blood in stool..im losing my mind..im so scared

im so drained right now. my son is 9 weeks old and my family has been going through he!!. dr.s have been treating him for reflux..which he must have silent because he doesnt spit up. but i hear it rising..and he cries. i just found blood in his stool 2 days ago and dr's finally tested it. it was positive. i just went numb.

i hear that it can be an allergy but i feel like there is something seriously wrong with him. he moans and grunts like his insides are being ripped apart. the dr gave me NEOCATE to try out until i go to my GI specialist. he has been on it for 2 days and its not workign..i expected a miracle i guess. but last night his stool was BLACK. is this normal? ive seen more blood these past few days ..could this be just passing? im calling my dr when they open..i just cant stop worrying..he was up all night last night crying. i cant take it..i thought a mommy was supposed to make their babies feel better.i cant take his pain away and i feel the dr's are taking such a laid back aprroach..is this something that is so common that no one is worried? please help me.

if anyone's child has an allergy, are these symptoms? thanks so much for any help!!!!!!!!!!!

Re: blood in stool..im losing my mind..im so scared

I know exactly what you are going through my son was treated for reflux as well, and it was doing nothing...i KNEW something else was wrong, he wasnt sleeping, screaming in pain..I kept on bringing him back to the dr...people were saying colic, etc, I just KNEW that wasnt it....around 3 months, I went to a gi, and he was diagnosed with a milk allergy, even though he had been on nutramigen for 2 months...we were put on elecare, and like you, i expected a miracle...it didn't happen, but I would say a week later, he started feeling better....his reflux was still bad, and about 3 months later, I had them do a reflux test on him....my dr kept on saying that once he was walking around, gravity would work and help that, and that was true for ds#1, and proved to be true for ds#2.

You are doing everything you can Don't doubt yourself...I remember crying about it as well, saying the same exact thing

On a side note, I am still waiting, after 13 months, for the "miracle" of sleeping through the night" I remember when he was put on Elecare, I just assumed it was a miracle drug, and that he would start sleeping through the night...boy was I wrong

Re: blood in stool..im losing my mind..im so scared

My Ped strongly suspects that Yael has a milk allergy though we never bothered to have her tested, and YES, her symptoms are similar. She has blood in her stool from time to time - sometimes mucusy blobs, sometimes just flecks in her diaper. I showed them to the Ped and he wasn't that concerned about it - he did notice she had an anal fissure which would explain some of the blood, but now that the fissure is healed, the only other plausible explanation is a milk allergy.

I noticed a while ago that if I eat milk/soy (I'm BFing), she becomes INCREDIBLY fussy, and strains and grunts with every poop as if her insides are twisting. It does seem to get better when I eliminate millk and soy but every once in a while milk or soy slip into my diet, and OMG, it's a few days of hell with her.

I know it's scary, and you can't help but think that something is seriously wrong with your baby, but from what I've read and been told, it isn't all that unusual for babies to strain and grunt like this, and not all that unusual to see blood in the diaper, as long as it isn't excessive

Re: blood in stool..im losing my mind..im so scared

so this is common i guess..its just more of a waiting game. thanks for your help

Re: blood in stool..im losing my mind..im so scared

Posted by alex7-2

so this is common i guess..its just more of a waiting game. thanks for your help

Re: blood in stool..im losing my mind..im so scared

My cousin had a significant amount of blood in her stool, along with obvious pain grunts. She was EBF and once her mom cut out all dairy, the problem was solved. It's very possible it could be a milk-protein allergy. Testing it out is worth a shot. Good luck....

Re: blood in stool..im losing my mind..im so scared

It can take a few weeks for the dairy to leave the system and the blood to stop so give the neocate some time.

Call the GI specialist today and tell them you NEED to get in sooner that you are having more problems. They can ALWAYS squeeze patients in faster you just have to be assertive!!

You know you can FM or call me if you need to

Re: blood in stool..im losing my mind..im so scared

This happened to my DD as well. We put her on Elecare and it went away. It can take up to 2 weeks sometimes for the blood to disappear as his body heals and what’s in there actually makes its way out.

I'm sure her will be fine! Hand in there!

