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Stressed over bloody stools
Henry had 3 heme positive stools overnight. He is on full feeds and off TPN as of yesterday. His belly looks fine and the prelim peak at his x-ray looks normal. They are going to keep feeding him. Anybody have stories to share about this? I'm worried about milk protein intolerance or something else besides NEC. I guess we'll see how the day goes. Oh the NICU rollercoaster...
BFP#1 9/14/10 (EDD 5/21/11); no fetal pole 6w6d, 7w4d, d&c 10/8
BFP#2 3/16/11, beta 138; 4/12 Baby/HB DS born 9/10/11 at 29w4d due to partial abruption and PTL
BFP#3 8/19/13 Another boy! 17P, modified bedrest and Nifedipine helped us have a termie! DS2 born 4/19/14 at 38w5d.
BFP#2 3/16/11, beta 138; 4/12 Baby/HB DS born 9/10/11 at 29w4d due to partial abruption and PTL
BFP#3 8/19/13 Another boy! 17P, modified bedrest and Nifedipine helped us have a termie! DS2 born 4/19/14 at 38w5d.
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Re: Stressed over bloody stools
Sophia was moved to the going home unit and we were on our way out the door and she had a few bloody stools. I was asked every question under the sun about my milk supply and what I was eating etc. They ran the test and delayed going home for about 3 weeks. After they took her off TPN they gave her some nasty smelling formula until I begged them to put her back on BM. Just for some reason she just had a few bloody stools. We have not idea why she has them, but it has never been a problem since. Good luck and stay stong.
My little guy (31 weeker) had bloody stools. They started in NICU and caused a lot of NEC scares, due to suspicious areas on X-rays. Poor little guy went NPO and was switched to a lot of different formulas (none of which he would digest- he had large residuals of almost all his feedings) So they put him back on breastmilk and had a G.I doctor consult.
He was diagnosised with allergies to breastmilk, dairy and soy due to an immature pancreas. his HCT dropped during his first 4 weeks in NICU so they put him on EPO to bring his blood count back up. The G.I doctor was okay with the blood in his stools as long as DS was meeting his milestones and his labs remained normal. I kept him on breastmilk for 6 months, the entire time in which he never had a normal stool. At 6 months, he was so unhappy on the breastmilk we switched him to Elecare, a super hypo-allergeic formula. It did the trick and turned him from a difficult baby to a happy one. It also stopped his bloody stools.
From what I've seen, a dairy intolerance is a common cause of bloody stools. Sometimes it can be corrected by you cutting out dairy and soy from your own diet. And sometimes the allergy is from a protein in the breastmilk and moving to Elecare or Neocate is the next step. The formula was super expensive. It cost 500$ to feed him for a month, but our insurance helped with 80% of the cost. My DS was also reintroduced to dairy and soy slowly and is now on a completely regular diet. He is almost 2.
Good luck to you!
Robbie had 4 (5?) incidences like this in the NICU. Scared me to death every time. They'd always make him NPO immediately, Xray, CBC etc. It was never NEC.
He had a hard time with the fortified feeds. As soon as they'd get to 27cal/oz, he'd start having trouble again.
What we later learned (WAY later, he was 10 months old) is that he was allergic to corn. When they'd start putting too much stuff in it, it would build up into his sytem and just tear his gut up.
The first thing they had suspected with dairy, since that's the most common, so I stopped eating dairy so it wasn't in my breastmilk. It never made any difference, though. Like I said.. eventually we learned about the corn. But if they've ruled out infection, my next thought would be some sort of dietary intolerance or allergy.
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