In a recent post, there was a question about blood in the stool of a breastfed
baby.
My question would be:  Is the blood red or is it more black in color?  If it's
red, it's supposed to be a lower GI tract related issue (perhaps torn
skin?)... but if it's black it's supposed to be further up in the GI tract.  I
can only offer this one episode in my son's early months as a reference.  I
was breastfeeding him and about the age of 1 or 2 months old, the pediatrition
put him on vitamins (poly-vi-flor).  My son started having little black gel-
like flecks in his stool, and talk about constant crying and drawing up of his
knees.  Needless to say, as a 19 year old, new mom, I was totally besides
myself.  I don't remember the doctor offering any suggestions (going back 14
years), but when I took him off the vitamins it stopped.  He was then switched
to tri-vi-flor and we never had a problem with that again.

Is this baby on vitamins?  Did mom stop giving the vitamins when she stopped
breastfeeding and only recently go back to the vitamins when she started
breastfeeding again?  Something else to look into.

Hope this helps,
Veronica Scott,
Breastfeeding Peer Counselor