When my exclusively breastfed baby was still tiny he had a lot of poop issues. Foremost of which was green explosive liquidy poop. For about 2 months his poop was like this, and he was going every single time he ate! Incidentally the reason why we went from disposable diapers to cloth was the sheer amount of diapers he needed on a daily basis.
I was aware that the consistency and frequency of his poop was normal for exclusively breastfed infants, I also knew that the green poop was not. On top of this, whenever he was feeding he was pushing my boob away, fussing, arching his back, and being generally frustrated. I KNEW he was hungry and needed to be fed, so it wasn't like I was forcefeeding him or anything. Other things that signaled something was wrong was constant gassiness, really loud adult-like toots, lots of spit-up, and other GERD-like symptoms. My pedia said this was all within normal, he just needed to grow bigger. I insisted on seeing a specialist when he started having blood in his stool, the specialist said it was all within normal so long as he was growing and gaining weight.
I was frustrated that my baby had to go through this, I knew he was in pain and there must be something I could do! Turns out, I wasn't asking the right people. We don't have lactation consultants, so I googled. There were plenty of resources so I was kind of lost among the possible diagnoses, until one day... I was feeding him in the middle of night while we were both lying in bed. He unlatched for a second because I was shifting my position and I saw a SPRAY of breastmilk hitting him in the face. It was like a high-pressure hose, I kid you not. That's when I knew it was oversupply, too much milk, the opposite of what most nursing moms worry about.
You never really think that oversupply can be a problem, it must be a good thing right? Well it turns out that oversupply caused most of the symptoms my baby was having, especially the green liquidy explosive poop, AND was exacerbating his reflux causing the blood in his stool and spit up. He was pushing my breast away while feeding because he was trying to slow down the flow of milk. One of the blogs I was reading said, imagine if you had to drink from a garden hose going full stream, that's what he was trying to deal with while he was hungry and angry.
The green poop was because of a foremilk-hindmilk imbalance (caused by the oversupply), too much foremilk also gives him gas which explains the explosiveness of his poops and toots. AGH! My poor baby! He had to deal with all of this and he was in pain, and hungry all the time!
I reversed everything I was doing to bring my supply up and eventually things all settled into normal poops and baby happiness and easier less frequent nursing. For months my husband and I were obsessed about the color and consistency of his poop, after doing all of the following his poop turned mustardy (the best kind!).
1. Stop the galactagogues. I was drinking 3 pills of Fenugreek (can be purchased for P800 per bottle at Health Options stores Solgar brand). Fenugreek really really works, ergo, bad for those with oversupply.
2. Reduce the pumping sessions. My first instinct was to pump before feeding him to fix the foremilk imbalance problem, but I was told this was just going to make things worse. Made perfect sense of course.
3. Most importantly, block feed for a few days until your supply adjusts down. This means using only one breast for a number of hours. In the morning the left, afternoon right, etc etc. The non-feeding breast will get engorged, when it gets to that point switch.
Eventually I was able to get a reasonable supply amount going, enough to bf exclusively and about 5 ounces extra during the day to pump and store.
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