Decoding the Infant's Rainbow of Poop: Why is My Infant's Poop Green?

  Everybody poops. Babies poop a lot and their poop undergoes a metamorphosis from right after birth and throughout infancy. What is normal and when should you be concerned enough to call your pediatrician? When your baby is first born, he or she must first pass meconium through their bottom. Meconium is black and tarry-like. It is the amniotic fluid your baby ingested in the womb. If, for some reason your baby doesn't pass any meconium, this a reason for concern, as there could be an intestinal problem. Breastfeeding babies and bottle-fed babies have different colors, consistencies, and frequencies of poop.  Breastfed babies have yellow seedy or slightly green poop. My breastfed baby usually poops at least five to six times a day. It is normal for your infant to urinate six to eight times a day. Urine should be colorless and should soak the diaper. and Bottle fed babies have peanut butter paste-like poop and poop less frequently because formula takes longer to digest.

Times when you should be concerned about the color of your baby's poop is when it is white, black, or red. 

• White poop can indicate a problem with the biliary tree/bile production in your infant. 
• Black poop can be from digested blood in the intestines or iron supplementation. 
• Red poop or Green mucousy poop with streaks of blood can indicate bleeding in the rectum or intestines. 
• Currant red jelly stool: Go to ER immediately! This can indicate intussusception or telescoping of the bowels.

(taken from breastfeedingmaterials.com)

 Learning the ins and outs of baby poop and studying my own child's diapers became my pastime after discovering my child had green mucousy poop tinged with streaks of blood. It was discovered at the pediatrician's office, where the poop tested positive for blood.

Some of the most common causes of blood in the stool include:

1. Anal fissure or tear
2. Food allergies (cow's milk protein and soy allergies being the most common) 
3. Crack in the mother's nipple
4. Milk Oversupply
5. Infection (Salmonella if you have reptiles, Listeria and E. coli from food, etc.)
6. Intussusception 

If the baby only has green stools without being fussy and without the poop testing positive for blood, there would be little concern. However, since Amelia had been fussy for the past few days during her fifth week of life, it was more likely an allergy problem. Infection was less likely due to her not having a fever and not being exposed to any reptiles (which could cause Salmonella infection). The solution was that I would go on a dairy-free and soy-free diet for two weeks to see if this improved her behavior and poop.
The percentage of breastfed infants having allergic colitis is around 0.5-1%, but I hear about it quite frequently.(http://www.bfmed.org/Media/Files/Protocols/Allergic%20Proctocolitis%20in%20the%20Exclusively%20Breastfed%20Infant.pdf).

SUCCESS :)
Amelia's behavior has gotten better after my abstinence from dairy and soy for about five days. Her poops have been less mucousy with almost no blood. They are occasionally green, but sometimes yellow and seedy. The pediatrician and information from other articles I've read says it takes around one to two weeks for stools to improve. If Amelia's behavior and stools don't improve within this time span, I may have to abstain from another common allergen and reintroduce dairy. There are different methods for determining what your child is allergic too. One diet includes elimination of one food at a time for one to two weeks. Another diet proposes elimination of all allergens and slow reintroduction. http://www.askdrsears.com/topics/feeding-eating/feeding-infants-toddlers/food-allergies/elimination-diet

Next up... How an ice cream/froyo- aholic prevents withdrawal from her new dairy-free/soy-free diet. I will give information on how to manage to eat while breastfeeding an infant with allergies or while feeding a family when your children have allergies.