a Hemoccult card and gave it back to the doctor). Though we did not see any blood in the stool, it was in there. So, you might want to get your son's tested.
Do your dietary cuts with the help of your pediatrician so that you know what timing to use and what foods to cut. He/she will probably want to see a stool test before putting your through dietary changes, though.
From the experience of my girls, my oldest who had a milk allergy was violently fussy all the time and particularly after nursing. My youngest didn't have the allergy, but would still get the 5 o'clock fussies.
Mucousy stools, though, is something you want to watch, especially since it's happening every day. Like others suggested, you may want to take a sample in to the doc, especially if it's getting worse. I never could see actual blood in the stool, but when they tested my oldest, it was there.
If you find it necessary to eliminate milk from your diet, read EVERY label. When I eliminated milk from my diet, it was a lot more than just cow's milk and cheese. Anything with caesin or whey you'll want to stay away from. Since I didn't like soy milk, I drank plain rice milk, and you can use that for cereal, mashed potatoes, almost anything you would use regular milk for. For butter, I used something called Buttery Sticks I found at Ukrops in the natural foods aisle, which did not contain milk, and tasted fantastic. For icecream, I ate these ice-cream sandwiches made by Tofutti. They're milk-free and delicious! For bread, I bought the spelt bread (freezer section in natural foods aise at Ukrops). I found that if I had those things, I was good to go. Olive oil with steamed/roasted veggies (especially potatoes) were my friend, along with a cooked hen. And I ate LOTS of salads.
Good luck!!
Dear S.,
You are smart to take a look at your own diet!!! Your diet absolutely matters to your baby's health! Your diet should be about 55% vegetables and 15% fruits with the remaining 30% being whole grains,lean meats, low fat cheeses and healthy fats (like raw nuts and avocadoes).
Dairy should only be about 10% of one's diet, if included at all. Dairy is also the one food which is the most cancer-producing (reference the book 'The China Study' by Dr. T. Colin Campbell) and the most mucus-producing.
I am a para-professional in the heathcare field. One of my own mentors is a Ph.D. Nutritionist and Naturopathic Doctor who tells me that dairy should be out of everyone's diet! She does not believe we need it for health! Calcium is better obtained from plant sources (broccoli, kale, cabbage).
May I suggest you try eliminating dairy for a few weeks and see what kind of results you get? Let me know how it goes. If you have further questions, you can answer me through MamaSource or write me at ____@____.com, if you are interested, I can email you a book report on 'The China Study', a fascinating piece).
Blessings!
J.
Turns out my son has allergies I wasn't overly aware of it since my family has no issues with allergies that isn't the case with my husbands family. He had diarrhea from birth and every night was very fussy it was a very long 4 months before I could convince the Dr that there was indeed a problem.
After the stool tests came back etc... turns out he was malnourished and was unable to absorb any nutrients, we also found out he is highly allergic to milk, and soy then I found out he was allergic to nuts also, the list kept increasing so I ended up deciding it was better to put him on formula so I can know exactly what he's eating and can figure out his needs as he gets old enough to introduce solids, one at a time, see how it affects his body then try another taste etc...
As to your diet the best way to find out if he has allergies is to eliminate a food group at a time for a week at a time is best and see how he behaves as a result.
Also if your son was to have allergies it would most likely show on his skin also, with rashes, red rimmed eyes, they can be an indicator also.
It was my sons stools that really concerned me blow outs every time etc... there stools can tell us a lot.
Good luck, I hope it's just s cold for your sake. I'm not enjoying this allergy thing much which makes me think, my poor son must hate it.
