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Newborn Poops While Nursing: What to do!

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That look, that grunt...right smack in the middle of breastfeeding (or bottle feeding). What is an EC-ing mama to do with poops during a feed? Learn why this happens, how to prevent it (yay!) and three ways to handle poops during breasfeeding.

You will hear:

  • why babies poop while nursing
  • what to look for that signals in impending poop
  • how to prevent poops during nursing
  • three ways to be prepared for a poop during nursing
  • the best thing to keep in mind during this phase

Links and other resources mentioned today:

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Transcript download: Newborn poops while nursing: what to do!

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Does your newborn poop while you’re trying to nurse or bottle-feed? Which tip are you going to try today?

Please leave a comment below with your thoughts

I look forward to discussing with you in the comments, below!

xx Andrea

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Andrea Olson

About Andrea Olson

I'm Andrea and I spend most of my time with my 6 children (all under 12 yo) and the rest of my time teaching other new parents how to do Elimination Communication with their 0-18 month babies. I love what I do and try to make a difference in one baby or parent's life every single day. (And I love, love, love, mango gelato.)

8 Comments

  1. Avatar Treasure Pattison on January 14, 2022 at 10:32 am

    What about wet farts? My 3 week old consistently wet farts multiple times during and after eating instead of one active poop session. Should I wait until his digestion is better for one active poop? I feel like I would have him in the potty every 5 minutes if I don’t.

    • Andrea Olson Andrea Olson on January 31, 2022 at 4:00 am

      Offer the potty when you hear a wet fart, and/or see if there is a consistent timing when your little one goes the most. 10 mins after a feed for example.

  2. Avatar Olga on January 18, 2022 at 1:12 pm

    My 10 month old is still sometimes going while in the highchair, while eating. Emergency stop, and run for the potty, not making it every time. Just have to be ready for this. She’s super hungry after naps, especially after the night, so pottying after waking up is not happening. Our routine is nurse one side first thing in the morning, potty, then finish nursing the other side 😂 I started EC with exclusive focus on poops around 3 months. I think I would go crazy if I tried it earlier 😜 baby is in diapers at daycare but sometimes she waits until we get home to poop in the evening and almost every day we have the morning poop into the potty.

    • Andrea Olson Andrea Olson on January 31, 2022 at 4:05 am

      Sounds like you are successful at EC! You are doing what works for you and your little one, and that it is the beauty of EC. Thank you for sharing your story!

  3. Avatar Kathryn on January 19, 2022 at 6:52 pm

    Hello!

    Thank you for this post. I have a little…. maybe a lot!… to add! Hopefully this helps some other mammas!

    The main reason for this is actually due to a reflex called the gastrocolic reflex. Wikipedia has a brief article about it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gastrocolic_reflex. It is particularly pronounced in newborns, and remains pronounced throughout infanthood. In a nutshell, the action of drinking (eating, later) stimulates the digestive system to… get things moving, as it were. My husband and I think of it as “making room” for the new food.

    Due to the presence of the reflex, this is one of the easiest “easy catches” to practice with. Whenever I send my mamma friends your post on the four easy catches, I always let them know about this easy catch, as I also find it’s a great one for beginner ECers.

    As an added bonus, this one also resolves much of newborn fussiness. Whenever Baby is bucking, arching, squirming… basically anything other than calmly feeding in your arms… I calmly tell them “we’re going to go to the toilet now”, gently unlatch them, and hold them by their thighs over a potty / toilet / sink. I always try to hold their body as close as possible to mine to transition as smoothly as possible between the feed and toileting.

    We did this much more proactively with our second, than our first. With our first, we succumbed to the message that babies are just naturally fussy, especially at nighttime. I clearly remember finding the evenings so difficult, as he was soooo fussy. With our second, we thought, let’s give this a try and see if it works. Lo and behold, the majority of fussiness was actually a need to poo and offering the toilet resolved the fussiness instantly.

    This worked so magically during the day that we actually started using it at night, as well. We breast-sleep, but I would hazard that mammas who get up to feed could do this as well. The main indicators were (and continue to be) multiple wakings in quick succession, or lots of movement during a feed. When I noticed this happening, I would follow the same method as above – communicate what was about to happen, take them to the toilet, and then resume feeding. Lights remain off, and the atmosphere remains calm and cuddly. However! An unexpected bonus is that, 9/10 (with a newborn up to about 4 months, when they become that little bit more alert), whilst walking Baby back to bed, he would fall asleep again!

    Once my baby stopped pooing overnight, and became more alert, I stopped doing this for a while as I was finding it a little hard to get up through the night. However, we started doing it again around about 10-12 months, and haven’t stopped as it seems to lessen subsequent nighttime wakings and Baby wakes up with a dry nappy. Now that he is older, I can take him once or twice at the beginning of the night, say up to 1am, and then he will stay dry the rest of the night.

    I still use this method with my “baby” now that he is a definite toddler… after every breastfeed and meal, we go to the potty or toilet. To be honest, if he doesn’t wee, it’s my sign that he’s dehydrated. That’s how definite this catch is!

    Thanks Andrea! Hope this information is helpful.

    • Andrea Olson Andrea Olson on January 31, 2022 at 4:10 am

      No problem, and thank you!!

      Appreciate you sharing your story and all the tips that you found most important. Looks like you are rock’n it!

  4. Avatar Chana Devorah on August 18, 2023 at 1:08 pm

    My newborn (4 days old) poops while nursing almost every time, and then she falls asleep. If I change her diaper when she’s done, she wakes up and wants to nurse again. Then she poops again and goes back to sleep. What do I do?

    • Andrea Olson Andrea Olson on August 20, 2023 at 4:19 pm

      A great way to combat this is to situate the top hat potty under baby while you nurse, if the top hat potty is difficult you can also place a wetness protector pad on your lap and leave baby diaper free while you nurse, that way it’s just a quick wipe and a covering with a blanket after she is done nursing.

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