I also am leery of raising a problem which may not be a problem - mothers can already come up with a long list of reasons why breastfeeding may not be working well for them.  This is just anectodal, but it was my very allergic child (who had been given formula during the first week of life) that stooled several times a day throughout his childhood.  My exclusively breastfed daughter, who has never shown any signs of allergy, stooled once every 5 days.  Also, hiding behind the couch to stool in a diaper is not an uncommon thing for toddlers to do - my son did it for a short time until he felt comfortable pooping in the toilet (he was already peeing there with no accidents) and it seems to be a normal part of the maturing process, unrelated to GI pathology of any sort, for some children.  Neither of my children has any ongoing GI problems, as far as I know, anyways.

On the other hand, it is interesting to hear the anecdotes on people who were able to manipulate their children's stooling habits through diet and various treatments.  It certainly would be helpful to know for sure why some breastfed children, with no discernable signs of distress, adopt this pattern of infrequent stooling so that we can give parents good information rather than speculation when this topic arises.
Warmly,
Sharon Knorr, BSMT, ASCP, IBCLC
Newark, NY (near Rochester on Lake Ontario)
mailto:[log in to unmask]

             ***********************************************

To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail
To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest)
To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet
All commands go to [log in to unmask]

The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html