Blood in My 4 Month Old's Stool

This is a very helpful guide to baby poop:

http://www.drjaygordon.com/development/pediatricks/poop.asp

I know of several babies that had bright blood in their stools, and it was a dairy intolerance. I bet the Dr. suspects this, and that's why they are having you wait. The green in the stool is another indication of dairy intolerance (usually will outgrow it)

Mommy,

Usually Pediatritians offices are good about having the doctor call you back if you ask. I took to this method before making an appt. and exposing the little one to the office germs. A lot of times the doctor will say to watch it for a while, or they'll say you need to bring baby in.

Just a tip. Hope baby's OK.

Catching up on last week's e-mails, hopefully you got some helpful responses.
My co-worker's fourth month old son had the same problem. She had been on an antiboic for a urinary tract infection. The second urologist they took their baby to see, told them in some cases as the the infection is leaving the mother it can enter the baby's system via the breast milk - when the doctor took a culture - sure enough the baby tested posiitve for that urniary infection! They treated him and he is now healthy and gaining weight.

ALicia,
It could be a lot of things....does he seem upset (crying, pulling his legs up - acting in distress?) Sometimes, red blood is caused by a tear in the anus - which, at his age would be caused by something that you are eating that is making him constipated and causing him to strain to push out the poop. It could also be an irritation in the intestinal track - most often caused by dairy products, for some reason. If you are finding yourself eating a large quantity of dairy, try cutting back. Some peds consider this a sign of dairy allergy - but I'd try cutting back, first.
It's not likely that it's Keflex - but that is a strong drug - so you may have been told to take probiotics and may be eating yogurt -which may be causing the irritation. Also, try nursing longer on a side; his poops should be yellow - they really shouldn't be green - that means that he's not getting a full feeding, which can also cause stomach irritation.
J.

Antibiotics are not healthy for anyone, especially a tiny infant who's immune system hasn't even fully developed.

I suggest when you visit the doctor have some blood work done on the baby to see how high the antibiotic levels are in him, and also to check for any other blood abnormalities. He could be having some sort of reaction to the drug in your milk, or it could be something else entirely.

All in all - blood in the stool is never a good sign of anything and should be treated respectfully.

Hi Alicia,

I have had the same experience with my son and it turned out to be that he was allergic to protein. Consequently, we had to put him on a special kind of formula, (and it was not soy based). The formula that he was on was Nurtamigen. And just like his pediatrition was predicting all along, when he turned one, we slowly switched him to regular milk, with absolutely no problems.

At the time he was 2 1/2 months old. Now is 15 1/2 years old and he has never had any more problems consuming protein.

Don't wait, go and see a pediatrition and good luck to you.

~N.

Bright red could be a small break in his anus. It would be black if it would internal bleeding.

My son had this but in only 2 diapers and it was small. We never knew what caused it and his doctor wasn't too concerned. But it was a really small amount. I think it happened around the same age.

Is your appointment for today? I wouldn't worry too much. Is he acting like his normal self? That's usually a very important symptom.

My son had fresh blood in his stool starting around 3 months and was diagnosed with allergic proctitis. Through my own dietary changes, the best we could come up with was that it was to dairy and soy. However, even after cutting out those foods, he still occasionally had fresh blood in his stool until he was about 14 months. It was very stressful to always wonder if I was going to see blood when I opened his diaper. He is now 21 months, still nursing, and seems to have outgrown the allergy as I've finally introduced dairy and soy into his diet directly and he does fine with it. Good luck to you!

It's good you made a Dr appt... I was told this is definitely a symptom that requires being seen!

Call your pediatrician and let them know - if it is something to worry about they will have you come in sooner. Ask if you should go to the ER. Everything is probably okay, but you want to talk to the DR. to be safe.

Alicia,
My daughter used to have traces of blood in her stool. Got her in to see the doctor, and yes there was blood in the stool. She was also a breastfed baby. It turns out that everything I ate affected her. It was causing her to get sores in her intestines. So I was put on a very bland diet. Just about everything I ate affected her. The main things I could eat were meat and potatoes. Everything else had acid, spice or too much fiber.
Hope all works out and it is nothing too major. Once the doctors run all the tests they need you'll know what steps to take.
C.

It might just be anal fissures. My son had that from time to time...it was no big deal, just a little scary...

