Spitting Up/ Pooping

My daughter is the same way, what we were told was that I needed to drink more water and I could give her a 4oz bottle of pedialite or some baby apple juice and it helps, she may not poop everyday but she does every other day and the doctor told me that it is alright as long as she doesn't go a couple days she is 4 months old and it seems to be helping.

Hi K.,

What you are describing sounds all pretty normal as far as the pooping goes. Also it is pretty normal for babies to spit up anyway but here are my suggestions for that anyway...
* Since are both breastfeeding and bottle feeding check the flow of the nipple you are feeding her with on the bottle. It may need to be faster or slower.
* After she is done breastfeeding give her some time to burp before you give her the bottle.
* Also when you are feeding her a bottle keep her at a 45 degree angle. So pretty much she is sitting up to eat. When she is done burp her again and then let her stay in a sitting up position for 30 - 45 minutes afterwards. This will help the formula go down and stay there.
* Also make sure you are burping her moer frequentlty. So since she may take between 2 and 3 ounces you may need to burp her every ounce.
* And the last little bit of advice I have is switch to the Dr. Browns bottles. They work very nicely and help alot with these sort of things.

I watch a little boy that when he was 4 months old he had Acid Reflux but because of the things I just told you his mother and I avoided him being on medicine for it and he has no signs of it as of now and he is 18 months old. When he was 4 months old he would eat and spit up almost all of his food, since I am a home child care provider I did my research to see what I could find out and ways that I could help. Once I started doing all these things he kept his food down and stopped spitting up and he now weighs a healhy 27 pounds and has no problems.
Hope this helps you, W.

K.,
First off.... congrats on your new baby! It sounds like you are a very in-tune to his needs. What a lucky baby to have a mom that is so attentive.

You should really tap into the resources of La Leche League. Many mothers have found them to be very helpful and informative while giving you wonderful support. Here's the link http://www.llli.org/WebUS.html
You can find a group in your area or go to the home page and type in spit up or poop and they will give you wonderful CORRECT information!

As far as the information I know;
-Supplementing with formula will decrease your milk supply because it is a supply/demand relationship. The La Leche League website will give you tips on how to produce more.

-The formula could be causing the excessive spit up. Babies tend to spit up more when they are formula fed or a combo. of formula/breastmilk than when they are exclusively breastfed.

-My son pooped every few days at this age and that is normal. Also, a breastfed baby's poop will have a natural smell and be mustard in color and sometimes seedy like you describe. Formula poop is different in both texture, color and smell. The green color is from the undigested iron in the formula which is not readily available to the baby's system so it is expelled.

Good luck! I hope this helps!!
K.

Hi K.! The pooping is not a problem at all. Kids can go longer than a couple days without pooping. Constipation is just when the poop is hard and has nothing to do with the frequency, so if you were worried about that, then don't be. Also, poop can look like anything...including stringy and seedy. This is not a problem, but if it mucousy, then it could be something else. Including a temporary lactose intolerance. My now 9 month old had this problem, and after going on soy for a few weeks, we could go back on milk based formula or breast milk and he would be fine. Spitting up to some degree is normal, but when you see your doctor, ask about acid reflux, as this is a common condition that might fit your childs condition. Also...don't worry too much about that either. Most kids grow out of the acid reflux quickly. Good luck!

I am very glad to hear she has a check up coming up.
She may have a reflux problem.......I have reflux and it is miserable. But i have been reading from time to time that babies can have this too.
Also how a babies bowels are depends on your diet too. What you eat affects them.
I know my step daughter had a bit of problem with her new baby at first when she was nursing and seemed to do better and have less tummy problems and gas when he ate formula.
But also the formula might not be agreeing with your baby as well. So theses are all things that can be discussed with your babies doctor.

I pray you can get some answers.
KayD

If you are nursing her the best thing to do is just nurse all of the time and not supplement with formula. Even if she is nursing every 1/2 hour for a while, this just builds your milk supply, as breastmilk is supply/demand. If she nurses on demand your body will respond with the milk in two or so days, and you will have enough.

Two great websites

www.lalecheleague.org
www.kellymom.com

As mom to a 3 yr old and 4 month old, this all sounds normal to me as long as she is on track with weight and otherwise seems fine. Like others suggested, I would try either changing formula or breastfeeding more - at least for a week or so - to see if it makes a difference. I did the exact same thing that you are doing with supplementing after breastfeeding with my first child. He had reflux and the poop variations you describe. With my 4 mo old, I am exclusively breastfeeding (using many of the other moms' suggestions with regard to keeping supply up)and the quality of her poop is much more consistent, although, she has periods with less poops during growth spurts. Good luck!

K.,

While I am not a doctor, I believe your daughter will be fine. The spitting up isn't strange. I have 3 children and all 3 use to spit up...sometimes a lot! When all 3 started eating cereal and jars of food, the spitting up quit. I was concerned while they did this, but all of my doctors told me that it was normal.
As for the pooping...that's not bizarre either. Because she is still young, her system may still be working things out. My youngest is 8 months old and I remember her having some strange bowel movements. For a long time, they were green and sticky. I wouldn't worry. They will too regulate. The breastfeeding is what makes them seedy looking. Her not pooping shouldn't be an issue with your doctor either. My pediatrician told me every 3 days she should have a bowel movement. My pediatrician also told me that if my daughter hadn't gone to give her a little pear juice. This helps us pretty quickly. Your pediatrician will be able to tell you what to do to regulate her.
Good luck and enjoy your precious daughter!

