Dark, Grainy Poop

[AMom2010]

So the wierd poop just won't stop... DD began having diarrhea first of June, and it began to become more "normal" after a week on lactaid milk which we started the first of August (lactose intolerance test was negative by the way).

On Monday I started trying to wean her from the bottle (she's 15 mos old) since her bowel issues seemed to have cleared, which isn't going so well. She has refused milk from her sippy since then and now her poop is very dark, and has these tiny bits like coffee grounds that are very difficult to wipe off her bottom. I'm wondering if this may be caused from bleeding somewhere in her GI tract?? Why would this happen when not ingesting milk? She has also eaten dark foods like blueberries, black beans, and spinach this week. She is also still eating gluten as I don't want to take her off until she is scoped. Is this something I should call the Dr. about, is it serious?? I feel helpless

BTW, her celiac panel was negative and GI Dr. wants to scope/colonoscopy when we go back in Sept. if her issues haven't resolved.

Thanks for insight!

[alex11602]

So the wierd poop just won't stop... DD began having diarrhea first of June, and it began to become more "normal" after a week on lactaid milk which we started the first of August (lactose intolerance test was negative by the way).

On Monday I started trying to wean her from the bottle (she's 15 mos old) since her bowel issues seemed to have cleared, which isn't going so well. She has refused milk from her sippy since then and now her poop is very dark, and has these tiny bits like coffee grounds that are very difficult to wipe off her bottom. I'm wondering if this may be caused from bleeding somewhere in her GI tract?? Why would this happen when not ingesting milk? She has also eaten dark foods like blueberries, black beans, and spinach this week. She is also still eating gluten as I don't want to take her off until she is scoped. Is this something I should call the Dr. about, is it serious?? I feel helpless

BTW, her celiac panel was negative and GI Dr. wants to scope/colonoscopy when we go back in Sept. if her issues haven't resolved.

Thanks for insight!

Please take her to the doctor. My daughter started having poop like that when she was around your daughters age and I knew from my grandmother that coffee ground poop almost always meant old blood so I took her to the ER and they tested it and it was indeed blood. Since we did not have insurance all they told us was that it most likely meant intestinal bleeding, but couldn't do any tests. This started happening a few weeks after we went gluten free so I do not know for sure if the gluten really contributed to the bleeding even though I really believe that it did, but what finally stopped my daughter's bloody stools was removing soy from her diet and now the grit in her diaper is a sure sign that she has had soy. And my daughter had no testing because her Dr wouldn't do anything without insurance and "diagnosed" her over the phone as celiac because of the fact her GI symptoms were a family trait and then upon a major dietary change. I hope that something in all that may help and I really hope that you figure out what is bothering your daughter. Edited to add that my daughter also could not tolerate milk, not even the Lactaid so we had to take her off all dairy.

[Skylark]

Yes, call the doctor. It could be blood and you want to get it checked out.

[AMom2010]

Thank you for the replies, I emailed the Dr. last night and her nurse emailed me back and told me that she would follow-up with the Dr about it. I'm sure she'll want me to bring in another sample.

This morning her stool wasn't nearly as grainy, I caved and gave her back the bottle with lactaid last night and this morning. I guess we will fight the bottle weaning battle later, I just want to make sure she is hydrated, especially in this heat. I am also trying to avoid those dark foods for the next couple of days to see if her stools lighten up a bit. Geesh, I never would have thought so much of my time would be devoted to thinking about poop!

[kyga2]

My daughter, who is now 2 1/2, has this exact same type of poop you are talking about. She has it when she has eaten something she shouldn't have. She cannot handle gluten or casein. Her doctor thought for a while that it was lactose intolerance, but she was just as messed up on lactose free products. This weird poop is the only sign to us that she ate something bad, because she doesn't throw up. I'm a bit alarmed by the folks saying to check in with the doctor, because our doctor never seemed partucularly bothered by this symptom. I wonder if I should find a new doctor.

[alex11602]

My daughter, who is now 2 1/2, has this exact same type of poop you are talking about. She has it when she has eaten something she shouldn't have. She cannot handle gluten or casein. Her doctor thought for a while that it was lactose intolerance, but she was just as messed up on lactose free products. This weird poop is the only sign to us that she ate something bad, because she doesn't throw up. I'm a bit alarmed by the folks saying to check in with the doctor, because our doctor never seemed partucularly bothered by this symptom. I wonder if I should find a new doctor.

For me personally, I said to check with the doctor primarily to see if it was blood or not, which a doctor would be able to tell you, other then that I found the doctors pretty much useless. I had to spell out my symptoms and my daughters to get them to figure out what was going on and they said that if we had a positive diet response we should be considered celiac (We also didn't have a choice on testing since we don't have health insurance). And all of her others food issues I figured out with the help of this forum.

[AMom2010]

The Dr. got back with me and said as long as it wasn't black, she wasn't worried about it. I do feel the very dark foods contributed to the color and I haven't seen the dark coffee grounds since I posted this last week. She is still having diarrhea however, it seems the lactaid milk only helped for about a week, sigh...

[Skylark]

I'm glad to hear it was nothing. Maybe that's what blueberry seeds look like.