Hi ALicia,

I don't know what it could be as I have never had that experience with my children personally. However, I think you should get the baby into the doctor today just to be on the safe side. If he were mine, I would be there already. If he's only breastfeeding, I can't see why he would have blood in his stool; and you should call your doctor as well to see if this antibiotic you're taking may in fact be causing this bleeding. When I had mastitis, my doctor gave me the Z-Pack and it worked great.

Try to get the baby to the doctor today. I can't see why they would wait and make you make an appointment that's not the same day when he's so young anyway. Of course I don't know all the surrounding info, but you may want to find a new pediatrician, too :\

Let me know how he is when you find out. I will keep him in my highest thoughts and prayers so that all is well :)

Blessings,
Jennifer

I read through the posts- most of the moms had the same thing that happened with me and my daughter as well...inability to break down the protein in dairy, soy and beef. Since she was 100% breastfed- I had to cut out those items from my diet. It was difficult at first- but then got easier...plus I lost all the pregnancy weight and ten more pounds! :)

I saw her pediatrician, a pediatric gastroentronologist and an allergist. Her tests for allergies came back negative- which only means that she didn't have an actual allergy and that her body would mature enough to digest those proteins.

My daughter is now 14 months old and has no problem digesting dairy and soy. Haven't given her beef yet...but that is more because I don't eat it...and so I don't feed it to her.

Good luck!

That's about the time when I found blood in my son's stool. He also was 100% breastfed. I took him to the ped, and it turned out it was a dairy intolerance. I had to remove all milk products (and anything made with milk products) from my diet for a few months since the milk proteins pass into the breastmilk.

It was tough at first, but the good news is, after a few months, the intolerance passed and I went back to my old diet. Now, at 18-months he can have regular milk.

Some suggest the eilmination diet, but it seemed way too strict for me. That would have been the next step had eliminating milk not worked. You can find more info on that stuff on askdrsears.com or kellymom.com.

It can take up to 6 weeks before all proteins are removed from your or the baby's system, so you'll have to give it time, if this is the issue.

Good luck. I hope it's as simple as a milk protein issue. :)

My daughter had a similar problem when she was about 5 months old (breast fed only). I took her to her pediatrician and was told to keep an eye on it. It went away for awhile but returned and this time with some mucus too. I saved the diapers and showed them to the pediatrician, had the samples tested. My daughter did not appear to have any other symptoms or discomfort. We ended up seeing a gastrial/intestinal specialist at Children's Hospital who said my daughter had some "bumps" in her colon ( I can't remember the formal name) that were causing her to bleed. It was a condition that could not be treated and would hopefully just "go away" with time as she continued to grow. Amazingly, my daughter stopped bleeding 1 day after her "colonoscopy". I am glad our pediatrician was proactive and got my daughter an appointment with the specialist ASAP! My advise is if you have a feeling something is wrong, be persistant and have it checked out. Also, make sure you keep samples of your baby's stool for the doctor and keep a log of when/how often your son's stool has blood. Good Luck

I'm not sure about your son but to help avoid taking any medication ,put cabbage leaves in your braw for the mastitis.I know it sounds crazy but it works!Good luck!

Hello. Well my sons story with blood in his stool isnt a good one. He had bloody diapers for 1 month when he was 2 years old. He had a colonoscopy done and right away and doctors performed a blood transfusion on him since he lost so much blood. We were then addmitted to childrens hospital for 1 week and my son was diagnosed with IBD, Inflammatory Bowel Disease. It has been 2 years of living with this now and it has been a long road. On and of 4 different medications daily and it feels like every month 3 months we are at childrens ER. My son is a happy normal acting boy it is just behind closed doors that he feels pain sometime and the blood comes back.
Basically, make sure you have them run all the tests ASAP so you dont end up haveing to be addmitted to the hospital with doctors performing a blood transfusion. Your family will be in my prayers. I am sorry to tell you our bad experience but it is nothing to let happen for more than a few days.

My friend went through this... if you are drinking milk it might be causing a little reaction to your baby's stomach. She had to stop breasfeeding and use a non-dairy formula. After her baby became 1 year old.. she can have milk again..

I don't know if this is the same, but you could try to cut out dairy until you see the doc.

