What causes traces of blood in stools in infants?
Patient: Hi...my baby (4 months old) has been having red strings in her poop for awhile now....at first I thought that it was just blood from me, as my nipples have been bleeding, this was making her poop darker in color. But now her poop is back to the yellowish color, and she still has the red strings....she is only breastfed, and I don t eat dairy or gluten. She has been given a few bites of banana, but that is her only solid food experience. Any ideas? Doctor: Hi...I went through the history points you have provided -I was expecting that there should have been a history of cow's milk and formula feed (this too contains cow's milk protein) given to the baby. I feel that your baby is having cow's milk protein allergy. Unusually babies grow out of this sort of allergy by 1 year of age.My suggestions for you -1. Mother should go off cow's milk protein completely. This means that you should avoid consumption of anything and everything related to cow's milk - like - milk/ curds/ ghee/ butter milk/ chocolates/ biscuits/ ice creams etc. Even while buying commercial food products, you need to see the ingredients and if they contain milk - do not consume them.2. Feed you baby only exclusive breast feeds till 6 months of age and then start rice based feeds.3. If this is followed scrupulously - the baby will stop having diarrhoea in another 3-4 days and then start gaining weight too.4. If you feel your feeds alone are inadequate for the baby, then Zerolac is the only option till 6 months age.I request you to keep me posted about the recovery of the baby and follow of the case.Regards – Dr. Sumanth