Symptoms

This baby has all sorts of tummy issues. They might be:

✅ Colic
✅ wind
✅ Food allergy (CMPA)
✅ Reflux
✅ Constipation

But here’s the main symptom I see of a baby who’s tummy is being affected by antibiotics. And it’s just like adults have when they get antibiotics.

The baby that does one or two big poos per day and then lots and lots of little watery “sharts”. Virtually every nappy has a poo skid in it when you change them.

This might mean every time your baby does a little “short” they are crying and upset or grunts and groaney which wakes them and you up if it is at night.

I would say around 80% of babies have these symptoms. The other 20% may have constipation as the symptom. See Poo-Nami Baby BirthType for the cross over.

I would also say that a staggering 90% plus babies I see in my clinic have had antibiotics. It is now rare that a baby hasn’t had them in some form. Either directly or via the mother at delivery or via breast milk.

This is a highly scientifically researched Baby BirthType. There are tons of research papers on how antibiotics alter the balance of good and bad gut bacteria in the baby towards a dysfunctional mix that creates issues. The mix is usually too much bad, less good or a different mix of bacteria than is present in babies that didn’t have antibiotics and don’t have colic.

Baby will also be noisy, grunty and squirmy and seem in gripey discomfort kicking their legs about as though they need to poo all the time. When you do get a poo it might only be a small wet “shart”. Lot’s of squirming, crying and pain for such a little result. Yes, if they are grunts for a big poo then at least you have a nice result!

Many a baby health professional will then say “but it’s normal for a breast fed baby to poo after each feed”.

Yes fine, but we have to get a balance here and be open minded and holistic at the whole picture of baby and their birth. If the baby is calm and happy, had no antibiotics and poo’s after eery feed then that sounds good to me. However, if they have watery poos around 10 per day, had a load of antibiotics, a C-section and crying in tummy pain then I will move forward in helping this baby.

Watch my video: “The myths on how many times a day your baby should poo”

Can you remember taking antibiotics yourself ? Was your tummy upset? Think about how you felt…

There is research for antibiotics playing some sort of role in colic, digestive pain, food allergy, cow’s milk allergy, reflux and plenty more.

What we will be aiming for is for your baby to not have all these little wet poo’s all the time and reduce it down to perhaps 1 or 2 per day that are bigger and causing less pain and irritation. This is a major part in my online course and ebook.

Did you have these?

➡️ Did you have a C-section? (You always get antibiotics at C-section)
➡️ Did you received antibiotics whilst breastfeeding?
➡️ Did you have antibiotics whilst pregnant?
➡️ Did your baby directly receive antibiotics?
➡️ Is your baby is in pain from constipation?
➡️ Does your baby does lots of little watery poos or “sharts”?

How to recognise tummy pain

Babies with tummy issues have cyclical pains, so they can be fast asleep and calm and then wake screaming and yelping. They might be totally fine between feeds and then be bad after feeds. A baby with a birth trauma, say forceps, will be grumpy all the time. Having said this the Antibiotic Baby BirthType can actually be constantly upset all the time, because the upset tummy from the antibiotics needs to be corrected. A nice clarification on how confusing babies can be!

3 important things for you to understand:

👍 If you had antibiotics yourself and breastfed they will have passed to your baby.

👍 If you had antibiotics at delivery they would have passed to your baby. My experience and the research backs this up 100%. If you have been told otherwise it is wrong.

👍 If you had a C-section you will have received antibiotics that would pass to baby. You may not have been told, but you got them for infection protection during the surgery. Vital of course, but it will be useful for you to know you had them as they can trigger colic in your baby.

Another need to know…

Research shows the antibiotics detrimentally affect the baby’s good / bad balance LONGTERM. I have seen research show that it corrects itself at 12 weeks, 2 years and 3 years! This doesn’t mean your baby will have an upset tummy or colic this long, but it does mean that there could be an underlying issue that would be very helpful if fixed as soon as possible.

Research would phrase it like this “We took 2 groups of babies, one group had no antibiotics, one group had antibiotics. At 2 years we analysed the babies poo and the antibiotic group had poo that was different to the other group”. Usually the poo has more bad bacteria, less good bacteria or an unusual mix of bacteria.

I think it’s a big shame that you might not have been told this! Even if you desperately need the antibiotics (and I never advise to not have them) I really think you should be told about the issues that arise from them so you can correct it.

When I started researching Calming Colic it was all about helping babies in the short term that were crying, upset and colicky. Now with this information and more that comes out every week now I have seen that my mission to help babies is so important for their future health.

So let’s help the future health of your baby too!