5 months in and something's gone horribly wrong :(

[Sarah lo]

I'm not even sure if this is a BF issue or not but I'm really worried about my LO.

He was exclusively breastfed until about 3 weeks ago when we decided to introduce a bottle of formula once a day just so I could get on and make dinner and spend a bit of time with my toddler while DH looked after the baby. It was going fine until last week when he suddenly started having horrible green mucusy diarrhoea, up to 6 times a day whereas he's normally a once a week kinda guy.

He's now been having this diarrhoea for 7 days I took him off the bottle altogether 4 days ago wondering if he was sensitive to the formula but its made no difference. Another reason I took him off the formula was that I was worried he was rejecting the breast in favour of the bottle, I've noticed that since last week he's been really fussy feeding and pulls off crying before he's eptied the breast then does the same on the other side. He only has a really good feed maybe once or twice a day and the rest are these short, fussy feeds. Could this diarrhoea be a milk imbalance caused by this?

The other thing I thought it might be is could it be possible I've set off CMPI by giving him the formula and overloading him with cows milk protein? He's never been sensitive to dairy in my diet but his dad and sister both had CMPI.

The doctor says its just a bug but for 7days???

I can't see any signs of teething.

Any insights would be much appreciated!

 

[christinelle]

Sounds like a cmpi, I'm told a baby might need up to 3 weeks to get rid of the protein. Dairy in your diet is different than direct dairy, maybe the threshold is different than your other family members and the little amount of cow's milk protein in breastmilk is tolerated.
Why don't you switch to a soy based formula for 2-3 weeks and see if that's it? Your dh doesn't have to feed by bottle (cup/syringe might work) so you can avoid baby rejecting the breast.

 

[Sarah lo]

Thanks christinelle, that would make sense. Although it was 3 weeks from when we started him on the formula until these symptoms appeared?? I've taken him off the bottle altogether now and he's had nothing but breast milk for the past 5 days, I don't think I'll be trying him on anything else for the foreseeable future tbh as its caused us so much bother and as it happened my DH is so lazy that within a week or so of starting him on the formula feed I was beginning to find more often than not it was actually me giving him his bottle and completely defeating the object of giving him it in the first place!

 

[Pearls18]

Sounds like CMPI to me, we had a few issues BF but managed to muddle through, at 6 months I introduced formula and the more I introduced he started to get green mucousy poos so bad his bum bled from nappy rash, it wasn't too bad with one bottle but when I increased it to more than that it was very noticeable, I guess the dairy is more concentrated in formula than BM? If I were you I would stop formula if he was fine on BM, and then as and when (if) you decide to go onto formula go to the dr, we're on nutramigen Lipil. It should be something they grow out of, when you start weaning it'll be a case of trial and error and seeing of dairy affects him? But see a dr obviously

 

[Sarah lo]

Sounds like CMPI to me, we had a few issues BF but managed to muddle through, at 6 months I introduced formula and the more I introduced he started to get green mucousy poos so bad his bum bled from nappy rash, it wasn't too bad with one bottle but when I increased it to more than that it was very noticeable, I guess the dairy is more concentrated in formula than BM? If I were you I would stop formula if he was fine on BM, and then as and when (if) you decide to go onto formula go to the dr, we're on nutramigen Lipil. It should be something they grow out of, when you start weaning it'll be a case of trial and error and seeing of dairy affects him? But see a dr obviously

Thanks marineWAG I already took him off the formula about a week ago and its still really bad.

 

[Pearls18]

It can take a few days, dairy doesn't fully leave the system until 2 weeks I think, it might be worth considering cutting it out your own diet just to help flush his system, then in a couple weeks slowly reintroduce it and he might be ok if he was ok before the formula? It certainly took a good few days of the changing the formula before his nappies improved.

 

[Sarah lo]

I was afraid you might say that. I can't live without my coffee.....Oh no, and its macaroni cheese night tomorrow night!

Thanks again x

 

[Night Flower]

Same thing happened to my baby when she was 3 weeks old. I kept offering formula once a day half and half. Some times twice a day. Half breast milk mixed with half formula. Well them she became constipated and at the same time developed red dots, like pimples, all over her back, face and neck.

It took 2 weeks for her to poop normal, but a month for the dots to go away and for her to stop crying and screaming at the breast. She had tons of gas...


Now at 14 week old, shes a happy baby.

 

[Pearls18]

I was afraid you might say that. I can't live without my coffee.....Oh no, and its macaroni cheese night tomorrow night!

Thanks again x

I know it's so hard I think I barely lasted 2 weeks, maybe if you even just reduced the amount or maybe in a few days he may be ok anyway x

 

[Sarah lo]

Its a nightmare, I lasted about a month with DD before putting her on special formula. She was sensitive to it right from birth though so it was a case of cut the dairy out completely or stop breastfeeding whereas at least I know that DS can handle dairy in just the breast milk.

