Green BM's....what does it mean?

I am at such a loss with Jesse. He nurses almost every 2 hours and for at least 10-15 min. on each side. The first week his BM's were  more of a yellowish and then just turned to a greenish color. With my first son, his were always a yellowish/mustardy color. Jesse is 7 weeks old today, and I am so confused. When I saw the doc a couple of weeks ago, Jesse had gone poop and he opened the diaper and asked if his diapers always looked like that. I said yes, it's always been that color and he didn't seem too concerned about it. But tonight it was more of a neonish green?? lol. I have no way of describing it, it's a weird shade of green at times. Also, yesterday I noticed his face looked a little yellowish. I'm not sure if I am used to my first son being so light like daddy and Jesse has more my skin tone (kinda tan-like) so I don't know if the lighting made him look yellowish or what. I put my hand next to his face, and my hand was the same color as him. But my MIL said he looked a bit yellow yesterday, but looked better today. What in the world could be going on with the diapers??! I am going to call first thing on monday and see if they want to see him earlier or not since his appt. isn't until next week. Any thoughts?

[tam2girls]

This is what I found when I gooled so it all sound fairly normal and if he is otherwise fine I would try not to worry. Good Luck

The color of your baby's bowel movements is much less important than most parents think.

While the color can be a sign that your baby has a gastrointestinal problem, such as a stomach virus or food intolerance, it is just as likely to be normal if your baby has no other symptoms.

When bowel movements are green, that typically means that food is moving through your baby's intestines rather quickly for some reason. This can be caused by diarrhea or a high fiber diet, but can also simply be normal.

Signs that your baby's green bowel movements might be caused by a medical condition could include that your baby is also fussy, gassy, has diarrhea, or is vomiting. These additional symptoms could mean that your baby has an infection, like rotavirus, or an intolerance to something he is eating. If your baby is breastfeeding, then green bowel movements with other symptoms could be a sign of an intolerance to something his mother is eating or drinking, like milk or cheese.

Your baby might also have yellow stools when he has a stomach virus.

Stool Colors
Although parents worry about green stools, it is typically more concerning, and you should call your pediatrician if your baby's bowel movements are:

bright red - a sign of active bleeding somewhere in the intestine or more commonly, from a tear in the rectum from constipation
black - a sign of bleeding from the stomach or small intestine, but which would usually also cause the stool to be tarry and foul smelling (melena)
pale or clay colored - a sign that there is no bile in the stool

[tiredbuthappy]

i found info that it says it may be what you eat- either he's sensitive to dairy or if you've eaten a lot of greens.

http://www.askdrsears.com/faq/ci26.asp#

is it normal consistancy or is it frothy or mucousy?
http://www.drjaygordon.com/development/pediatricks/poop.asp

[mum2beagain]

My son had very green poop when he was getting too much fore milk and not enough hind milk. I was advised not to automatically switch sides during a feeding but rather put baby back to the first breast to make sure he drew out all the hind milk and empty the breast. If he was then still fussy and hungry I would offer the second side. With in a couple of days his poop was a mustard colour.

[peekawho]

I found this, too.  Along with another source that said it may be from the iron in the baby's formula, but nothing to worry about unless accompanied by diarrhea, vomiting, or lack of weight gain.
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Green Stool - Problem or Preoccupation

For stoolgazing parents nothing raises eyebrows like a bright green diaper. And it’s those shades of neon green that often stir a call to the pediatrician. So what’s the deal with green stool? Is it a problem or preoccupation?

Well take a seat and let's talk about the color of poop. Stool gets it’s color from bile released in the intestinal tract just beyond the stomach. Bile happens to be green. As it makes its way along the length of the intestinal tract, bile undergoes a transformation in color from its original green to a shade of yellow ultimately reaching a rich chestnut hue. I liken this transformation to the ripening of a banana.

Stool that reaches the end of its journey green or yellow typically means that the journey has gone a little quicker than expected. It’s typically nothing of concern although we can see this at times during a tummy bug. Green watery diarrhea in a child can be a problem in this case not because of the color of a baby’s poop but because of the potential for dehydration. So stool color has to be looked at in the context of a child’s other symptoms. If your child isn’t otherwise ill, a green diaper shouldn’t be cause for alarm.

Still the green stool spooks even the professional. I had a mother recently come very close to abandoning breastfeeding after being told by a lactation consultant that her baby’s green stools were the result of too much foremilk. The mom, desperate for her baby to produce the perfect diaper, tried to no avail to manipulate her baby’s feeding. While it was perhaps the only instance where I’ve seen micromanagement by an LC divide the mother-baby dyad, it’s just one example of the perils of stoolgazing.