Re: blood in stool..im losing my mind..im so scared

Posted by want2beamom

I know exactly what you are going through my son was treated for reflux as well, and it was doing nothing...i KNEW something else was wrong, he wasnt sleeping, screaming in pain..I kept on bringing him back to the dr...people were saying colic, etc, I just KNEW that wasnt it....around 3 months, I went to a gi, and he was diagnosed with a milk allergy, even though he had been on nutramigen for 2 months...we were put on elecare, and like you, i expected a miracle...it didn't happen, but I would say a week later, he started feeling better....his reflux was still bad, and about 3 months later, I had them do a reflux test on him....my dr kept on saying that once he was walking around, gravity would work and help that, and that was true for ds#1, and proved to be true for ds#2.

You are doing everything you can Don't doubt yourself...I remember crying about it as well, saying the same exact thing

On a side note, I am still waiting, after 13 months, for the "miracle" of sleeping through the night" I remember when he was put on Elecare, I just assumed it was a miracle drug, and that he would start sleeping through the night...boy was I wrong

Re: blood in stool..im losing my mind..im so scared

Posted by Rusty213

Posted by want2beamom

I know exactly what you are going through my son was treated for reflux as well, and it was doing nothing...i KNEW something else was wrong, he wasnt sleeping, screaming in pain..I kept on bringing him back to the dr...people were saying colic, etc, I just KNEW that wasnt it....around 3 months, I went to a gi, and he was diagnosed with a milk allergy, even though he had been on nutramigen for 2 months...we were put on elecare, and like you, i expected a miracle...it didn't happen, but I would say a week later, he started feeling better....his reflux was still bad, and about 3 months later, I had them do a reflux test on him....my dr kept on saying that once he was walking around, gravity would work and help that, and that was true for ds#1, and proved to be true for ds#2.

You are doing everything you can Don't doubt yourself...I remember crying about it as well, saying the same exact thing

On a side note, I am still waiting, after 13 months, for the "miracle" of sleeping through the night" I remember when he was put on Elecare, I just assumed it was a miracle drug, and that he would start sleeping through the night...boy was I wrong

My son is also on Nutramigen and it seemed to help in the beginning for the milk protein allergy, but now he seems to not tolerate that too. What kind of symptoms did your son have while on the Nutramigen? I am going to have to look into Elecare. Thanks.

Re: blood in stool..im losing my mind..im so scared

Posted by want2beamom

Posted by Rusty213

Posted by want2beamom

I know exactly what you are going through my son was treated for reflux as well, and it was doing nothing...i KNEW something else was wrong, he wasnt sleeping, screaming in pain..I kept on bringing him back to the dr...people were saying colic, etc, I just KNEW that wasnt it....around 3 months, I went to a gi, and he was diagnosed with a milk allergy, even though he had been on nutramigen for 2 months...we were put on elecare, and like you, i expected a miracle...it didn't happen, but I would say a week later, he started feeling better....his reflux was still bad, and about 3 months later, I had them do a reflux test on him....my dr kept on saying that once he was walking around, gravity would work and help that, and that was true for ds#1, and proved to be true for ds#2.

You are doing everything you can Don't doubt yourself...I remember crying about it as well, saying the same exact thing

On a side note, I am still waiting, after 13 months, for the "miracle" of sleeping through the night" I remember when he was put on Elecare, I just assumed it was a miracle drug, and that he would start sleeping through the night...boy was I wrong

My son is also on Nutramigen and it seemed to help in the beginning for the milk protein allergy, but now he seems to not tolerate that too. What kind of symptoms did your son have while on the Nutramigen? I am going to have to look into Elecare. Thanks.

he wasn't sleeping, he had trouble feeding, he would cry, and you could just tell, but looking at him and the way he was acting, that something just was not right....the gi said that nutramigen works for 75% of the children, but some children still have blood in their stool even while on it, so they need something even more broken down

also, his stool was very, very watery and really really really (can you tell how bad) smelly

Re: blood in stool..im losing my mind..im so scared

Posted by Rusty213

Posted by want2beamom

Posted by Rusty213

Posted by want2beamom

I know exactly what you are going through my son was treated for reflux as well, and it was doing nothing...i KNEW something else was wrong, he wasnt sleeping, screaming in pain..I kept on bringing him back to the dr...people were saying colic, etc, I just KNEW that wasnt it....around 3 months, I went to a gi, and he was diagnosed with a milk allergy, even though he had been on nutramigen for 2 months...we were put on elecare, and like you, i expected a miracle...it didn't happen, but I would say a week later, he started feeling better....his reflux was still bad, and about 3 months later, I had them do a reflux test on him....my dr kept on saying that once he was walking around, gravity would work and help that, and that was true for ds#1, and proved to be true for ds#2.