I had the same thing happen with my son, starting at about 3 months. It is better that the blood is bright red rather than dark. My pediatrician wanted my son to have some nuclear testing done for meckel's diverticulitis, however, that required him not to eat after midnight, have a dye put into his body & then undergo the nuclear scan. My gut was telling me otherwise, so I asked for a referral to a pediatric gastroenterologist, and when we went to him, he immediately put the thought of the meckel's to rest, saying because the blood was bright red it was either a tear in the anus or an allergy. He did check for a small tear in his anus - none found - so I then had to do the elimination diet. I had to take my son off of breast milk completely for a week - pumped many times daily to keep up my milk supply - and eliminated dairy, wheat, nuts and soy. It did take at least 8 weeks for the blood to completely disappear - we got to the point where there was no visible blood, but it would show up in the stool samples. The exact cause of the allergy was never determined. My son is now 3 1/2 years old, and we just took him for some more blood work yesterday to try to determine any allergies as he seems to constantly have a runny nose (could just be lots of colds, too, but I wanted to check this out). Other than that, he is a super healthy, thriving young man! Hope this helps and power to you on your journey.

Alicia,

He may have C. Defficile (c. diff.)which can be treated with medication, you should see a doctor right away. Did you tell the appointment person what was going on? They usually will get you in right away. My son had it when he was almost 3 months old. I'd google it and get info on it. We took our son to the ER, make sure you save a sample so they can test it. Just keep the diaper and take it to your appointment. If you go to children's hospital they can do the test of the sample pretty quickly, I don't know about the doctors office. Ask to talk to a nurse practitioner if you can't talk to the doctor directly. Now it's coming back to me...our doctor told us to go to Children's hospital. You don't want to have to go in only to have to be reffered somewhere else. Good luck!

My daughter had this too off and on. I went to the doctor several times and thet were never too concerned. She hasn;t had it in about 2 months now!!

My firstborn had this and she was strictly breastfed also. I did ask the doctor and they told me it was my hormones coming out. If your doctors appointment is soon and you still have the diaper, take it with you. Try not to worry, babies will pick up on your emotions. I'm sure your doctor will be abe to figure this out.

Alicia,
My sister went through the same thing with her daughter. She found out that her daughter was lactose intolerant meaning all the dairy my sister was eating her daughter couldn't process. She had to go on a very strict diet until she weened her daughter off breastmilk. Even now (she's almost 21 months old) she can't have dairy. If you are that worried call your doctor (his pediatrician) and say I am very worried is there an earlier appointment or nicely demand one.

Good luck,
M. P

I have had this same trouble with my now 7 month old...the first time it happened he was about 4 months old...he had not pooped for 30 hours, then when he pooped there was blood which continued in every poop for over 2 days. The docotr saw him and determined that he had "torn" himself when forcefully pooping and passing gas. A day later he had a little tear on the outside of his anus...which had not been there the day before, we had to just keep it lubricated on the outside and wait it out. I change my diet a little to make sure he wouldn't get as gassy and it did clear up within a week or so. We have had to be real careful about diaper rash and keeping it lubricated ever since. We wear changing about 15 diapers a day as the slightest pee or poop meant changing his diaper to make sure it didn't get worse. It happed again about a month ago, just after starting solids. the rice cereal constipated him, so he didn't poop for 2 days, then when he did there was blood in it from forcefully pushing it out. We just have to keep watch at what he eats and be careful not to give him constipating foods.

DO go see the doctor, as you never know what the cause is, but if it is minimal (which is sounds like it is), then its likely something minor. If he's pooping more frequent or its more loose (hard to tell with breastfed babies), there might be something else going on.

When I was on antibiotics...omnicef....my daughters stools turned bright red for 10 days. They went back to normal when I got off the meds. My sister who is a peditric RN said that she gets calls all the time for the same question and it is usually the antibiotics. Just to be safe...see your pediatrician. My DD also has protein allergies and I know blood in their stool is a symptom of that as well.

Hi Alicia. I hope everything is okay with your little one. Going to the Dr. is the best thing, but I thought I would add my two cents in hopes that it might make you feel a little better before you go. I've always been told by doctors that when blood is in your stools, like coming from the inside of your body, like stomach problems, it's more of a dark alomost black color. But when it's a bright color red blood it's most likely coming from around the area. Like a little tearing when he's going or from right inside like when or if he's pushing it could bleed some. Hopefully it's something like that, that's easily remidied. Good luck and try not to worry too much! :)
I know that's so hard to do when your a mom! :)

My son has blood in his stools when they are too hard for him to pass...he tears. (ouch!)That's all it is though. I, however, had blood in my stool as a baby and it turned out I had a bowel/intestine issues that required surgery. I Don't want to scare you. What I have been told, is that if it's bright red it is most likely not an internal problem. I hope the doctors appt is soon to ease your mind.