What Causes Mucus In Stool After Taking Elecare?

Posted on Tue, 6 May 2014

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Tue, 6 May 2014 Answered on

Fri, 6 Jun 2014 Last reviewed on

Question : My child has been on elecare for 5wks and still has stools full of mucus. I have been told that intolerance could be an issue. Should I switch to neocate? My child also has horrible silent reflux and I wondered if the mucus could be from that? Docs tell me know but I am concerned. Baby is 4.5 months old.

Answered by Dr. Dr. Klerida Shehu (11 hours later)

Brief Answer:
Possible food allergy or infection....

Detailed Answer:
Hi there,

I feel sorry for the situation your baby is in.

Elecare is a hypo-allergic baby formula and should be well tolerated by her. Mucus you see in her feces is not related to elecare neither to reflux.

Mucus is a sign of (food) allergy or infection of bowels. If her doctor has not diagnosed with any infection (and she is not having fever), it might be related to (food) allergy. It is not to be worried about.

Keep her feeding with elecare and can start introduce foods to her. Observe what foods might increase mucus and avoid that (do not give to her).

Hope it answered to your queries!
Dr.Klerida

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar

Follow up: Dr. Dr. Klerida Shehu (5 hours later)

Well if baby is only on elecare and is having issues with mucus wouldn't it be possible he is reacting to soy oil in elecare

Answered by Dr. Dr. Klerida Shehu (2 days later)

Brief Answer:
Malabsorption/allergy testing are needed...

Detailed Answer:
Hi there,

May I know if you ran any allergy testing to your child? If the test resulted positive for soy, then, should change formula milk. Otherwise, you can continue giving elecare.

If you did not run any food allergy testing (or malabsorption testing), I suggest to discuss it further with her pediatrician to run such tests.

Hope it helped!
Dr.Klerida
Do not hesitate to contact me again if you have further queries!

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar

Follow up: Dr. Dr. Klerida Shehu (3 hours later)

Allergy testing is not reliable in infants. A pediatric allergist has been seen and already told us that.

Answered by Dr. Dr. Klerida Shehu (4 hours later)

Brief Answer:
Food intolerance testing is needed...

Detailed Answer:
Hi there,

If no allergy testing, at least a food intolerance testing might have been performed.

Another cause for mucus might be candida infection. Can discuss it further with pediatrician to get her feces cultured for candia/pathogenic bacteria.

Hope it was of help!
Dr.Klerida

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar

Follow up: Dr. Dr. Klerida Shehu (2 hours later)

That was done early on. Milk and soy were intolerant. It is not an infection. There has been constant mucus forever

Answered by Dr. Dr. Klerida Shehu (2 hours later)

Brief Answer:
Food intolerances are temporary in infants...

Detailed Answer:
Hi back,

I am glad that no infection came out.

As your daughter is soy intolerant, this explains the presence of mucus in her feces. As long as your daughter is feeding well and is growing up normally, no need to get worried.

She is intolerant to milk, even though you might change from soy to other types of milk; she will still have mucus. However, this is not the end of the world, as long as, I repeat, she is growing well.

Dr.Klerida

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar