Warning: this post is going to be graphic. I can’t write a post about Luke’s digestive issues without going into details about his stools. I figured if I’m going to talk about his stools, I might as well include pictures (which I’ve taken to show his doctors). I know when I was googling “blood in baby stool” I wanted to come across some pictures. I hope these will help others who are searching, wondering if what they are seeing in their baby’s diapers is normal.
You’ve been warned. If you’re squeamish about this kind of thing, feel free to stop reading and come back on Wednesday when I’ll be posting a new dinner recipe for a meatless burger.
If you’re still reading, you must be interested in what’s been going on with my little man. He’s been diagnosed with MSPI, which stands for Milk Soy Protein Intolerance. This means that his immature digestive system has trouble breaking down the proteins in milk and soy. It does not mean he is lactose intolerant or that he is necessarily allergic to anything (although he may be, it’s too early to tell).
We’ve been lucky in that many babies with MSPI cry all the time or are extremely fussy. Luke’s never been that way. The main way we knew there was a problem was through his irregular stools. Normal breastfed baby stools are mostly yellow, sometimes seedy, with a watery or creamy consistency. Luke’s dirty diapers have always been slimy and full of mucus.
Green stools is another indicator. (Occasional green diapers can be normal, but early on his were consistently green. I don’t have any pictures of his early green stools.)
Occasionally they are specked with blood, both black and red.
He was also extremely congested early on in his life, a sign of a dairy sensitivity.
Another symptom is erratic sleep patterns. Luke can easily go from an angel sleeper to a nightmare with no rhyme or reason. Over time I’ve noticed a correlation with blood in his stool and his most mucus-y diapers to his worst sleep. Whatever is going on in there to cause the irregular stools must not feel great and therefore causes sleep disruptions.
The only way to “treat” MSPI is to eliminate the culprits from my diet (since I’m breast feeding). At 8 weeks I eliminated all dairy. It takes at least a month (probably more) for all dairy to be out of your system, so it was a waiting game. The only improvement I saw was his congestion cleared up, but his stools remained the same.
At 12 weeks there was still a lot of mucus in his diapers and also visible blood, so the next step was to eliminate soy. After this his diapers turned from mostly green to mostly yellow and his projectile spitting up stopped (I didn’t know if that was related or not and still can’t be sure). The mucus and blood were still present in his stools.
This is when his pediatrician referred us to gastroenterologist. By the time we got in, Luke was 19 weeks and I’d been off of dairy for 11 weeks. The doctor still thought, however, that dairy was in my system and causing the problems. He said I could have unknowingly eaten hidden dairy. This is true, but highly unlikely given my diet. I don’t eat a lot of processed foods, which is where hidden dairy lurks. He advised me to either switch to a hypoallergenic formula or wait and hope Luke outgrows the intolerance by 9 months.
I took Luke back to his pediatrician and she said it’d be worthwhile to cut out more foods that could be causing him problems. I then cut out wheat, eggs, peanuts, and tree nuts. After two weeks his diapers were still full of mucus, but I hadn’t seen any visible blood in that time. I decided to start adding back in foods to see what the reaction would be. I added back in eggs first, and there was no change.
A week later, I added back in peanuts and tree nuts. I’m not sure why I did these at the same time; I should have done one at a time. Within days, I saw visible blood again. I can’t be sure if they were the cause, but I decided to cut them out again. I put in a call to the pediatrician and she advised me that although it could be the peanuts or nuts, wheat also takes at least a month to get out of your system, so the wheat could still be the cause.
After 6 weeks of eliminating wheat, Luke’s stools finally started to look normal. They were consistently yellow, more creamy, and without visible blood.
We had two weeks of normal-looking stools. This was the good news. The bad news was it took me eating a diet free of dairy, soy, wheat, tree nuts (except coconut), and peanuts to get there.
After 2 solid weeks of good diapers, we decided to start solids (a few weeks earlier than we planned at 5.5 months old) Details about that are a whole different post, but I will give an overview as it relates to his digestive issues. We started with yellow squash. The first two days there was no mucus or blood in his stool–they stayed the same. On the third day there was still no mucus, but there was a small amount of blood. It seems the solid food, even the very small amount, was difficult for his digestive tract to handle.
The next day I accidentally used almond-coconut milk in my oatmeal. I’d been using coconut milk and for some reason just grabbed the wrong box. Later that day, I was so hungry (snacking is the most difficult on this restrictive diet) and figured I’d already had almonds that day so I might as well go all-out and I had a banana bread Larabar, which has almonds. Later that night, his stools were back to mucus-y. I couldn’t believe how quickly they changed his stool consistency. That was on Wednesday and his stools have been full of mucus ever since. I guess it will be a while before I can have almonds. 🙁 I am just waiting for them to work their way out of my system (should be less than a week) in hopes that his diapers go back to normal.
