elimination diet for green poo with microscopic blood

greyt00

I found a TINY bit of visible blood in my son's 1st green poo.  I started giving up dairy immediately though I have eaten an ingredient called "natural flavors" a few times since then because I didn't know it might be dairy.  Anyway, that was the ONLY maybe-dairy thing I have eaten since Oct. 3.  On Oct. 11 all three poos that I took to the dr. still had microscopic blood.  Ugh.  Now I'm facing the possibility that it's more than just dairy, maybe soy?  I will be soy-free starting tomorrow.  I haven't had any tree nuts or peanuts since Oct. 1 either, unless you count a single cup of coconut milk that I used to make dairy-free cookies. I don't know what the heck I will eat.  Tonight's dinner was bread and carrot sticks.

How long should it take to get this out of our system?

Is anyone else doing elimination diet based SOLELY on green poo with microscopic blood?  Baby is not fussy very often and is not refluxing.  He doesn't even spit up that much.  Thank goodness.

We have an appointment with a pediatric gastroenterologist because I am so intent on nursing.  

My first son had the same thing -- green poo with blood.  But he was raging so we had to make a change immediately and I was too stressed to keep up the diet for long. He ended up on Neocate for 9 months and ended up with reflux later and we have awful feeding issues now.  I do not want history to repeat itself.

I guess I should HOPE it's only dairy and soy and not wheat, chicken, beef, eggs and bunch of other things?

Everyusernameistaken

I am curious to hear what people say about this!

I am currently waiting on tests to see what's up with my EBF baby's green poo (I have never seen blood though).  He poops green every poo except his first 2 morning poos (he still goes after almost every feeding), so the Dr. says it's probably to do with something I'm eating (and the LC says its not foremilk/hindmilk imbalance).

However, the little guy is happy, gaining beautifully, and super healthy other than the green poo.  My Dr. says the test is really just a precaution, she's not worried about him and would not recommend and elimination diet at all as long as the green poo is the only issue.  She says that their digestive system is the system that matures and changes the most in the first months, and his little system is just figuring stuff out. 

I still worry though,everything you read online says that green poo is usually bad, and you see all the ladies on here doing elimination diets for green poo so I don't know!

 I guess we'll see!  Good luck

 

aylafsu88

My LO has MSPI.  Our pedi diagnosed it after having green mucous and blood filled poop.  My LO was extremely fussy whenever she had to have a bowl movement and was gaining weight rather slowly. From what I read and talking to the LC I see it can take anywhere from 5 days to 2 weeks for dairy proteins to leave the breast milk (depending on how much dairy you eat). It seems like you have not been dairy free for very long, so it may take longer for the dairy to get out of your system. It took 4 weeks for my LOs poop to return to normal and for her to become less fussy when having a movement.

You should also check that the items you are eating do not have any hidden dairy (casien, whey, lactoglobulin are all dairy proteins ) in them.  Some LOs are sensitive to hidden dairy as well.  You could be consuming things that have hidden dairy in them and upsetting your LOs digestive tract.  I have eliminated all dairy, even hidden dairy, and only eat certain breads and processed food items because dairy is in almost everything.  If you think it may be other things go on an extreme elimination diet (eat only veggies and chicken) and then slowly start to introduce foods back into your diet and monitor how LO reacts. This will let you know how specific items effect your LO. If this diet is to much for you right now then cut out the major food allergens (diary, wheat, eggs, milk, tree nuts, peanuts, shellfish) and see how LO reacts.  GL!!

greyt00

Yes, I have a long list of stuff to avoid including casein, whey, lactoglobulin, etc.  I even found this ambiguous "natural flavors" to worry about.  That means I can't eat ANY processed meat/bean product.  Today was the first day I avoided soy as well, and I can hardly eat anything.  I'm light-headed.  I haven't been able to go to the grocery store yet.  I'm not sure my bread is soy-free -- I bought it at Whole Foods a couple weeks ago when I was only giving up dairy.  There is no way I could give up wheat right now.  I'm giving up dairy, soy, peanut, tree nut, fish, and shellfish.  I'm not giving up wheat and egg until the dr. tells me to and I can get to the store to buy some freaking food.  This sucks!!!  I'm dying for peanut butter but I haven't had it in 2 weeks and I hate to mess it up now.  I highly doubt that's the problem and it would be a nice protein source fo rme to have (assuming I can find a brand without soy in it).  But the ONLY dairy I've had since Oct. 3 is the stupid "natural flavors" which may not even be dairy.