You are doing everything you can Don't doubt yourself...I remember crying about it as well, saying the same exact thing

On a side note, I am still waiting, after 13 months, for the "miracle" of sleeping through the night" I remember when he was put on Elecare, I just assumed it was a miracle drug, and that he would start sleeping through the night...boy was I wrong

My son is also on Nutramigen and it seemed to help in the beginning for the milk protein allergy, but now he seems to not tolerate that too. What kind of symptoms did your son have while on the Nutramigen? I am going to have to look into Elecare. Thanks.

he wasn't sleeping, he had trouble feeding, he would cry, and you could just tell, but looking at him and the way he was acting, that something just was not right....the gi said that nutramigen works for 75% of the children, but some children still have blood in their stool even while on it, so they need something even more broken down

also, his stool was very, very watery and really really really (can you tell how bad) smelly

My DS had that while he was on Gentlease. Thats how I knew something was wrong. Now that he is on the Nutramigen he is having at least 6 bm's a day. Some loose some normal, but SMELLY.
He has a pedi appt. on Monday. They will do another stool sample then. He has had some noticeable blood in 2 diapers this past week. Thanks for the info.

Re: blood in stool..im losing my mind..im so scared

He turned one month on Tuesday. He has been to a pedi GI already. She put him on Mylanta.

Re: blood in stool..im losing my mind..im so scared

DD, my first child who is now 2, had a milk protein allergy as an infant as well as reflux. She was placed on nutramigen which did not work, and then placed on neocate.

As the posters above said, it can take up to 2 weeks for the milk to completely leave the baby's system. Also, as our GI specialist had explained to us, this type of an intolerance makes the intestines very sensitive...such that if a finger touched it it would bleed. It needs time to heal.

Black stool in this instance is probably nothing to be concerned about...it probably is a result of the old blood in teh system causing the stool to turn black.

Grunting is normal for all babies when having a bowel movement, even ones who do not even have an intolerance and even when not constipated.

I know you are worried, but there is really only one type of poop that needs emergency medical attention- it would look like grape jelly (or so I have read- as I was in your position 2 years ago and freaked out). "Grape Jelly" like poop would indicate a kink in the intestines and need to be treated immediately.

I will tell you that my daughter was constipated the entire time that she was on neocate (needed to have prune juice prior to 6 months old, and water after 6 months old). That could account for some of your child's discomfort.

Re: blood in stool..im losing my mind..im so scared

I am going through something similar and my ped is VERY laid back about it. My DS is breastfed and supplemented with formula -- just started Gentlease due to gas. His poop is watery and green or yellow with curds, which is normal, but he strains for hours a day to poop and only poops every 2-3 days. It is obvious he is in pain, and I don't understand why it is so hard for him to poop when his poop is basically liquid. It is driving me crazy, and my ped just put him on Zantac for reflux and keeps telling me to give him prune juice and mylicon. Today she told me to try Karo syrup in his formula bottle, but I went online and saw that babies this young can get botulism from it, so I am not doing it. This poop problem is driving me crazy though, so I know how you feel. Good luck...hopefully we will all figure out how to give our little ones some relief.

Re: blood in stool..im losing my mind..im so scared

It is 100% an allergy issue...

My daughter STILL has blood in her stool and she has been on Elecare ( like neocate) for over 3 and 1/2 weeks now.

The Pediatric GI said it could take over a month for her gut to heal.

you have to give it time, a lot of time.

Its so scary and heartbreaking. And Oh god I remember the screams like their stomachs are being ripped open...I wish it ends fast for you

The poop issue is normal. the amino acid formulas make them all sorts of colors!