We’ve decided to hold back on any more solids until his next doctor’s appointment this week. We’ll see what she advises. I can tell that the road to feeding Luke is going to be filled with twists and turns and will most likely not be easy any time soon.
I breastfed Meghan until she was 2 and assumed that I’d do the same with Luke. At this point I am just taking it one month at a time. I love breastfeeding and think it’s hands down the best nutrition you can provide for your child, but eating such a restrictive diet has been one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do.
At this point I am just praying that Luke with outgrow his food sensitivities and be able to eat a normal, non-restrictive diet one day. Breast feeding a baby with MSPI is a crazy journey, but I’m grateful I’ve been able to continue to provide Luke with the nourishment of breast milk despite the challenges.
Curious about how this journey continued with Luke? Here’s an update at how things are going with breastfeeding with MSPI at 15 months!
I think there is a caveat to be had with this story. Reading your post, I realized that my son had experienced the same symptoms (without too much fussiness) and now to a lesser degree with my second son. I was advised by both doctor, lactation consultant and a specialist to eat regularly and not proceed to cutting anything out unless it was causing adverse effects (persistent diarrhea leading to dehydration, excessive blood in stool, excessive fussiness, etc.). Much current research on food sensitivities suggests that eliminating the foods entirely is likely the cause of a lasting sensitivity or even full-blown allergy. There are studies and trials taking place all over Europe that actual expose post-6-month olds to their sensitivities with an expectation that unless the sensitivity is severe (allergic–a term almost always misused for sensitivities) the child will ultimately build up an immunity to most of these sensitivities.
I was food sensitive to peanut butter, fish, strawberries and bananas (among other things) 33 years ago. My mother lessened didn’t feed them to me for 3 months, and every 3 months reintroduced. By age 3, I was food sensitivity free (or what could pass as), something that almost certainly wouldn’t have happened if she had taken the approach most parents take these days (of cutting the culprits entirely out of the diet).
As long as my boys are functional, and not miserable, I will continue to eat an unrestricted diet, regardless of stool appearance. As for mucus and chunks, my doctor said completely normal and that many kids take up to a year for systems to function properly and develop maturely, and that mucusy stools are often as a result of that (immature digestion), not food sensitivities.
I am glad things are working better for you and your son, just alarmed by the number of responses that fail to view every case as individualistic.
=-) Keep up the awesome parenting. While our approaches are different, I think we are both interested in doing what works for us and our babies. Thanks for the pictures, btw. They were helpful in comparing the symptoms.
Interesting viewpoint! Thank you for sharing. I have continued to do trials with Luke (he’s now 21 months) and he’s still not tolerating dairy. My biggest concern is that his pedi. told me that the long-term irritation in the digestive tract can lead to malabsorption. He gained great as an infant so I didn’t worry then, but from 15-20 months he only gained about 3/4 of a pound. Of course there’s no way of knowing why, exactly, it could be just normal slow down or even a scale error. But if it’s accurate, that really is a small amount of weight gain for that age range. So for now we’re keeping dairy out of his system. I’m not a big fan of dairy anyhow. 🙂
Hi Maryea,
I know this post is a little old but wow did it ring familiar with me. We are in week 5 of dairy & soy elimination and still seeing blood and mucousy poops (thanks for all the pics, gross but great!) I have replaced milk with Almond milk and after reading your post am wondering if I should be eliminated more! I read in one of your comments that you were going to post some foods you were eating with your dairy/soy/wheat/nut free diet. Did you ever post this? I would love to read it as I’m sitting here feeling like there is very little left to eat!
Thanks for all your time and effort putting together this post! It’s a great resource!
Yes, I did. Here’s the post showing what I ate in a day: https://happyhealthymama.com/2012/10/what-this-breastfeeding-mama-eats-in-a-day.html Good luck to you!
Thank you so much for posting these! I came across your post in the wee hours while breastfeeding my baby back to sleep after the second bout of explosive diarrhea for the night. She is 16 weeks old and the nighttime disturbances and diarrhea started just under two weeks ago. I thought it was part of the 4 month sleep regression but the multiple episodes of green diarrhea soaking through her jammies and sleep sack tell me it’s something more. She has FPIES to dairy and soy but it has never bothered her for me to eat them. The only thing that changed just recently was my return to work, which meants eating eggs every morning and nuts as a snack all day while pumping. I am so glad to have found your photos because that’s exactly what my baby’s stools have changed to in the past two weeks. They look just like your son’s (without the blood). I’ll be taking eggs and nuts back out of my diet amd limit dairy and soy. If the egg/nut elimination doesn’t put us back to normal, I’ll go hardcore on the dairy and soy. Thank you so much for sharing your experience!
