How urgent is it to see Gastroenterologist?

sweetMay119

I posted about my 5 week old having bloody green mucousy stools since Tuesday morning (2 days ago). Prior to that she had 48 hours of fussiness, only 10 hours sleep, reflux, grunting, stomach gurgling. She is now a lot less fussy, sleeping pretty good, eating fine, still has reflux symptoms and belly gurgling, but stools are about the same. We first saw ped on Tuesday (day 1 of bloody stools), and were given Zantac and I was told to eat bland diet and watch her stools. Well, since her stools are same he referred us to a gastroenterologist, but we can't get in until next Wed. (1 wk 1 day from start of blood). I don't feel like this is an emergency, but my mother, who is an RN, is trying to convince me to take her somewhere else sooner even if it is the ER since she is only 5 wks. What do you think? How long did your LO go with bloody stools this young?

shotzie

Those are classic signs of a milk protein intolerance. Did your pedi not suggest that?? I would cut all dairy from your diet. If LO's poop isn't better in 3-4 weeks, then cut soy too. A lot of milk protein intolerant babies are also soy intolerant. You can find the ingredients to avoid on the FAAN website where they talk about dairy and soy allergies. Also google MSPI and you'll find lots of info. The blog mspimama.com has some great recipes. Dairy and especially soy are in most packaged foods, so it's easiest to just stick to eating whole foods (meat, rice, oatmeal, fruits, veggies, beans). If you scroll down to my post with the MSPI Moms check-in, you can see our latest post and it also has the links to our older posts. There are more food/recipe ideas there.

sweetMay119

Sorry, I forgot to mention that I decided on my own to start a dairy/soy free diet yesterday. I asked ped about it at first visit and he blew it off, but I decided on my own that it couldn't hurt to start the diet. I mentioned it again today and it was only then that he said she could very well be MSPI, but he wanted to leave it to the GI Dr. Thanks for the info...the past couple of days I have found your posts to be especially helpful when I was putting together a grocery list!

shotzie

Okay, I just read your previous post. You need a new pedi if he didn't recognize the signs of MSPI. As far as a pnv, I never found one w/o soy. I did find Target brand chewable kids' vitamins that specifically said on the label they are free of dairy, soy, and some of the other top 8. They're even on sale this week and there's a $1 off coupon on Target's site you can print.

shotzie

Glad you found my posts helpful. The diet can be overwhelming at first.

sweetMay119

shotzie:

Okay, I just read your previous post. You need a new pedi if he didn't recognize the signs of MSPI. As far as a pnv, I never found one w/o soy. I did find Target brand chewable kids' vitamins that specifically said on the label they are free of dairy, soy, and some of the other top 8. They're even on sale this week and there's a $1 off coupon on Target's site you can print.

I'm going to look for these today, thanks!