# Breastfeeding & poo concerns



## NikkiC123 (Aug 7, 2008)

Hi there,

My baby is 2 1/2 weeks old, and I don't think we've ever really gotten the hang of breastfeeding.  I've had terribly painful and cracked nipples, and for the past week or so have been using nipple shields, which have given me some relief, but every time I try to go back to feeding without them, the cracks open back up ... I'm very careful about my latch and always make sure she has most of my areola in her mouth - the midwife and health visitor have both confirmed my latch looks good.

My baby also seems to feed for hours at a time, she's sleepy and I have to keep waking her up - sometimes it feels like I'm feeding for 5 hour stretches (she has natural breaks in her feeds where she will fall asleep on my chest - sometimes she'll sleep for an hour, sometimes 5 minutes, but if I try and put her down, guaranteed she will wake and start rooting again).  At night I've been keeping her in bed with me, as it's just too disruptive for all of us to keep putting her back in her basket for only minutes at a time.

She also has had very watery, very green poo (kind of cooked spinach colour) for about a week ... occasionally it will go yellowish (but still with a greeny tinge) again for the odd nappy change, but it's been more consistently green than yellow in this time.  I know this can be a sign of a fore / hind-milk imbalance, so I always keep her on one breast for as long as possible - it normally ends up a good couple of hours on each breast.  Even after a couple of hours, there's sometimes still a bit of milk when I squeeze the nipple.

However today, I don't seem to have as much milk available - my boobs haven't felt full all day ... she fed for a good 5 hour stretch on and off this morning, and was still rooting for more, but I was completely empty.  In my desperation, I gave her some formula that I had in the house "just in case" at about 1pm, and she gobbled that up.  Since then, she seems to be really lethargic.  I've had to wake her to feed her a couple of times, and she's sucked from my breast (without the nipple shield), but only for 10 minutes or so, but then has gone back to sleep for a long stretch.
  A couple of times she's started whimpering, but seems to run out of steam and not woken up properly or cried with any vigour, which she normally does when she's hungry.



She's only been weighed once since leaving the hospital, I've been discharged from midwife care, saw the Health Visitor on Thursday and her weight was still around her birthweight, no-one seemed too concerned about the green poo or the long feeds, but I'm sure this can't be normal.  Not seeing the HV again until Friday, but I'm really starting to worry now.

Another couple of things that might mean something ... she has had an awful lot of saliva the past few days, which seems very frothy
- she's been making a lot of clucky, grunty, smacking noises while she sleeps, and sometimes seems to have trouble breathing, although she doesn't appear to be congested.  She had some colic last week and I gave her Colief for a few days - the colic seems to have eased, so I'm no longer giving it to her.
  I seemed to stop my bleed a couple of days ago, after it getting progressively lighter, but I've started bleeding red blood again today - could this be AF this early and if so, could this be messing with my milk supply?  She has some white on her tongue and coupled with my breast pain, the dr diagnosed thrush and have given us Daktarin gel - I've only given her one dose so far.

Sorry, I know this is a lot of questions, but I really am worried and don't know what else to do.  

Can you give me any advice??

Many thanks in advance

NikkiC (& Isobel) x


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## jeanette (May 3, 2003)

Hiya Nikki

Im going to have to answer your qs in 

Sore Nipples- have you tried rubbing breast milk into your nipples? Which cream are you using (i can see you are both using daktarin at the moment). Have you tried feeding in a ''rugby'' tackle position?

Baby Poo- it is normal for poo to range from mustard-yellow in colour to yellow with green specks. If baby is having green poo it maybe that she is getting too much fore milk. When she is feeding, how long are you stopping on the one breast for, or are you regularly swapping. If she is getting more fore milk, this wont fill her up so she will feed more regularly.

sucking for 10 minutes is really good, and at 2 weeks of age, she will be getting what she needs during this time.

Noises- I do think that she still has colic, or maybe even reflux. I would suggest that you restart the colief. A colicey baby will feed little and often.

Will be back in a bit...dd having a tantrum

jx


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## NikkiC123 (Aug 7, 2008)

Hi there,

Thank you very much for your response.

She's actually had 2 yellow poos today (although they seem to have some lumpy bits in them) - I took the day to do nothing but rest and feed (didn't leave the bedroom til 3pm!).  She fed for most of the day and my nipples are even more red raw, and I could have cried when she woke up 30 minutes after I put her down, rooting again!  I squeezed my nips and there was nothing in there, so I caved and gave her another bottle of formula ...

I've started taking Fenugreek today and hope this will help with my milk supply.  I'm trying to work through the pain and feed without the nipple shields in case those are causing problems.  Yes, I've rubbed breast milk on my nips, and am using Lansinoh as well as the Daktarin.

Thanks again

NikkiC x


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