Hi, my 11 month old daughter has long (2 inch) strands of mucous (a dozen or so) in her stools 90% of the time. Because my son had food allergies, now outgrown, i've been slow to introduce solids. My daughter has none of the rashes or waking or crankiness that my son had. But all that mucous seems wrong (he had it too), and she has no cold or anything. The pediatrician has said its not a big deal; i first pointed this out in the first 6 months when she was only on enfamil lipil (dairy) formula. He said there would be blood in the stools if it were an allergy. Im starting to realize that i'm all worry and no action right now, so i thought i'd check here first to see if anyone else has seen this symptom. Also recently louder and more frequent gas, which gets me worrying more. (She has chicken, rice, pear and peach yogurt, barley , oats.)
Thank you all for your support! It helped me take action and trust myself. I put her on soy formula and no more mucous or messy foul poops--hooray. What a relief.
Just try to keep the peach yogurt away for a bit and see what happens. This worked for us.
Yes, mucous in the stools CAN be a sign of and allergy or food intolerance. It sounds as if your pediatrician does not specialize in allergies and therefore is not aware of all the subtle signs that show up in infants and young children. By the time there's blood in the stool the gut has been seriously damaged--think of mucous in the stool like a runny/stuffy nose--not optimum health. Excessive gas is another sign of intolerance as are allergy shiners (black circles under the eyes), restless sleep, extended cradle cap (it's only cradle cap for the first couple of months) and many many more. (Doris Rapp "Is this your child" is a good read that points out many of the more subtle signs of allergy/intolerance/sensitivities/)
If I were you, I would seriously suspect dairy, but it could be any of the hundred other ingredients in the formula and baby foods. Normally I would recommend trying an elimination diet, but in your situation it may be difficult unless you able to wean your baby off of the formula on to something that is as nutritionally balanced. Most of the people in the allergy support group I'm on either breast-feed or did not start pursuing food intolerances until their children were no longer on formula, so my suggestions in this area are limited.
Perhaps you should consult a good allergist who is also well educated about food intolerances as well (most MDs only consider IgE/immune allergies allergies. Anything involving IgG, IgA--the digestive and other systems in the body--is not *technically* an allergy, it's an intolerance and often ignored by the majority of the medical community. :/ )
Good luck.
I'm probably going to scare the heck out of you but all I can think of when you say " 2inch" strands of mucous is when our little puppy had round worm. It looked just like mucous strands. Do or did you have a puppy or were your kids(any of them) around a puppy or kitty for that matter.
I would have her stool tested and that way they can really know if there is blood in there, which can be naked to the eye if small.
Celiacs disease comes to mind with so much mucous too. Is your daughter really tiny for her age?
Children can also have irritable bowel syndrome which will cause mucous in the stools and only quick bouts of discomfort that is relieved once she passes a stool. With the gas this seems to be likely.
If it were dairy I think she would be in alot of pain. My daughter had an intlorance to dairy when she was an infant and thank God those years have passed because it was awful. She was in alot of pain and cried for all hours of the day. She did see a pediatric gastroenterologist and the Dr. did a lower endoscopy and saw her lymph nodes were swollen and bleeding which was cause from a dairy intolerance.
By the way, her primary physicians always told me there was no blood in her stool too. I would bring in diapers at least three times a week because I swore I saw it and they would take her poop amd mix it with a solution and it would never show blood, but there definately was.
I think a specialists is something you need to get a referal for if your insurance requires it. If not, make the appointment. Good luck!
Hi,
Perhaps you might want to add probiotics for infants into her yogurt or bottle or sippy cup. It is helpful w/ allergies. It is called bifidobacterium infantis w/ some other strains of probioticsbut you want a good quality one. I stopped giving my child any other formula (which is what he got when I was working) except for Alimentum- more expensive but especially for infants who cannot tolerate any other forumlas because of the milk proteins. In Alimentum it is broken down and it does not have the other ingredients in the formula that can aggravate a condition.
I also gave him fish oil - Cod Liver Oil 1/2 tsp from Nordic Naturals to also supplement and strengthen his immune system.
GOod Luck.
C.
Most likely it is due to dairy or a wheat allergy from the oats and barley. Most doctors won't tell you that it is the dairy because children need calcium. Try a non-dairy alternative for a week and see what happens. If it doesn't resolve the problem you could try cutting an item out one by one until you eliminate the source. Good luck!