Good luck to you! I hope you get it figured out soon.
Thank you all so much. While the pictures are disgusting. They are very helpful. My son had a diaper rash today and was really fussy. I thought he was trying to tell me he hurt but he didn’t say where. Then he had green, mucus-filled poo with little speck of blood. He’s a year and half. I think it is result of letting him have some whey protien lately. I sure hope its not dairy in general because cheese is his favorite food. Poor baby.
Interesting that it first happened at 18 months. Good luck figuring out what the source is!
I’m curious if the last photo is a healthy stool? I’m trying to find answers to problems myself.
Thank you!
Yes, that is the healthy stool. Good luck!
oops meant glad!
Glade I found this post. I’m going through this with my 4 month old. I have been dairy and soy free for 7 weeks now but have slipped with soy a few times the last time being last week with a fruit drink with soy oil in it. I have also been gluten free for about 4 weeks and I have also cut out tomatoes. Things have improved but I was wondering how you can tell when you are at a baseline. The baby’s poos were watery with globs of mucous but never any visible blood, they have now changed to being thicker consistency more like yogurt or toothpaste but not any gobs of mucous but maybe still strings of mucous its hard to tell since the poo is so thick. Do you think this is the baseline or should I try eliminating more foods?
It is really so hard to tell. I just decided things were good when we had a few consistent weeks of diapers that didn’t seem to have any mucous in them and had a not slimy consistency. I wish I could help you more but without seeing the stools it’s tough. Good luck!
Hi :)Thanks for sharing all of this. My son is also sensitive to dairy and soy since he was 5 weeks old and now he’s 5 months old. I can have soy now without any blood showing up but seems he is still experiencing flecks of blood in his stool when I have dairy. Planning in starting solids in a month. Has your son been able to have dairy yet? I hope he will outgrow this soon! At what age have you heard that babies are no longer sensitive?
Thanks again, April
My daughter (now 9 weeks) has had the mucousy stool now for about 4-5 weeks. She wasn’t having really any other symptoms. No fusiness or blood in her stool. She had her 2 month immunizations last week and I noticed what appeared as blood in her stool along with more green mucousy stools. I figured it was from the cherries I had (she also developed a rash on her chest and stomach) so I haven’t had anymore cherries. I have been pumping some of the foremilk as my daughter can’t seem to keep up with my production but her stools vary from the mustard yellow to almost a greeny mucous. I am at a loss! I love breastfeeding and I don’t want to give it up, should I start with elimination of dairy, which I’m thinking this has possibly been the culprit of the mucous… Thoughts/opinions?
She sleeps great during the night, last night she slept 6 hrs straight!
Did you talk with her doctor about it? That’s what I would do first to get his/her medical opinion. You should get her stool tested for blood as sometimes you can’t see it, but it’s still there. I know green stools can also result from a foremilk/hindmilk imbalance, but I’m not sure if that causes mucous as well. If you do think an intolerance may be causing her abnormal stools, yes, dairy is usually what is recommended you eliminate first. That is the most common intolerance in infants. Soy is #2. Good luck!
I meant 3.5 month old!!!
I am also going through this with my 3.5 year old boy. He’s had green stools with mucus for at least a month. I cut out dairy with no improvement. Then I started to see blood, and my pediatrician recommended that I cut out dairy/eggs/soy, which I’ve done for the past few days with no improvement yet. We’re scheduled to see both a pediatric allergist and GI doc.
How long did it take for Luke’s poop to turn back to yellow from green? How strict are you with food labels- like if a package of dried cranberries states “packaged in a facility that also processes milk, wheat, and soy products” would you not buy them? Also, there is a brand of cookie that I found called Enjoy Life which are great- they’re dairy/egg/soy/peanut/tree nut free.
Also, did his poop have any particular type of odor? Today Tate’s poops smelled sour.