Today his tummy has been a lot better, he's still had 3 dirty nappies but they've been a lot less green and not so mucusy. I've hardly had any dairy today apart from a tiny bit in my coffee and a scraping of margarine on my toast this morning.

 

[christinelle]

I know it's hard, my diet has always been 45% dairy, 45% wheat and 10% everything else, so you get how difficult this is for me. Around 5 weeks my baby girl started having a LOT of green poop (like 15 diapers a day) and at first I thought it was a foremilk/hindmilk thing. I did have an oversupply but even after I did block feeding, the poops were still green. I am now on day 8 without dairy (I only eat little amounts of "might contain traces of dairy" products) and I try to replace them with soy substitutes. There is a slight improvement (poops are green-yellow and fewer). So it clearly needs more time to get flushed out of baby's system...Consider yourself lucky you can still have dairy.

 

[Sarah lo]

I know it's hard, my diet has always been 45% dairy, 45% wheat and 10% everything else, so you get how difficult this is for me. Around 5 weeks my baby girl started having a LOT of green poop (like 15 diapers a day) and at first I thought it was a foremilk/hindmilk thing. I did have an oversupply but even after I did block feeding, the poops were still green. I am now on day 8 without dairy (I only eat little amounts of "might contain traces of dairy" products) and I try to replace them with soy substitutes. There is a slight improvement (poops are green-yellow and fewer). So it clearly needs more time to get flushed out of baby's system...Consider yourself lucky you can still have dairy.

Aw sorry you're going through it too its the pits. I had to cut out all dairy with DD and I'll always remember going out for a meal with friends to this amazing Italian place and having to sit there with a salad while everyone else tucked into carbonara or lasagne and not being able to have anything at all on the dessert menu

 

[annio84]

It's awful isn't it. My dd was eclusively bf. At 2 months I ate an entire cheesecake in one day and she started with symptoms of CMPI. After I set it off by over doing the dairy I then had to cut it out completely, once it was triggered it seemed like even a little bit was enough to start symptoms. I hope LO starts to get better soon. Grace became the happiest baby in the world again once she was off the dairy. I have heard it takes a full month to clear from both your systems though.

 

[Sarah lo]

Just a little update: Its really weird, the diarrhoea has completely cleared up now, yet I haven't completely cut out the dairy. I did cut right back on it for a couple of days but since his tummy cleared up I've been having cereal or porridge for breakfast and having my usual latte (or two!) he's been absolutely fine.

Maybe it was just the formula that caused it (its now been 2 weeks since he last had a bottle of formula) or maybe it was just a tummy bug after all

The advisor at my BF group thinks it might have been a milk imbalance. The week it happened we were on holiday and the majority of his feeds were on the go in busy cafés or other noisy places and he was very distracted and fussy during his feeds, he was tending to feed little and often as opposed to his usual big feed every 3-4 hours and my BF group leader thinks he might have been getting too much high lactose milk. He's feeding much more normally now so I think maybe that's why the diarrhoea has cleared up.

 

[Pearls18]

My son only got the bad diarrhea when I started formula, his nappies were mostly fine when he was BF alone, I don't know if it's just more concentrated in formula? You could always try a bottle of formula again and if it happens again you know? That's essentially what we're doing at the moment, he's been on dairy free formula for a month and then I've got to try normal formula for a few days.

 

[Sarah lo]

Thanks marineWAG, yes I'll have to try the formula again and see what happens. I'll give it another week or two till I'm certain it's fully cleared up and then try it again.

How old is your LO? My DD was on dairy free formula from 4 months and at 8 months the doctor took her off it and told us to try follow on milk, she was fine with that.

 

[Pearls18]

He's 9 months, he started getting severe symptoms around 6/7 months and went on the formula at 8/9 months, I'm hoping to be given the prescription for a few months and come back to it after he's a year, I've heard it's a common thing in babies and they often grow out of it, I'm glad your eldest did too, fingers crossed if this is what your littlest has got he'll over come it too. Never had this issue at all with my eldest!

 

[Sarah lo]

I hope your LO gets over it soon too. Its a case of keep trying it every now and again to see how he copes. My DD could tolerate the follow on formula from 8 months but couldn't tolerate actual cows milk until she was nearly 2 and even then she had terrible constipation if she drank too much. In fact, its only very recently that she's finally stopped having dairy-related tummy troubles so it can be a pretty slow process unfortunately

My DH on the other hand, had CMPI as a baby and was put on special formula too. But according to my MIL he was absolutely fine with dairy from 12 months.