[hollysmom]

Don't worry, as long as little Jessie is content, he's not likely to be alergic (allergic) to anything that you're eating. Obviously just a hungry wee thing - my daughter was the same, every 2 hours without fail until she started on solids at 4 months!

[AndiJ78]

Nursing is a frequent adventure and one that seems to be never-ending. However, it is worth it knowing you are giving your baby the very best start, especially during this horrendous flu season.

We cannot deny the importance of getting both the foremilk and hind milk with every feeding. While it is premature to jump to that being the problem in the situation Peek is likely to encounter with a new mom still dealing with meconium, with an established nurser, it likely is an issue related to not getting enough of the fat in the hindmilk and it is vital it be corrected if that is, in fact, the issue.

Nursing on the one side for 15-20 minutes before switching to the other side is a good way to try and tap that hindmilk. Or as Jo mentioned, nursing on one side, switching to the other, and then switching back. Ideally, the baby would get the hindmilk from both sides. However, I never had that option and my boys all drew plenty of hindmilk from the one breast they had to nurse from without any funky stool issues.

If possible, try something for me really quickly. As soon as you have some sun, take him outside and give his belly a few seconds towards the sun. I kid you not, it saved CJ from going under the bili lights when his bilirubin jumped to over 15. A few minutes of sun light helped give him the kick start he needed to eat and flush out the bilirubin and meconium and he began gaining and having normal stools soon after.

[chantal21]

Thank you all so much! I took him outside today just before the sun was going down. It's pretty cold here now, so hopefully if it's sunny tomorrow I will sit him in front of a window in direct sunlight. I am going to call first thing tomorrow and see if I can get him in for an appt. earlier. He seems completely normal. Although some nights, he doesn't sleep well and fusses a bit until he gets gas out or has a BM. Then he is fine. One thing I have noticed, is, it seems his nose is a little stuffy. I mean just a tad. It almost sounds like he is snorting a little bit when he cries sometimes. But for the most part he  breathes normally and has no other issues than his umbilical hernia which doesn't bother him. He seems to be gaining and growing just fine.

This may sound dumb...is the foremilk the milk he gets when he first starts nursing? and then the hind is when you have a letdown? Second baby, you think I would know these things!!
I get a let down rather quickly once he starts nursing and if I just wait 15 min. after he is done nursing and he nurses again, I get another one. Today, he nursed 30 min straight on one side. Then I tried to get him to do it again, and he only wanted to nurse for 15 min.

I remember with my first, it was always yellowish, but the smell is exactly the same, it's just Jesse's is green. He does seem to still sleep a lot and I don't know if being born just about a month early means much, but I wonder if that can play a role in why he is going through these things? When he was first born, he passed all the black, tar-like poop and was only jaundice for 3 days and only had a very mild case of it. He cleared up pretty quickly, had yellow stools, and maybe a week later it started looking green, but my doc never said anything about it and he even saw it! hm.
I used to drink a lot of milk  and for the last 2 weeks I have cut out most dairy and sugar. I don't eat any greens, except an occasional salad. (just not much of a veggie eater. I was like this with my first as well) I eat mostly bland food now because one time I had something that was just a tad bit spicy, and poor jesse was up all night!!! =( never again.
I drink only water as well. I'm just so lost.
I also just got my period back this week and my supply has gone down so low, so now he is nursing more because of that and I am trying to drink more water to counter it.

It doesn't seem urgent, but would he have other symptoms if it was something serious or no??

[chantal21]

Oh, I forgot to add that with every feeding, when I get a let down, he actually stops nursing, let's go for a few seconds and then returns to the breast. Maybe it's coming down too fast for him?? And once he get backs on after a let down, a lot of the milk dribbles out of his mouth while he is eating and his arm/sleeve along with my shirt is always soaked! Why would he be doing that? And how can I keep him on the breast during that time? I wonder if that could be causing this issue now...I didn't even think about that.

[AndiJ78]

It could be but the only thing that will fix that is time and his ability to keep up developing as he grows. Mine would come shooting out and all three would choke at first.

He is also going through almost back to back growth spurts right now, so your milk supply will seem low, but he is trying to boost it so keep nursing. He may demand hourly nursing during these spurts, give it to him and resist the urge to supplement as he will benefit from being able to get the supply up.

The one flag is the duration of the nursing. Try burping him when he breaks the latch and see if he will resume nursing. Before long he will drain it in under 10 minutes, but he is not that good just yet :-)