K. S.

I don't understand your statement "I supplement with formula because I don't have enough milk for her." How do you not have enough milk? I am breastfeeding my first child (7 months soon!) and have breastfed her exclusively all her life. She has spit up maybe five times, EVER (and three out of five were times that daddy played with her too soon after she nursed).

Sometimes it would seem as though my supply was lower than usual, so I got more sleep, ate better foods, and tried relaxation techniques to help increase. But your baby will get enough milk from what you produce, unless you don't nurse often enough and you could pump as well...I'm not trying to sound judgemental. I applaud you for breastfeeding at all, many do not.

But if your baby is spitting up that much, its surely due to the unnecessary formula. Maybe you should try nursing exclusively? I hope everything works out!

~B

P.S. I lived by the amount, smell, color, etc of my daughters poop. I still do, it tells you so much about their health and diet. If she's under four months and not pooping everyday, i'd try sticking with a more natural diet for her, breastmilk is best for her digestive system.

My daughter also did the same thing when she was a baby. She is currently 18 months. We took her to the doctor and she had..and still has GERD..reflux disease...but she also had pyloric stenosis. It is more prevelent in boys, but girls can have it also. It is where the tube that runs into the stomach is not open all the way and that is what causes the spit-up. My daughter was 3 weeks old when she had to have surgery to reverse the problem. After she had her surgery, she made a remarkable improvement with her feedings.

First of all just remember - all babies will have spit ups. It just happens. It's when there's crying,secreaming pain between feedings or especially at night that is the problem or just not eating well at all. There IS a difference in the sound of the cry of a baby in excruciating pain from the acidity of gastric juices going up their little throats. So when you wrote that you have a happy and satisfied baby, that is a good sign I would think. One product I recommend to all babies that are given any amount of formula (whether breastfeeding also or not) are probiotics. Probiotics are the "good bacteria" that help aid the digestive system to perform the way it's supposed to: digestion, breaking down the formula, absorption, building immunity, and elimination. (ref: see The Maker's Diet book by Jordan Rubin, Dr.Mercola on www.mercola.com - search bifidum bacteria or probiotics in search engine and Natren website - www.natren.com.) The reality is that formula IS a man-made product and some babies digest it fine while others have difficulty. Carnation Good-Start is recommended by many pediatricians due to being more gentle on their tummies and the next most important product I would definately recommend is Natren Life Start Probiotics for Infants. You can find it at www.natren.com. I used it for both of my babies and have recommended it for all my friends and recently my cousin who had a baby with colic and on formula. The Lifestart and the switch to Carnation Good Start helped her dramatically. The LIfestart is great stuff. It's 1/4 tsp mixed with her bottle daily. Check out the website. No, I'm not affiliated with the company. I'm just a happy customer who knows the importance of taking probiotics for over all health. Please check it out. Also, I want to add that I've read research about how taking probiotics helps infants with reflux. (In case this might be an issue diagnosed by your doctor.) The most important thing I can say - Please don't stop breastfeeding. Keep it up, because this could be a sign that if the baby was on formula exclusively that it would not be easy on the baby's digestive system. Please know I'm not judging you for the choice you've made to supplement. If you do desire to find out how to get your milk supply up and wean down on the formula - I recommend a Lactation Consultant or LaLeche League. You can find out how to contact either of these by calling your local hospital maternity ward or pediatricians' office and they can steer you the right direction on who to contact in your area.

My son did the same thing and I finally had to take him to Childern's Mercy because he was losing weight and they found out that he is a reflux issue. He is now on medicine and is doing great. I would talk with your doctor about reflux when you go in. Good Luck and if you have any questions on reflux let me know. My son is now 7 months old and is happy and hardly spits up.

Are you sure you're not producing enough milk? You might try nursing more often & using less formula to increase your supply. The more you nurse, the more milk your body will create. The more you supplement the less milk you will make because she's eating less from you. You also might want to try eating oatmeal every morning and drinking lots and lots of water to increase your supply.

It is perfectly normal for babies to not poop every day, especially breastfed babies. My doctor told me that up to 4-5 days is fine as long as she doesn't seem uncomfortable or in pain. Her poop may be changing because you're going back and forth between formula and breast milk.

Spitting up is also normal, even after every feeding. It just depends on how much and if the spitting up seems to upset her or hurt her. If she just spits up and doesn't even seem to notice, she's probably fine. At that age they spit up a lot. You'll notice it's kind of curdled with maybe some clear stuff... that's spit.

Definitely ask your doc about all this... but I wouldn't worry too much.

I had the same problem with both of mine, they're 4 and 8 years old now. But the doctors kept telling me that it was normal. The different types of spit up comes from going back and forth between the breast and the bottle, as is the pooping. As far as the drinking of the formula, that's normal too, because she gets what she needs from you and if she takes less of the formula then she got what she needed from the breast milk. Her digestive system is just trying to accomodate the supplement. She will get through it just fine. Both of mine did ;). They grew into beautiful, healthy girls.

What you are experiencing seems pretty similar to what we experienced with our son. I was nursing and he was not pooping often. He only ate a little at a time and spit up often. He was just a spit up baby till about 4-6 months when we began some cereal and fruits, then it cut back a little. His poops were NEVER predictable and were never the same! I think it depends alot on what you eat as well. I don't think you need to worry about it unless she is having a problem pooping (like constipation). As long as she is happy and satisfied I think she is fine... It may be something to talk to the dr. about at her next appointment... but I think she will be fine in the meantime... most of the time babies tend to let you know when something is wrong. :)