My son is 5 weeks old and has been having green bowel movements for about 10 days.?

Question

They are not all green, but most of them are. He eats well, sleeps well and everything else seems normal. What could be causing this?

He is completely breast fed.

Answer 1

Honey, you will see poop of every imaginable color. Black, brown, white, green, yellow, maybe even a reddish color. As long as everything else with him is fine, then he's fine.

Answer 2

Firstly, if you have had a green bowel movement there is no need to be overly worried. There are generally two causes for a green bowel movement:
something you have ingested, such as large amounts of green, leafy vegetables, green or purple artificial colouring, or iron supplements
a variation in the gut transit time, particularly fast transit caused by diarrhea and IBS.
The color of a bowel movement generally depends on the color of the food eaten and the state of the bile that is produced by the liver. Bile is green in color and is only changed to brown through a proper digestive process, which takes time.

Answer 3

If you have recently started any vitamin suppliments -particularly containing iron- can cause green poop.

In a breastfed baby it can also be a sign of oversupply. Which is generally a temporary problem and as long as the baby is not experiencing discomfort it can be left to resolve on it's own.

Some people will tell you that it is a sign of lactose intolerance, however permanent lactose intolerance is rare and would cause failure to thrive at birth. Temporary lactose intolerance can be caused by irritation or damage to the intestines from allergens, bacteria, viruses etc. This does not require treatment unless it is causing pain or dehydration as there are far more risks to any treatment then just waiting for the intestines to heal, which may take a fair amount of time.

The bottom line is green poop in and of itself does not require treatment. Though you should of course look out for pain or dehydration - which you should do for all small babies anyway.






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Edited to add:

I just want to clear something up, there is NO SUCH THING AS FOREMILK. You don't produce foremilk for 5 minuite and then BAM you make hindmilk. And a well latched hoover baby can drain a breast in 5 minutes NO PROBLEM.

What happens is you make milk, the longer it sits in your breast the more fat sticks to the milk glads. Then when your baby feeds they watery part of the milk comes out and then as the fat eventually get's loosened and fed off. You shouldn't start messing about trying to get your baby to drink more from one side. Respect that when they pull off they likely want the other breast. You can reoffer the breast they just came off but don't think you can't offer the second until they have nursed X time on the first. That's just crazy. Also babies are perfectly capable of controlling how much watery milk they draw from the breast some feedings all babies want is the watery milk because they are thirsty more than hungry. So they will just drink a short time on one of both breasts.

http://www.kellymom.com/bf/supply/foremilk-hindmilk.html
I'm confused about foremilk and hindmilk - how does this work?

By Kelly Bonyata, BS, IBCLC

Foremilk is the milk (typically lower in fat) available at the beginning of a feeding; hindmilk is milk at the end of a feeding, which has a higher fat content than the foremilk at that feeding. There is no sharp distinction between foremilk and hindmilk – the change is very gradual. Research from Peter Hartmann's group tells us that fat content of the milk is primarily determined by the emptiness of the breast -- the less milk in the breast, the higher the fat content.

A woman's breast really only makes one type of milk, the higher-fat milk that we typically think of as hindmilk. As milk is produced in the breast, the fat globules in the milk tend to stick to each other and to the walls of the alveoli (where the milk is made). Between feedings, milk collects in mom's breasts and gradually moves out toward the nipple, leaving more and more of the fat "stuck" further back in the milk ducts. The more time between feedings, the lower the fat content of the foremilk available to baby at the beginning of the feeding.

Once the let-down (or Milk Ejection Reflex/MER) is triggered (by baby's nursing, pumping, etc.), the milk is squeezed down the ducts until it becomes accessible to the baby. Milk production is not faster during letdown - the flow is simply faster. There are several let-downs per feed, although most mothers only sense the first one.

As the breast starts to empty, the fat globules begin to dislodge and move down the ducts (let-down facilitates this process). So the further into the feed, the higher the fat content of the milk, as more and more fat globules are forced out. The end result is that the milk gradually increases in fat as the feeding progresses.
! Your breasts don't "flip a switch" at some arbitrary point and start producing hindmilk instead of foremilk. Instead, think of the beginning of a nursing session as being like turning on a hot water faucet.

The first water you get out of the tap isn't usually hot, but cold. As the water runs, it gradually gets warmer and warmer and warmer. This is what happens with the fat content in mom's milk - moms's milk gradually increases in fat content until the end of the feeding.

Since fat content is is directly related to the degree of emptiness of the breast, it is possible, depending upon nursing pattern, for fat content to be higher at the beginning of a particular feeding than it is at the end of some other feeding.
! Now think about the hot water faucet again. If there is a long period of time before the faucet is used again, then you go through the "cold to hot" process once more, but if you turn the water on fairly soon after it was used then the water is either pretty warm or still hot, depending upon how long it's been since the faucet was last on.

This is how it works with mother's milk too - the longer the time between feedings, the lower the fat content at the beginning of the next feeding. If feedings are closer together, you're starting off with a higher fat content.


As a particular feeding progresses, fat content increases, milk volume and flow decrease, and milk synthesis speeds up. Because every baby varies in the amount of time it takes him to receive his fill of the higher-fat milk at the end of the feeding, it is important not to switch breasts while baby is actively nursing.

Answer 4

This is normal. Give the baby a couple more months. If still green then go to doctor. The baby is just too little yet.

Answer 5

It could be something he ate or a little virus. Not to worry. Just about any color is okay - as weird as that sounds. You only need to worry if they're black like tar (signals bleeding somewhere in his body), white like mayonnaise (liver problems) or bloody. Any other color is usually related to something they eat. (I know of a toddler who ate a magic marker and had blue poop - try explaining THAT to the doctor!)

Answer 6

Baby green grunt is normal ...has to do with what he eats.Is there a lot of iron in it? like fortified formula? a bit young to be slurping down real veggies. Lots of baby veg food? I have 4 and I've seen every color and then some.Don't worry.

Answer 7

if you're breastfeeding, make sure you finish one breat and then move to theother. when babies have the foremilk (milk that comes for the first 5 minutes) only they have green BM. Because it's very low fat milk and low in calories.
Green BM can also be caused by cold.

Answer 8

Newborn stools go from brown and sticky to yellow cottage cheese looking to green and back to brown. It is normal. It's just his body adjusting. You have nothing to worry about unless you see blood in his stool.

Answer 9

Formula Fed? If so..that's normal.

Answer 10

i found when I ate alot of sweets, rice or carbs, the poo was green. I read it has something to do with the sugar content of the milk