My boobs hurt. They're hurt since she was born. I thought it would get better, but it hasn't. Well, I guess it has a bit, they don't bleed all the time anymore. :rolleyes:

She throws up at least once a week for apparently no reason. I think she's sensitive to dairy, so I'm avoiding that. She's probably throwing up from something in my milk too. She also gets diarrhea and nasty blackish poop at least once a week too. She spits up nasty brown junk. I kept a food diary and I can't tie it to any common thing

I'm tired of not wanting to nurse my baby. Well, not really not want to, I want to nurse her, I just don't want it to hurt. I'm tired of putting of feeding her as long as I can because it hurts. I'm tired of being afraid nursing her will make her sick.

Her latch is fine. She may be a little tongue tied, but it doesn't look that bad to me. Shouldn't I just have callouses by now anyway?

I've nursed 3 other kids. Why can't I do this now? What's wrong with me? :(

:big hug: I feel your frustration. I think you should take her to the doctor, one who is pro-breastfeeding, or a midwife to be looked at. It sounds unusual for a baby so young to have diarrhea. I hope everything is okay. :)

I don't know if it's technically diarrhea, but it's a lot looser and more mucousy when she has the nasty black or dark green stuff than when she has the normal yellowish stuff.

How long has this been happening?

If she's sensitive to dairy, there's about a 70% chance she's allergic to soy too. So you'd need to go to a hypo-allergenic formula, something like Nutramigen, which is SERIOUSLY expensive. Plus you'd be washing all those bottles/nipples, etc etc etc. You'd need to carry water & formula with you when you went out, adding to the weight of what you already have to carry around. And sometimes kids on formula get constipation because of the iron in the formula...

Hope that helped. :thumbsup:

Plus, she's only 6 weeks from being able to start solids. She just may love mashed sweet potatoes and bananas. Maybe you could look for the light at the end of the tunnel. ;)

Since she was born. I told her dr about the spitting up nasty stuff, and he didn't seem concerned. I really thought the nasty poop was from the milk, but it doesn't seem to be going away. It's really wierd because it's not constant. Just once every few days.

Like the past few days she's been pretty cranky. Not sleeping well and just generally being cranky during the day. And then last night she threw up right before bed, and then slept for 6 hours striaght, woke up to nurse, and went back to sleep for another 4. :confused: She's pretty happy this morning too.

I think maybe something bothers her tummy, and it just builds up in her little system until she can't take it anymore and she throws up. Not sure on the diarrhea part.

Oh, and she can't ride in the car in the evenings. She acts like it physically hurts her as soon as I sit her in the seat. During the morning when I take the boys to school, she's ok though. I thought maybe reflux, but I have no clue. Last time we went some where at night with her in her seat, she got so upset she threw up everywhere. :( Now I'm worried everytime she starts crying in the car that she'll throw up and aspirate it.

Have you asked your ped about refferring her to s pediatric gastroenterologist? Vomiting brown stuff doesn't sound like reflux to me. It sounds like she's got something else going on in there. Poor little girl. :(

If your nips have been bleeding.. vomiting brown stuff could be blood she swallowed.

I really thought having nursed one child, that #2 should be a breeze b/c one of us knew what we were doing. Boy was I wrong! It really took us some time to learn to dance together. For me, it is the 3 month mark where things start looking up!

oh, I agree Shanna. Take her to a pro-breastfeeding doctor or even talk with a LLL leader.
Spitting up brown stuff and the icky poopie doesn't sound right.
Keep looking for answers!!

:( {{{HUGS}}} Not to scare you,but when ds was born they thought he had something called a Inguinal Hernia. His scrotum was swelled so the doc. ordered a u/s. The Radiologist was wrong and thought he saw it,and that the baby had to have surgery. Luckily they were wrong,but I did some research at the time and girls can have this too. It can cause brown spit up and I believe different stools,but I am not sure about black. It is very uncomforatable for the baby. Again,I am not trying to scare you mama,just brainstorming possibilities. Also,could you possibly have thrush? Hope you find your anwers soon {{{{MORE HUGS}}}

if it's a combo of tongue tie & milk protien intolerance (via your milk), that's EXACTLY what sutton had.

get it clipped, and cut out milk, icecream, and anything else that's almost straight or completely dairy and hopefully that's the culprit.

sutt's latch was completely different immediately after we had it clipped, and his stools went from green mucous to yellow seeds in two days after i cut out the dairy.

hth

(((hugs)))

The thing that's odd though is that she'll be completely fine most of the time, and the wierd stuff is just on occassion. :confused: I don't understand why it's not all or nothing.

