Pumping at work - Green poop for baby (oversupply)

[stys82]

Hi

I've been back to work for three weeks now and my DS is 3 months old. I have an oversupply and while I was home I was block feeding two feeding before switching which helped alot, almost all yellow seedy poop. Now that i'm pumping at work he is having almost all green poop! I can only pump twice at work (once in the morning, once in the afternoon). I pump both sides at the same time, 4-5 oz per side per session. I know that my boobs do not empty completely, but I don't have to time to wait until they do finish (I work in an open office so I have to pump in the shower stall of the woman's bathroom). My other reasons for stopping after 4-5oz is that one, my bottles only go up to 5 oz and I have enough for the day, and two, is it reasonable to believe that my boobs could adjust and only produce 5 oz eventually?

Is there anything I can do to help resolve this? I haven't been nursing two feedings per side at home since I came back to work because I was worried about not being able to pump enough at work If my supply decreased, but should I continue to do that? Also any suggestions for pumping at work? My DS eats about 16oz while I am away (for 10 hours of daycare) so I try to get at least that much, if not a little more.

Hopefully I made enough sense. Any advice would be helpful!

[melis]

HI. Yea my 3 month old has been having the same problem for a week now. I had diarrhea the first few days, and I thought maybe I passed it to him, because he was having alot of dark green watery stools. I was searching the internet to find info of what it could be, and one thing came up that if your baby doesn't feed long enough on your breast he's probably not getting enough or any hindmilk. So if the baby is just getting the foremilk, they will have green stools. I was switching my baby to early so I know that could be one reason. I also read that if you overfeed your baby, the poop would be green. For me, that kind of makes since, because my baby was wanting to feed more often which probably was because he wasn't getting enough of the hind milk to feel satisfied.

--The only thing I find strange is that I think I was feeding him like that before he got this green poop going. I was giving him a formula bottle once a day and stopped about a week before this happened, but I don't know if that mattered. He didn't want the formula no more. He seems normal to me though, except for all the weird dark green poop.

---So this morning, I thought I'd try nursing him 15-20 min on one side and waiting 2 hours before his next feeding. That way he gets enough hindmilk and is not overfed. I started writing down the time of his feedings, wet diapers, stools, and naps. Its evening now, and I have noticed that he hasn't had so much bowel movements as the days before, but they were still green, but getting lighter. I'm still going to continue to record everything, and hopefully I've found the solution. I'm going to call his doctor tomorrow to see what she says.
---Although my son seems fine the green poop just worries me. Hopefully this helps. Let me know if you find out anything

[melis]

Also I forgot to add that I just started eating broccoli everyday for over a week now, and I thought, could that make his poop green?

[whitnessforhim]

I do not have much experience with an oversupply, hindmilk/foremilk imbalance, but I wanted to say I think if you go back to block nursing while you are with your LO it might get better again.

[crystal555rose]

I had oversupply and formilk/hindmilk in balance. I would pump in the morning before he woke to get rid of some of the foremilk which resulted in bottles of foremilk that were not satisfying to him. So I would also pump after the morning feed or in the evening after he went to bed. I would refrigerate all the milk and once it was cold I would combine bottles to get more complete meals.

Perhaps pumping some hindmilk in the evening when you are at home and more relaxed so you can add it to the foremilk you are pumping at work. I also hope that you will get more used to your rather uncomfortable pumping situation and perhaps get faster, better let down. Good luck!

[stys82]

Hi

Thanks for everyone's replies. So as I continue to pump for baby while I'm at work, he continues to have green poop. Of the 20oz I pump during the day I notice that my morning session produces one bottle (4-5oz) that is much thinner than the rest (it's the breast that I don't nurse on in the morning before I leave for work), so I only use that bottle if I need to and instead freeze it, and mark it "Foremilk". It hasn't worked very well so far.

Although...I have not seen any outward symptoms from DS, aside from the color of his poop. He sleeps well, not gassy or fussy, very even tempered and is usually very happy. He is gaining well and has the right amount of wet diapers. So if this is the only "symptom" that I can see, should I be concerned at all?

Thanks

[StillSingingMom]

I'd say no, if baby isn't unhappy, then why worry? He doesn't care what color his poop is.

[stys82]

ha ha, that's what I thought...I just wanted to make sure! Thanks :)