How long did you cut out dairy? It took Luke’s stools a total of 3 whole months of me eliminating foods before his stools got back to normal. It can take a while for first the foods to totally leave your system (dairy can take 8 weeks!) and then for the damage already done to the baby’s system to heal. You won’t see results right away, so you need to be patient. The stools did turn from green to yellow pretty quickly when I eliminated soy, however, they continued to have mucus and/or blood for a long time after that. I still ate food that was packaged in the same facility with the foods I was avoiding as long as the food itself didn’t have what I was avoiding. I don’t remember if there was an unusual odor to his stools–I think they were normal breastfed baby smelling though. I hope this helps. Good luck!
So glad I found this! I’ve been going crazy trying to figure out if my 7 week old has a milk intolerance. I keep asking the pediatrician but they say it could work out of his system around 2 months and that the rash on him is just baby cne. Well I tried cutting out dairy for a few weeks and my son’s stool looked better to me(still a little mucusy but better) and his baby acne got better. Well I tried dairy again in my diet and he was super gassy, fussy, more acne, bumps on his arms now, and rash behind his ear(which they tell me is from cradle cap but he has none). Also he just had a stool that was water and really acidic smelling. He never had blood but it was real stringy. Going to try going back to not eating dairy and then go from there. Any advice and is there tests the pediatricians can do with a stool sample?
So sorry you are dealing with this! It makes it so much more difficult when the doctor isn’t seeing what you are. I would just follow your gut and eliminate the dairy again. It takes a lot of time to see a clear difference, so be patient. The only test they did for Luke was to test his stool for blood. His pediatrician told me that blood in the stool indicates irritation in the intestines and almost always points do a dairy and/or soy protein intolerance in babies. Good luck to you!
So we dont know if my daughter has MSPI yet we still have to go see the Gastroenterologist (sp?) but she started to have stools just like the ones above but now its dark hunter green and mucus. Did your child’s turn into what I described? Ive just been researching and trying to get an idea of what could be wrong with my little one. Shes four months old.
Early on Luke did have a lot of green diapers, but they mostly stopped once I cut out soy. Good luck to you! I know it’s a long journey trying to figure it out.
Hi! I too am also wondering about the last “normal” stool picture. While it does look maybe a little different than the first abnormal one, it still looks pretty slimy. Is there still mucous in the last picture? My daughter had green, mucousy poops from birth, but otherwise no other symptoms and great growth, so I did not think much of it until her 4 month check up when the pedi saw one of her diapers and said they were not normal. I have been dairy/ soy free for a month, and top 8 free for almost a week. Her stools are pretty much yellow or brownish consistently now, and the mucous seems to have gone from large globs to more tiny strings, although they still have a “shiny” appearance to them, which is why I am wondering about this last picture. To me, her stools are still shiny ( and therefore mucousy…right?), but they do most closely resemble your “normal” picture. Ah! Way too much time analyzing diapers 🙂 thank you!
I don’t think shiny necessarily means mucous when baby is exclusively breastfed. To me, the last picture does resemble normal. His diapers were like that until I tried to introduce soy back into my diet at 8 months and I saw them change back to mucous-y immediately. The difference was clear. It is hard to tell in the picture, though. I can see how it could look like it could be mucous-y, but it wasn’t. I know what you mean about the time analyzing diapers! Luke is 18 months now and I’m STILL studying his diapers. AAAAhhhh!
I am so sorry for so many comments… I saw you did say the last picture is a more normal looking diaper. I have a hard time distinguishing it from the first pic… what makes the first pic more abnormal? Shinier?? Because the last pic looks a little shiny too. I’m just trying to figure out if my son’s diapers have been normal since week 3 when I mentioned it changing and losing the seediness.
I forgot to add – the day after the doctor he started to have grass green (but less mucus) poops. He has never had green poop! Now it’s sort of a yellow color but it still looks a little slimy.
I just don’t understand why all the sudden his stools would change like this if my diet didn’t change. Truly feel there is a link to the vaccines.
HI! Wow looks like you have had a ton of response to this post. Other moms searching for answers!
My question is, you said the diapers were starting to look normal again, and you posted a photo: # 5, the last one. Is that an example of a normal diaper?
Also very interesting someone else asked about vaccines. My son, coincidentally named Luke, has had normal diapers since he was born. About 3 weeks it started to look a less seedy but when I looked up online normal BF stools, it looked like those. After his 2 month vaccines last week, on the 4th day after, Luke started to have extremely slimy, mucousy poops. First they were the yellow color then they started to get some blood flecks in them. I suspected the rotavirus vaccine having caused this, because I did a lot of googling and it seems like there were many other moms talking about the same exact symptoms starting just a few days after having received the vaccines. I brought the diaper into the pediatrician and of course the doctor tells me no it could not be from the vaccines (even though the vaccine info sheet says to bring the child in if he has blood in his stools and to mention having recently received the vaccine…. ) Anyway, the doctor tells me it is probably this milk protein sensitivity, and she also told me it often goes hand in hand with soy and advised me to cut it out.