I don't think it's thrush. I can't find a white spot anywhere.

The nasty spit up could be from my blood. I know for a fact that a few times it was. I don't know if that would make it all the way through and out the other end though.

Gees, I just reread my other posts and my typing is terrible. Please excuse all the typos. Trying to do this inbetween helping Gabriel with his computer game, folding clothes, and bouncing the cranky princess. :)

could she not be getting enough hind milk? have you tried just letting her nurse on one side for the length of time vs switching?

i was a LLL leader for 10 years and have just retired. PLEASE find out the name/number of a leader in your area via the LLL website...

www.lalecheleague.org

they can really help. you sound as if you really want to continue nursing and the best chance for that is to get intensive qualified help (tho the mamas here have great advice too! :thumbsup: )

one thought..if there are *any* underlying digestive issues, breastmilk is the absolute best thing for your baby, as a great deal of research has shown.

good luck mama!~ oh, and remember, cow's milk takes a full 14 days to get out of your system/milk completely. both my babies have been supersenitive to dairy and it's been a challenge but well worth it. one of the common responses to an allergen in the babies' system is green mucousy slimy stools. and if you see a reduction in symptoms after you COMPLETELY have dairy out of your system for 14 days, you may want to take soy out too...as norasmom (great advice nm!) said, there is a crossover allergy that occurs in about 75% of people.

just wanted to say that when i had my 3rd dd, i thought for sure i knew what i needed to know about bf and it should be a piece of cake. ha! took a while to get her to latch properly, and something was definitely bothering her. i had cut out dairy, i had gone to the ped, her suggestion was if she was having a problem w/ dairy the only thing i could do was put her on lactose free formula, uh, yeah, right. she was oh-so bf friendly. i knew more than her.

thats when i cut the dairy and dd was still puking about once a day and had a diaper rash that wouldnt go away and her poo was just not right. so i started looking at the list of things it could be. turned out to be eggs. as long as i didnt eat eggs she was fine, rash cleared up and everything. after she was good for a little while i tried eggs again, and yep, it started happening again. so i waited til she was close to a yr before i tried again and now she is fine and even eats them herself sometimes.

i would try keeping the dairy out of your diet and look at what other common foods can cause problems. hth.

oh, and i wouldnt do formula because i figured if she was having trouble w/ breastmilk, i thought chances she would have trouble w/ formula were higher. thought it would be easier to figure out the culprit and take it out of my diet, than to go through tons of formula to see what would work.

Originally posted by GlockChick
I don't think it's thrush. I can't find a white spot anywhere.

The nasty spit up could be from my blood. I know for a fact that a few times it was. I don't know if that would make it all the way through and out the other end though.



I think I vaguely remember the dr asking if I'd been bleeding when I took ds in for blood in his dipe.. but don't hold me to it.

Don't have to have a spot to have thrush...

Yes, I do want to keep nursing her. My goal is 2 yrs. I'm just tired of it hurting.

I'm really too lazy to do bottles, but in a moment of weakness they are tempting. ;) For that reason, I don't keep any formula in the house. I doubt she'd take it anyway. Last time I left her with a bottle of EBM when I went to the dentist, she wouldn't even take that.

How can you tell if it's thrush with no spots?

I guess I'll keep trying other foods too. She just had a normal diaper and is sleeping peacefully for the moment. Guess I'm going to try to get some laundry done.

Thanks for all your help. I'm so glad I have somewhere like this I can come for advice or just someone to comiserate when I need it. :heart:

A mother may have some or all of the following symptoms of thrush

Intense nipple or breast pain that may last throughout the feeding and is not improved with better latch and positioning

Sudden onset of nipple and/or breast pain after a period of comfortable nursing

Itchy or burning nipples, which may look normal or appear pink, red, shiney, flakey, and/or have a rash with tiny blisters

traces of white fungus in teh folds of the nipple or breast

cracked nipples, either a new crack or a previous crack from nipple trauma that will not heal (this is how mine got hold - from a bite from ds)

Shooting pains in the breast during or after feedings (I had this too, when it went into my ducts.. like heartburn)

Nipple and/or breast pain while correctly using a hospital grade automatic electric breast pump (suction not too high) that has been checked fror proper fit (nipple tunnels not too small)

vaginal yeast infection


(from LLLI's The breastfeeding Answer Book p480)

I know you want it to stop hurting, and it will get better. Give yourself and your baby some time.

Yeast is hard to diagnose.. usually if treatment for yeast helps, it is diagnosed in hindsight. My HCP thought I was nuts, and asked if I was sure I didn't have mastitis or a plug. Well, I was teh plug queen and I *knew* the difference.