I just wonder how bad is microscopic blood really if that is the ONLY symptom.  I only ever saw blood with my eye once, and it was tiny.  If his poo goes back to mustard and still has microscopic blood, how do we know it wasn't there all along and isn't in a bunch of babies' poo that is never checked?  All questions for the gastroenterologist.

BTW, I never saw the blood in my first son's poo.  The dr. had to show it to me.  I had to look really hard for it.

Shortcake2675

K had a persistent red ring around his anus that he came home from the hospital with, something that resembled baby acne that flared when he nursed, mucusy stools, and eventually bloody mucusy stools. 

I started with obvious dairy, then hidden dairy, then soy, then soy lecithin, and finally soybean oil.

Soy Lecithin and Soybean oil have nearly all the protein removed. I gave up soy lecithin with the rest of soy, but I'm still seeing the diaper rash and facial rash when I'm eating it soybean oil, so I'm cutting it too.

Try this elimination diet.  https://www.askdrsears.com/topics/feeding-infants-toddlers/food-allergies/elimination-diet I'm hellbent on nursing and so far, the diet hasn't been awful, but it gets me down sometimes. Giving up refined soybean oil has been the worst.  I'm having to give up my guilty pleasures of cakes and brownies without good alternatives.  But for him, it's worth it. 

Word of caution though- read every label.  The allergen markings are a great reference for obvious problems, but even still, dairy is not always marked when it's whey or casein form.  And if you have to give up all soy, soy lecithin and soybean oil are not considered allergens most of the time. 

greyt00

Is all soybean oil highly refined?  I saw a mention of soy lecithin and highly refined soybean oil as usually being tolerated fine by those with soy allergy, but I don't know if that means ALL soybean oil is usually OK?  

My son has had a pretty persistent diaper rash since birth.  He got it immediately (within a day after birth) and it was HORRIBLE the 1st 3 weeks, but it got better.  He'd lose the rash completely for one day at the most, and then it would come back, though not as severe, and after another couple weeks, I'd get rid of it again, but not for very long.  Oddly enough, the rash went away for several days right around the time the green poo/blood started. Maybe it's related but the relationship seems odd.  I wasn't aware of his poo containing  blood until he was 7.5 weeks old.

I found that Dr. Sears elimination diet yesterday, but I'm not resorting to it until we see the gastroenterologist.  For now, I'm giving up ALL soy (and dairy) completely.  I bet he's going to tell me to do this diet, or go gluten-free, and I'll want to stab him.  But I'll do it.  The diet I'm on now is bad enough I may as well go all the way.  The only soy-free bread I could find is flaxseed bread.

I just bought some Safflower Oil to bake with but the muffin mix which I thought was safe contains the ambiguous "natural flavors" so now I don't want to eat it.

Check this out:

https://www.godairyfree.org/recipes/dairy-free-snickerdoodle-blondies-for-a-successful-party

Once you can have eggs again, the above recipe is awesome.   YUM.  I eat one of those bars every day.  That Earth Balance margarine they mention is good.

greyt00

In case anyone is interested, we saw a gastro dr. today.  He was not too concerned that my son still has (well, as of a week ago) microscopic blood in his poo.  He told me to continue my diet and check again in 4-6 weeks, and check for anemia at the same time.  If I *see* blood in the stool, restrict my diet further.  At that point I might do the Dr. Sears diet.  The only allergens I'm having now are eggs and wheat (I know they are big ones, but still, I'm cutting 6 out of 8 when my dr. told me just to cut dairy).  I will continue to weigh my son at home and make sure he is gaining fine (we have a baby scale).  I was a little worried because he weighed 2 ounces less at this hospital than he did 1 week ago at my pediatrician, but maybe it's just a difference with their scales.