5 month old & mild vaginal bleeding? (LONG)
Ecy
member
Ok, if you can stick with me here's how the recent events took place.
I picked DD up from DC on Wed. afternoon and went to my mom's house. Within a few minutes of being there, I changed her diaper because I could tell she was pretty wet. While changing her, I noticed what looked like discharge on her vagina and on the diaper. I said something to my mom about it and just assumed that maybe she had a poop and DC didn't clean her well (never happened before,) so I just wiped clean and put on the new diaper.
An hour or so later, we are at home and I'm doing stuff around the house and my DH mentions that he changed her diaper a bit earlier and noticed some discharge. So...now I know that this wasn't something that DC didn't properly clean and I'm a bit more concerned. Still don't really know what to do about it though. DD is happy, eating fine and not acting irritable in any way.
It's now about 7pm and I am about to give DD a bath. I went to take off her diaper which was not wet or dirty and I see blood spots in the diaper. There were about 3 or 4 faint red spots. I freaked! Her bath water was already ready to go so I had DH bathe her while I got on the phone with the on call nurse at our pedi office. We ran through a list of options that we could rule out as they don't apply to DD. Example: she's not being weaned of of BM so this shouldn't be a hormonal issue. The nurse sounded stuck because there isn't really a quick answer for this. And like I said, DD was acting fine, eating fine, etc. So she told me to wait until she had been out of the bath for about 30 min. and then take her temp and call her back.
I take the temp and it is normal. Then I decide to examine her myself the best that I can. I'm looking for a scratch or anything of the sort. I see nothing except she looks red on the skin around her opening. I take a wipe and dab the area and get blood on the wipe. This scares the crap out of me!!! I call the nurse back and tell her this and she tells me to go in to an after hours pediatrics clinic.
It was about 1.5 later that we were being seen by the nurse practitioner and her diaper again had a few spots of faint blood in it. She examined her and definitely noticed the redness around her opening but again, nobody has any real answers because nobody knows what in the hell it could be. They take a culture and we are having to wait until Monday for the results.
She stayed home the next day and went to see her pedi for another set of eyes and she basically just said that she looks ok and we will see what the culture says. I called the DC and they said they hadn't noticed any discharge or anything the entire day before I picked her up at 4. Really? This just happened to start with the diaper that I changed?
As of now, she is completely fine and the redness is gone and for the last two days she has had absolutely no more discharge or blood. It's as if it never happened. I obviously am thankful for this and don't want anything to be wrong but I think it's weird that it would only last one day (or according to DC, an afternoon.)
Possible causes: sitting in a dirty diaper too long, aggressive cleaning, soap getting in there (?), or God forbid some type of tampering. Nobody has said that she looked like she had been tampered with but it's just my worst nightmare so of course, it crossed my mind. I just find it strange.
Thanks for reading all of this. I guess I am looking for any advice and if others have had something like this happen before and did you ever get any answers.
TIA!!!
Re: 5 month old & mild vaginal bleeding? (LONG)
Yes, right after birth, this is true. She had that just a few days after she was born. But it shouldn't happen again from my understanding and my concern is that she also had discharge and her area was pretty red & looked irritated.
I wouldn't worry about tampering. Pediatricians know what to look for. If there are no abrasions internally or externally near the V, then don't be alarmed...IMO.
If she is behaving like her normal self, then she is likely fine. Let the pedi investigate it.
Infections can cause bleeding. I would just wait for the results to come back. But being frightened or alarmed is a natural response. I hope I helped put your mind at ease.
Hope your LO gets better soon.
This is true. There should be no bleeding past a week. That hormone shift that causes the uterine lining to slough off usually resolves by a week.
I think you're right and it does make me feel better to hear someone else say it. Thank you!
I would have to agree with this. I know it is a mom thing to worry about the worst possible scenario, but I know they would have mentioned something if the pediatrician so much as suspected someone could have tampered with her.
Also, as PP pointed out, the fact that your daughter isn't acting upset is a very good sign! Monday is just around the corner. Try and calm your mind as best you can, and worry about crossing bridges when you get to them. ;-)
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