Patient's question:
Hello, my baby is almost four months old today. When she was three months old, it might have been due to catching a cold, which led to frothy, large bowel movements. I didn't handle it promptly, and within a few days, she started having diarrhea. It lasted for several days. Later, we gave her herbal medicine, and although the diarrhea improved, she has been having frothy bowel movements ever since. We took her to the hospital, and they prescribed a box of probiotics, which she has almost finished. However, the issue still persists intermittently. I wonder if it's related to my diet or if her digestive system hasn't fully recovered yet. By the way, we also had a stool test, and it said there were no problems. The elders say it's nothing to worry about, but I still can't shake the feeling of unease. What should I do? Thank you.Doctor's answer:
If the baby's stool is relatively loose and contains a large amount of foam with a distinct sour smell, it often indicates an excessive intake of starch or sugary foods. This is because such a condition results from increased fermentation of food in the intestines, producing foam. For infants who have not yet started on solid foods, the presence of yellow foamy stool suggests an excess of sugar in the milk. Appropriately reduce the sugar content and increase the milk intake. If solid foods have already been introduced, and the baby develops brown foamy stool, this is usually caused by an excessive amount of starch in the food, such as rice porridge, which leads to incomplete digestion of sugars. Reducing or discontinuing such foods should resolve the issue.