in December 2024 Babies 🇬🇧

Fobbed off by doctor?

We switched my little girl to formula 4 weeks ago as exclusively pumping was exhausting. Since then, she's been fine and done 1-2 poops per day. She started with diarrhea yesterday evening. And by 6pm today we were on 12 poops since midnight. She is pooping during every feed, so I change her, she has reflux so laying flat to change after her milk means we get ALOT of it back up. The doctor said babies don't have bowel habits so this is normal. 1-2 poops per day for 4 weeks, and then suddenly 12 in 18 hours feels like a change of habit surely?! I said I'm worried about hydration as she's vomitting alot back up. She said her cheeks are red so she's hydrated. She had been in her car seat for an hour on a hot day so I think she was flustered. She also said as long as she's got THREE wet nappies a day, even if it's just a drop of wee, that's fine. That's very contradictory to what the health visitors say! She also refused to look at the pictures of her nappies and really spoke down to me when I suggested looking at them. Has anyone been in a similar situation? What was the outcome? I left the doctors surgery crying my eyes out with frustration because I don't feel like I've put up enough of a fight.

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I'm sorry to read this, your doctor sounds awful 12 poos in 18 hours isn't normal jeez that's alot and I'd be concerned too is there anyway that you could call you health visitor? X

Surely that isnt right. 🤔 when I switched to formula after breastfeeding they do say it'll take about a week for their tummy to get used to the formula?? Luckily nothing drastic happened. Also my little one had really bad reflux too, I was worried about her hydration as she was constantly bringing it back up, HV & GP suggested Gaviscon, after having a bad experience with my 1st toddler with gaviscon I avoided that and switched her formula to reflux/comfort and i saw a difference straight away! Been 2 months now and she is doing well! Maybe if you are struggling with reflux, this can help?

That definitely doesn't sound right and every class and health visitor I've seen has said 6+ wet nappies a day plus if you've had the same amount of poos and then it's suddenly changed of course this is a change in their routine. My little boy only goes every other day since he was about 2 weeks old and my GP said this is just his routine so they definitely do have routines. I would definitely tell your health visitor about this. We've had alot of problems with our gp now we're finished with vaccinations for a couple of months I'm actually going to switch as I don't feel like they've been particularly helpful or supportive either. If you're really concerned bypass the GP and talk to 111 we've had to a couple of times and theyve been so helpful and gotten us sorted really quickly. I'm so sorry you're going through this x

I'm going to call the health visitor tomorrow (111 overnight if anything gets worse). She's taken two 3oz feeds this evening and kept most down (usually takes 6oz but this is a huge win for today, after doing 1-1.5oz at best) When we switched to formula 4 weeks ago she had 3 ish days of weird poops which I was prepared for. And since then she got her new routine of 1-2 a day. We originally thought the reflux was because of how thin breast milk was, so that was another factor for changing. It's definitely improved since moving to formula, but will consider comfort milk if it gets worse again after this bout of sickness. The GP surgery has some amazing GPs, this was the first time I'd met today's doctor, I didn't even get her name but I'll be sure to, and probably refuse appointments with her in the future! We usually get a text after appointments for feedback, I've been waiting for it so that I can rant now I've calmed down!! But it hasn't come 😔

I'm slightly reassured that she will be fine now she's kept two half feeds down.

I’m glad that she’s managed to keep two feeds down now. That’s great news. Keep an eye on her. Your doctor really should have taken you more seriously and done better. It is so frustrating when they don’t listen and you’re worried. Her fontanel is also a good indicator of possible dehydration. Just make sure it isn’t very sunken in. It wants to be about level or just below. Equally it shouldn’t be bulging either. If you’re even slightly concerned through the night phone 111 or just go to A&E. In my experience they’re always so helpful and don’t make you feel silly for making sure your child is healthy.

Thank you! That's really helpful as I wouldn't have known to look out for that!

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