Mum’s Journey: Let’s Talk About Poo

I found myself willing on a bowel movement, having noticed Sophie grunting and squirming. Sophie had recently changed from having a bowel movement every day to two-three days between bowel movements and we also noticed a change in her behavior.

The Funny Relationship Between Pooing and Feeding

Sophie would become very unsettled again in the lead up to a poo and she would feed at the breast 1-2 hourly and her feeding pattern had become quite furious.

We were giving her lots of nappy free time as this was the only thing that seemed to keep her calm and this is when she would finally poo. The motions were extremely frothy, think the top off your cappuccino frothy.

There was enough froth to fill 2-3 nappies worth and she was different baby after the motion. We felt that a huge amount of our time was spent focusing on helping Sophie to poo so that she was more comfortable.

It Felt Like We Were Heading Backwards AGAIN

This happened twice over a week and then I knew I needed to get our feeding and Sophie back on track. I got on the phone to Katie (a Medela lactation consultant) and asked for “help!”

Katie was wonderful and arranged to make a visit to me to see what was happening at the breast. I knew she was snacking but didn’t know how to change the vicious cycle we had got ourselves into.

Our appointment was super helpful in confirming what I had suspected that she was only snacking at the breast and never really filling herself up, but Katie then went onto explain why.

Sophie was exhausted from the snacking and had gotten herself into a routine of a quick drink, quick sleep, becoming unsettled, realizing she was still hungry and repeating.

Katie explained it was like she was living on a diet of strawberries only (low fat, high in sugar,) never getting to the steak and potatoes! Sophie would feed only to be hungry a short time later. It also explained her frothy poos.

Often babies who are having only the foremilk, which is low fat, high sugar will be unsettled with pooing and there will be cappuccino frothy nappies all over the place!

Katie had told me to keep an eye on the colour and consistency of her poos as this can also help me to gauge how well she is feeding at the breast. I should expect to see her poos change back to non-frothy, soft, yellow and seedy breastmilk normal poos.

I set about doing this and awaited my MCHN appointment to check Sophie’s weight.

How would you describe your breastfeeding experience? What breastfeeding questions would you like Katie to answer in a future post? Please join the conversation here or on our Medela Australia Facebook page.