Question: My four-month-old baby’s stools have always been a yellow colour (breastfed). However recently they are a greenish colour. Could this be due to something I have eaten?
She did have a stomach bug last week where her stools were green and smelly and watery, but I thought she was over it. Is this situation normal, or has the bug returned? She has also gone from one huge nappy a day to about three dirty ones a day. She started on rice cereal twice a day last week. Could this have anything to do with her changing bowel habits?

Answer: A baby’s bowel movements will change once solids are added to her diet. They may become more firm and have a less pleasant odor than the exclusively breastfed baby’s stools.
Green stools in a healthy baby may indicate a sensitivity/allergy to a medication or a food. Since your little one’s change in stooling seemed to corresponded with the addition of rice cereal to her diet, you might want to return to an exclusively breastmilk diet for a few weeks and see if her stools remain green. Her digestive system may not be quite ready for solids – a few weeks might make a difference.
Green stooling can also be the result of a foremlik-hindmilk imbalance, though the timing of your baby’s stool change, in relation to her illness and addition of solids, leads me to believe that this is not the cause of your baby’s green stools.
When a baby is sick and has diarrhea, she may have green stools. She may also be stooling very frequently (between 12 and 16 times a day.) As you described, when your baby was sick last week, her stools were also watery, and had a bad smell. if your baby appears healthy, is nursing well, and her stools have just changed in color, there is probably no reason to worry. If you are at all concerned, be sure to check in with your baby’s Health Care Provider to help put your mind at ease. Best wishes in mothering!

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Question: My 10-month-old breastfed son is healthy and active. According to the growth charts used by our paed, he is in the 70th percentile for height and the 2nd percentile for weight. The paed is not concerned about his weight; he nurses five times a day and eats lots of solids. Unfortunately, my mother, who bottle-fed with fervor, is constantly clucking about my son being “underweight.” Are there any growth charts based on the growth of breastfed babies?

Answer: New growth charts, developed in 2000, are recommended for routine monitoring of growth in infants, children and adolescents. Unlike their predecessors, these new growth charts finally take into account both formula-fed and breastfed infants, since breastfed infants may grow differently in the first year of life.

In addition, these growth charts include information on the average body mass index for children between the ages of 2 and 20 — giving pediatricians another weapon in the fight against childhood obesity.

It is important to keep in mind that growth charts are just one tool at our disposal. A hands-on evaluation of your baby, including a good history, provide much more insight into your baby’s growth than any chart can on it’s own.

What is important when evaluating your baby’s height and weight on the current growth charts is whether or not weight gain and growth has been consistent. It is not abnormal for a baby’s growth to occur in spurts, but it is a red flag when your baby’s growth starts crossing over the percentiles.

It sounds like your baby’s pediatrician understands that all babies do not grow at the same rate. There can be much variation in the growth of normal, healthy babies.

If your pediatrician is content with his health and pattern of growth and you also feel comfortable with it, stop worrying about what your mother thinks. Maybe you could bring her along on your baby’s next visit to the pediatrician. This visit might be enough to help her rest her mind and begin to see just how healthy her grandson is.

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