Foremilk is low in fat (skim) so it passes through the stomach quickly and dumps into the intestine. It's also high in lactose (milk sugar) which makes it hard to digest. Too much lactose may cause gassiness, fussiness and mucus-like and/or explosive green, watery stools.
Allergies and food sensitivities can cause diarrhea or lead to mucus in a baby's poop, though this is uncommon. In babies that breastfeed, a sudden change in the mother's diet may be the cause. Sensitivities to iron, soy, or other formula ingredients may also play a role.
Lactose intolerance
This processing causes bloating, abdominal cramps, nausea, and diarrhea. The intestine can also react by increasing mucus production, which is then noticed during bowel movements.
Loose, mucousy, or blood-tinged stool could indicate a cow's milk protein allergy in babies. Here's how to spot the symptoms. New parents soon learn that baby poop comes in all shapes, textures, and colors.
Sometimes moms are advised to limit or discontinue breastfeeding because milk increases mucus production.
Seeing slimy, green-colored streaks with glistening strings in your baby's poop means mucus is present. Although it can happen when your baby is drooling, mucus in baby poop can also be a sign of infection.
How does poop change with a milk allergy? The most common sign that a baby is allergic to milk is blood in their stool. A baby's poop may also become more runny and frequent, similar to diarrhea. It may also contain mucus.
If your baby has Cow's milk protein intolerance (CMPI) he might have colic-like symptoms, and be wheezy, vomit, have diarrhea (including bloody diarrhea), constipation, a rash, eczema and/or a blocked nose.
Sometimes your child might pass loose, watery, yellow and green coloured stools after two hours of consuming milk or any other dairy product. This could be a sign of lactose intolerance in the baby.
People with lactose intolerance are unable to fully digest the sugar (lactose) in milk. As a result, they have diarrhea, gas and bloating after eating or drinking dairy products. The condition, which is also called lactose malabsorption, is usually harmless, but its symptoms can be uncomfortable.
Green poop in kids can also be due to iron supplements, viral gastritis, or digestive enzyme deficiency such as lactose intolerance.
By pumping before you breastfeed, you will remove some of the foremilk and your baby will get more of the high-calorie, high-fat hindmilk. However, if your breast milk supply is low, you should not pump before you breastfeed to try to give your baby more hindmilk.
Foremilk/Hindmilk Imbalance
It can happen due to overfeeding, feeding that is low in fat, or feeding in large volumes. When your baby drinks a large quantity of breast milk, the foremilk that comes first can fill them up. They may get full before they're able to drink much of the hindmilk.
Nurse More Frequently
The more often you feed your baby and empty one or both breasts, your baby will get more of the hindmilk.
Cow's milk protein can stay in mom's body for 1 ½ to 2 weeks, and then it may be another 1 ½ to 2 weeks for the protein to get out of the baby's system. Fussiness is one of the most common symptoms of a food sensitivity or intolerance.
According to clinical data, babies with cow's milk allergies usually present symptoms before 6 months of age. Those symptoms can vary depending on the severity of the allergy and will appear as either rapid onset symptoms (they appear within an hour of ingesting milk) or slow onset symptoms (they take hours to appear).
Consider how your baby responds to breast milk after drinking it. If symptoms occur such as fussiness, irritability, crying, gas, increased spitting up and/or drawing their legs up due to tummy pain, write down everything you ate that day.
While constipation is less common than diarrhea, it could also be a sign of cow's milk allergy. Blood resulting from irritation in the gut can also be a sign of cow's milk allergy in infants. Sticky mucus in their stools could resemble the mucus you see when you have a cold or runny nose.
You may notice mucus in your baby's poop that's stringy; slimy; and yellow, green, or brown in color. The intestines produce mucus during digestion – to help the stool move through the intestine. Some of this may show up in your baby's diaper, and this is perfectly normal, especially for breastfed babies.
Dehydration and constipation can cause mucus from the colon to leave the body. This gives the stool the appearance of increased mucus. Increased mucus can also be a sign of illness, especially if inflammation occurs and the mucous membrane breaks down.
Probiotics could alter the volume and/or composition of stool and gas or increase intestinal mucus secretion.
“Babies are not allergic to breast milk,” Dr. Bjelac reiterates. “Very little food protein is passed through breast milk directly to the baby, so the chances that your baby will have an allergic reaction to something you eat is very, very small.”
This is normal. Formula-fed babies typically have thicker poop. If a baby has both breast milk and formula, their poop may be thicker and resemble peanut butter. A breastfeeding baby may sometimes appear to have mucus in their poop.