My little AlmaRuth is currently troubled by thin, green, foul-smelling poo, and tummy troubles rendering her unable to take a proper nap despite being on EASY since birth and having a working sleep ritual where she puts herself to sleep. Milk allergy may be a concern since I have abstained for a week, but drank some last night and she has nasal congestion this morning. But should I blame that or is it just offending her now because of her already irritated bowels?
She had diarrhea for the last two weeks, and it's now subsided, but I made her go all night without nursing, and have spaced our daily nursing to 3-4 hours in between. Seems like all our troubles started when a midwife searching for anything wrong with my perfectly healthy, sleeping, 2-week-old infant told me she may need to put on weight quicker, so I should disrupt my wonderful 3-hour daily routine and 5-hour night-time, and switch to 2-hours day, 3-hours night. Grrr, so mad at myself for doing it. It wreaked havoc all around! Sure, she's fat and seemingly healthy, but I am not, she won't sleep during the day, and now she's actually ill. Most recently, we were falling asleep during night feedings, waking up an hour later to try to finish, and continuing this all night long. I believe this started the diarrhea, although the tummy troubles were already in place.
I feel we are getting better, I just need to be more patient as it takes at least 2 weeks. In the meantime, I have to continue to abstain from certain foods, mainly dairy, so I don't irritate things further, I learned this morning. One other factor I must consider is stress. I can't let mistakes of the past anger or frustrate me. I must remain calm, level-headed, and happy, especially when nursing:
"Like hatred, anger produces poisons in the system. An angry mother's milk has been known to kill the nursing child." excerpt taken from Maintaining Health by Dr. RL Alsaker
I sure hope I'm on the right track!