Green poop?

Is this normal?

DD started off with yellow grainy poops in her first week of mostly
breastmilk (at about 14 days old). Then it went to yellow mucousy poop.
And now she's been having green mucousy poop. I thought yellow was
normal, but is green ok too? I read somewhere, and now can't find
where, that a different colour indicated dehydration, I thought it was
green, but maybe it was black/brown.

Hi --

Green poop can indicate several things. The most likely is that your
baby has a cold and is ingesting some of the mucous the cold produces.
The second possibility is that she's getting too much lactose-rich
foremilk and not enough of the fatty hindmilk that you produce. You can
solve this by having her nurse at just one breast per nursing session
rather than switching between them.

Dehydration leads to very dark stools, as I recall.

Let us know if this helps,
--Beth Kevles

http://web.mit.edu/kevles/www/nomilk.html -- a page for the milk-allergic
Disclaimer: Nothing in this message should be construed as medical
advice. Please consult with your own medical practicioner.

NOTE: No email is read at my MIT address. Use the AOL one if you would
like me to reply.

Beth Kevles wrote:
Hi --

Green poop can indicate several things. The most likely is that your
baby has a cold and is ingesting some of the mucous the cold produces.
The second possibility is that she's getting too much lactose-rich
foremilk and not enough of the fatty hindmilk that you produce. You can
solve this by having her nurse at just one breast per nursing session
rather than switching between them.

Hmm, there's no fever or indication of a cold per other symptoms. She
usually just feeds from one breast at a time, though now she's on a
marathon so she is getting both breasts, but only after she stops on
one, which can be anywhere from 10-20 mins. I'll have to pay closer
attention. The green poop isn't every poop, but probably 3 out of 8
today.


Dehydration leads to very dark stools, as I recall.

They're not that dark, fairly light green, so that's good.

"cjra" wrote in message
oups.com...
Is this normal?

DD started off with yellow grainy poops in her first week of mostly
breastmilk (at about 14 days old). Then it went to yellow mucousy poop.
And now she's been having green mucousy poop. I thought yellow was
normal, but is green ok too? I read somewhere, and now can't find
where, that a different colour indicated dehydration, I thought it was
green, but maybe it was black/brown.

The most likely IMO would be a foremilk/hindmilk imbalance. If you've been
giving both breasts at a feed, you could just leave her on the one breast
for longer. Green poop is in the normal range though, and extra foremilk
won't be hurting her. It's passing through her digestive system faster,
hence the colour.
She will likely go for longer between feeds and sleep longer if she's
getting the fatty hindmilk though, as it will take longer to digest and
satisfy her hunger. You'll probably find she's taking in more foremilk in
the mornings when the supply is most plentiful, and more hindmilk in the
evenings, which she'll need to feed for longer to get.


--
Amy
Mum to Carlos born sleeping 20/11/02,
& Ana born screaming 30/06/04
http://www.freewebs.com/carlos2002/
http://www.babiesonline.com/babies/a/ana%5Fj%5F2004/
My blog: http://spaces.msn.com/members/querer-hijo-querer-hija/

In article ,
(Beth Kevles) wrote:

Green poop can indicate several things. The most likely is that your
baby has a cold and is ingesting some of the mucous the cold produces.
The second possibility is that she's getting too much lactose-rich
foremilk and not enough of the fatty hindmilk that you produce.

It is POSSIBLE that green poos mean this. But they can also occur for no
apparent reason. I wouldn't worry about changes in colour without any other
indications -- changes in colour in adult poos *can* be meaningful too, but we
don't all peer into the toilet after we've been... well, at least, I don't!

--
Chookie -- Sydney, Australia
(Replace "foulspambegone" with "optushome" to reply)

"Parenthood is like the modern stone washing process for denim jeans. You may
start out crisp, neat and tough, but you end up pale, limp and wrinkled."
Kerry Cue

Mum of Two wrote:
"cjra" wrote in message
oups.com...
Is this normal?

DD started off with yellow grainy poops in her first week of mostly
breastmilk (at about 14 days old). Then it went to yellow mucousy poop.
And now she's been having green mucousy poop. I thought yellow was
normal, but is green ok too? I read somewhere, and now can't find
where, that a different colour indicated dehydration, I thought it was
green, but maybe it was black/brown.

The most likely IMO would be a foremilk/hindmilk imbalance. If you've been
giving both breasts at a feed, you could just leave her on the one breast
for longer. Green poop is in the normal range though, and extra foremilk
won't be hurting her. It's passing through her digestive system faster,
hence the colour.
She will likely go for longer between feeds and sleep longer if she's
getting the fatty hindmilk though, as it will take longer to digest and
satisfy her hunger. You'll probably find she's taking in more foremilk in
the mornings when the supply is most plentiful, and more hindmilk in the
evenings, which she'll need to feed for longer to get.

Just to add to this... I found that single-side feeding was way easier
to manage and it did take care of our green-poop appearances. I'm not
even going to try that switching-after-15-minutes business with the new
one, I don't really see a lot of point in it. It seems pretty
arbitrary, to me. (Although for the newborn three-hour marathon feeds,
maybe switching every half hour just to give the other side a break is
in order.

Andrea Phillips wrote:

Just to add to this... I found that single-side feeding was way easier
to manage and it did take care of our green-poop appearances. I'm not
even going to try that switching-after-15-minutes business with the new
one, I don't really see a lot of point in it. It seems pretty
arbitrary, to me. (Although for the newborn three-hour marathon feeds,
maybe switching every half hour just to give the other side a break is
in order.

Just to add my two cents too! I only nurse one side per session, unless
I notice the baby's poo coming out green. Then I would start with the
side I nursed on the previous session, and nurse until she dropped off
but was still hungry. Then I knew for sure that side was empty and
she'd had the hindmilk. That's probably kind of weird, because the
hindmilk is supposed to fill them up, but of course, the volume wasn't
there. That would turn her poop neon yellow! I really don't think it's
terribly important, as long as the nursing is going well, it's just
interesting to experiment and see what doing different things
accomplishes...

Stasya