Fellow Lactnetters,
I need your collective wisdom on this case.  I am in contact with a mom who I
have worked with with a previous baby now with her second.  She had a
wonderful breastfeeding experience with her first who was a very mild
mannered, "easy" baby, and seems to be doing well with this one.  Her
"problem" is that this baby has very loose stools which she originally
described as diarrhea.  In fact, her stools are yellow and completely soak
into the diaper with no seen substance but only has 1-2/day every 2-5 days.
To me that is not diarrhea.  This baby is now 10 weeks and this has been true
since about 4-5 weeks.  Her doctor cultured the stools and found Rotovirus
originally.  The baby was fussy and so this was the diagnosis.   The doctor
suggested feeding the baby a couple of bottles of formula (stupid with an
intestinal virus) and sure enough, the baby slept longer and the stools had
some substance-no duh!.  (I say the culture said Rotovirus but maybe the
breastmilk was protecting her from the symptoms.)  That is not what this mom
wants to do, however. We worked on increasing the feeds on one side to
increase hindmilk but she was already very intuned to her baby's cues and
didn't see much difference.  Now, the stools are the same, the baby is happier
and the doctor is suggesting that if she doesn't want to give formula to give
rice cereal to "give her more fiber"!  To me this is ridiculous-it sounds
normal to me to have a watery stool every 2-5 days.  Can't she just be using
the solids to grow?  By the way, her growth and development are normal. She
has averaged 3/4 oz./day since birth.  Her sister was exactly the same in her
weight gain.  Why do the stools have to look a certain way if all is going
well?  I told her I would post this to you to get any ideas.  It's funny she
always calls me before she talks to her doctor--sort of a confidence builder!
I know most of you have that too!   TIA   Denise