No matter what one says or thinks, someone has got to cover this topic. With a lot of passion and a lot less yuck.
Baby poop usually comprises dejected broken-down food, undigested particles and other aliens that might have entered a baby’s gut somehow, bile, microbes like bacteria, etc. Bile is what impacts the faeces its characteristic colour.
Breastfed babies might have diverse poop colours and consistencies depending on what the mother has ingested. If she has taken a more fluid diet or ample water the previous day, her child will be passing out watery faeces. Thereby, the normalcy and abnormality of baby poop (which works much differently from Mama poop) depend on various factors.
If your newborn’s or infant’s poop matches any of the following descriptions, you need not worry.
- Normal poop colour might range from anything like dirty green to chrome yellow or different shades of ochre or brown. It all depends on the diet. For instance, a formula-fed baby might have yellow ochre poop in the initial days.
- The consistency of normal baby poop is just as varied. It might be thick or mushy and even watery. Too watery might be a warning sign but as long as things look fine otherwise, your baby can ‘keep calm and poop’.
- The odour now! A slightly foul or sour odour is an ‘okay’ but stronger than that in the early days of infancy might indicate that the faeces have played with bacteria for a longer time in the gut.
- Frequency of pooping isn’t much of a factor either, as long as the baby looks comfortable. Unless it’s less than one a week for breastfed babies, it might not be counted as constipation.
Now the red alerts, in case of baby poop:
- If pooping is a painful process and your baby might be screaming or bleeding while doing it.
- If the poop colour is white, meaning meagre or no secretion of bile and black, meaning RBCs digested from the gut.
- If there is mucus or phlegm with the poop.
- If your baby’s poop is changing form, including colour, consistency or duration after feeding him a certain food. This might indicate an intolerance.
