Breastmilk causing constant watery poops? Looking for similar experiences
Hi everyone, looking to see if anyone has experienced something similar or has any insight/advice.
I exclusively pumped for the first 7 weeks because my baby wouldn’t latch. Then one day she suddenly decided to latch, and we slowly transitioned to mostly direct breastfeeding.
Before that, during her first month on pumped breastmilk, she was having really watery/acidic poops that caused a terrible diaper rash. It got so bad that we ended up switching fully to formula for about 2 weeks just to let her skin heal. During that time, her poops became more manageable and her rash improved a lot.
Coincidentally around then, breastfeeding finally clicked for us and now she LOVES nursing. The problem is… she now strongly prefers the breast and doesn’t really want bottles anymore.
We’ve noticed though that if she is exclusively breastfed, her poops start getting really out of control again — super frequent, sharts constantly, leaking with coughs/sneezes, and sometimes she seems uncomfortable/gassy. At times she’ll poop more often than she has wet diapers.
But if we give a certain amount of formula each day, things seem more balanced. Then instead of constant watery poops, she may just have tiny streaks during the day and then one or two massive poops (usually poonami level that leaks out of the diaper).
I also cut out dairy completely about 3 weeks ago thinking it could be a dairy sensitivity, but honestly I haven’t noticed much difference so far. We’ve seen a lactation consultant as well, and she also recommended cutting dairy. She mentioned my baby’s latch may not be the most effective because of a high palate and a small posterior tongue tie, although she said the tongue tie was pretty low on the list of concerns. We also had our doctor assess her for tongue tie when she was 3 weeks old and they said they would not recommend cutting it.
Has anyone else had a baby whose digestion seemed SO different between breastmilk vs formula? Did anything help? Did your baby eventually outgrow it?
We’re obviously working with our doctor too, but I’d really love to hear real-life experiences because I feel like I’m constantly trying to find the “right” balance between breastfeeding (which she loves) and keeping her comfortable/keeping her skin okay.
TLDR: Baby had severe watery/acidic poops and diaper rash on breastmilk, improved on formula, but now loves breastfeeding and refuses bottles. Exclusively breastfeeding seems to make her poops extremely frequent/leaky again, while adding some formula helps balance things out. Cut dairy for 3 weeks with no noticeable change. LC mentioned high palate + small posterior tongue tie may affect latch, but doctor did not recommend releasing the tie. Wondering if anyone has experienced something similar or if baby eventually outgrew it.