Frequent squirts of poop -- is this normal?

Hi all,

My twins are one month old and almost exclusively breastfed. My baby girl has started this thing over the past 10 days or so where she has lots of tiny runny stools and will even squirt out some liquidy poop when you are changing her. She is gassy and seems to squirt a little out each time she farts. She has a diaper rash, and seems so uncomfortable each time she has a little poop. We change her constantly, sometimes 5 or 6 times in an hour.

Our pediatrician had me cut out dairy and all acidic foods. When that didn't seem to be helping, he suggested I try her on soy formula for a couple of days (he suspects a dairy intolerance). I gave her a bottle of it last night, but other than extending the time she slept, it didn't have much of an impact on her stools. I would hate to quit breastfeeding her over this issue, but I'm about at my wit's end and my pedi has no other suggestions really.

Her poops are the same color as her brother's (he doesn't have this issue) and are that yellowish orangish color of breastfed babies. They are never green and there is no blood in them. Could this just be normal for her? I would appreciate any thoughts!!!

 

That sounds exactly like what my girls did for the first couple of months. We called them skid marks - just these tiny smears of poop in every single diaper. We didn't have issues with diaper rash though. We cloth diapered - maybe that helped? If you're using disposables, try using a bit of bum cream at each change. That'll help heal the rash that's already there as well as protect from new irritation. Also, try giving her some diaper free time as much as possible. Again, it'll help heal the rash that's already there, plus you'll be able to wipe up any new poops ASAP reducing new irritation. Make sure to use cloths with plain water to wipe her bum - disposable wipes are very irritating.

I would also suggest meeting with an IBCLC as they're going to have more info on breast feeding than the average pedi. Most pedis have very very little training or information on how to solve breast feeding issues.

How long have you been avoiding dairy for? From what I understand, it can take several weeks to completely clear from your system. If this has only been going on for 10 days, give the dairy free diet some more time. Although, from how you describe her poops it doesn't really sound like dairy's the culprit. Here's some more info: http://kellymom.com/health/baby-health/food-sensitivity/

 

I had this issue with my twins, although our pedi put me on a diet eliminating both dairy and soy. It has been a few weeks. The frequent skidmarks stopped but their (now every few days) poop is brown and runny. They also have lots of spitup. One is exclusively bf and the other gets a formula supplement. I brought all this up to our pedi, showed her some pics I snapped of the poop, and she said she wasn't concerned. As long as there are no red streaks or green poops, she said it's just a normal variation

 

She could be intolerant to soy as well as dairy - it is fairly common for kids to have both. My boys were much like you are describing at that age, and they were both dairy and soy intolerant (it's called MSPI - milk and soy protein intolerance). And like a pp said, it takes a bit for it to get out of their system. When my kids accidentally got hold of some dairy or soy, I knew it would be 24-48 hours until we were totally back to normal, and the little squirts of poop that caused a rash were exactly what we dealt with, as well as gas, fussiness, etc.

The good news is, my kids have outgrown both of their intolerances. The dairy they outgrew a little before a year old and the soy they outgrew just after age 2. So it's not forever!!

Good luck figuring things out - that can be the hardest part.

 

I have a singleton daughter that is almost 4 weeks old and she is experiencing the exact same thing... frequent, yellow squirts of poo with a touch of diaper rash. She is VERY fussy before she passes gas or poops, but is otherwise happy. One thing that helps her discomfort is 1/4 teaspoon of adult Mylanta 3x per day as recommended by her doctor. We also do gas drops following each feeding. It doesn't really affect her frequent poops, but at least they are not causing her pain. My singleton son went through something similar and outgrew it by 3 months. Worth asking your daughter's doctor to see if it will help her. I never eliminated anything from my diet. Good luck, I hope she feels better soon!

 

My daughter had this around the same age. At first we thought it was the small amount of formula she was getting each day so someone recommended the good start with probiotics. She pooped her first normal poop the day after that. But, really, she had been getting no more than 2 oz of formula a day.

That said, I was dairy free for over a month and any formula she got was Alimentum because of her reflux and it didn't help her pooping at all. She's still very gassy and is now a very irregular pooper. Around 2.5 months both babies stopped pooping every day and now go days without pooping. A big change from the squirts in every diaper earlier on!

I would not give up breastfeeding for poop squirts. Little babies have immature digestive systems and sometimes they just do weird things.

My first was clearly dairy intolerant and we saw improvement within a few days of me completely eliminating dairy. His poop went from forest green wih blood in it back to yellow, all his eczema cleared up and his diaper rash (rig around the anus) cleared up. My twins have none of these signs of intolerance and dairy free did nothing to change their poop or gas. They each get some formula a day and I suspect it's just a formula issue.