I think this is an awful coincidence that my son suddenly started having these poop issues 4 days after the vaccine. I am convinced it is from the vaccine! I even saw on a forum someone speculating that the virus/vaccine sort of temporarily damages the intestines/colon and actually sort of causes the inability to break down the milk proteins…. interesting theory… also interesting that your other reader posted about the casein link.
Although I suspect the vaccines, I am starting my journey on eliminating all dairy/soy.
Thank you for writing this! My son was born 6 weeks early, on Easter, and was in the NICU for two weeks. I’ve been breastfeeding him exclusively however he got some Neosure in the hospital to help him gain weight. I noticed cramping during this time but took him off if it once we got home and the Dr okayed it just two days after being out of the hospital since he was gaining weight fine. His stools were great the first two-three weeks we were home. Then they started becoming mucousy and not seedy then eventually more green. Never seen blood though, sometimes small, green, hard, claylike pieces.He began spitting up a lot and they said he has reflux. So after eating I had to hold him upright for 30 min so he didn’t spit everything up. He writhed in pain. He developed an umbilical hernia. Dr took abdominal X-ray and thought he had an intestinal blockage. Sent us to ER. They performed an ultrasound and said everything looked fine. On the X-ray you could see 3/4 of the abdomen filled with trapped gas. I had cu out gluten during the pregnancy but started eating it again free he was born so went bak to gluten free. Dr also said cut dairy and eggs. I did all this for a few weeks but was getting some dairy but have now been eating dairy, egg, nut, soy, corn, and gluten free for one week. I noticed improvements with his behavior after two days. he was finally sleeping better and spitting up less. I need to stay with consistent pods though because even though I’m eating low allergen foods, two times he had had episodes where he is having stomach pain. Stools and color haven’t gone back to normal seedy yellow poop yet. He hasn’t been diagnosed with anything but sounds very similar to your situation. I did eat sunflower seed bar and a small amount of 80% dark chocolate bar the last two days and today he is having more pain therefore I’ll cut those back out. It is a challenge to eat so limited but feel its worth it or him. Thanks for this blog!
I agree it is definitely worth it. Sounds like you are doing a great job!
Hi Maryea!
Thank you so much for your blog and all the pictures!! At first I had no milk supply. Through endless latching on, and then pumping, 12 times a day, I was able to establish an adequate supply when my baby was 6 weeks. It was about that time when my baby has green mucousy stool, and then blood, and got diagnosed with the milk protein allergy. I have been on a TED, including wheat, all nuts and rice, for 7 weeks now, and her stool is still green. We had 3 diapers with blood, and the other ones tested positive for blood, although not visible to the eye.
Cooking without a lot of common ingredients takes some creativity. I think one of these days I am going to gather together my recipes to share!
Like you, nuts were my main snack, and I get so hungry with breastfeeding! So now I have gone to sunflower seeds. Did you find that you have to get your sunflower seeds from a source that is free of nut/ wheat/ soy contaminant? How about the sunbutter? The jar says it is from a facility that is free of nuts, but is roasted on equipment that also roasts soy. Did you make your own sunflower butter or just get the one from the store?
Thanks again for the blog! I hope to be at your stage one day, able to have yellow diapers again and then test each food to add back!
Annie
I do both–buy sunflower seed butter from the store and make my own. It just depends on how much time I have. I did use sunflowers that were not from a source totally free of soy or tree nuts and it didn’t seem to be a problem with Luke. I would guess that it will just depend how sensitive your child is and would be different for each child.
Hello,
I have never commented on a blog before but I am wondering if my daughter may have the same thing. She is 6 weeks old and has basically had green mucusy and or watery stools since she has been born. This has also led to horrible burns in her bottom from the stomach acid. At first her dr said she was just getting to much foremilk and told me to block feed and that I could only nurse her every 3 hours minimum. I tried bringing so scheduled for 2 weeks but it did not help. I took her back to the dr last week and this week and the dr is saying that its not my diet just that she is eating to frequently. So I am back to only letting her nurse every 3 to 4 hours. I have not had milk or icecream sinc she has been born. Was your sons bottom scalded from stomach acid? Also she has never had blood in stools. Any advice??
No, my son never had any sort of rash or irritation on his bottom. Maybe something else in your diet is causing that? Do you eat a lot of acidic foods? I’m sorry I don’t have any advice!