Normal bowel movements in infants: recognizing the problem in time

With the appearance of a tiny, flashy treasure in the house, the life of the family changes radically: all loved ones try to create the best conditions for the proper growth and harmonious development of the baby. In the first year, a lot depends on the baby’s nutrition and the well-coordinated functioning of its digestive system. The mother is able to personally control the process of feeding an infant, and diapers will help her monitor how correctly and smoothly the gastrointestinal tract of the newborn functions. They will become an indispensable informant for a long time, regularly reporting on the health of the baby. The contents of the diaper can reassure the mother by its appearance or signal problems in the small tummy.

The ideal baby chair: what is it like?

Its consistency is quite uniform, smooth, yellow or similar shades without additional inclusions. Stool of this quality occurs only in newborns who are fed with artificial milk formulas. Long-term feeding of one type of formula that is ideal for a particular child gives truly excellent results.
A baby fed with mother's milk poops differently. His feces contain mucous layers and lumps, and their color can sometimes be completely unexpected for the mother. This is not a reason to worry too much, since most of the indicators in a newborn’s feces are directly influenced by the foods that predominate in his mother’s diet.

Appearance of feces of a healthy infant at different ages

If you want to see with your own eyes a photo of a used diaper with the waste products of a baby, then any Internet search engine will give you a lot of options with comments and a precise distinction between where the stool is normal and where it is a sign of a serious problem.
Each mother herself should have a correct idea of ​​the color and quality of the baby’s stool. Moreover, these indicators change significantly with the age of newborns.

1. 1-3 days of a baby's life. The stool looks like this: the color is black and green, since it contains amniotic fluid, which the baby swallowed while in the mother’s tummy. A similar stool is normal for a three-day-old baby; the scientific name is meconium.
2. 3–7 days of the baby’s life. The stool becomes a little lighter, the color periodically changes from gray-green to gray. The consistency itself is quite liquid, sometimes reminiscent of “gruel”, “puree” with air bubbles. This is not a serious pathology, disorder or diarrhea, but a norm indicating good digestion in the infant. It sucks out a sufficient amount of mother’s milk, and it is properly digested by the child’s body
3. From 8 days to 3 months, the baby can poop quite often. Sometimes such “surprises” can await a mother up to 10 times a day. In some cases, the number of bowel movements in children is equal to the number of feedings, and this is also the norm, and not a sign of disease. The color of stool is yellowish, mustard, and its smell is sour.
4. 4-5 months. The color of children's feces changes, it becomes brown, brown with patches, and the smell of feces becomes quite pungent and unpleasant. Such characteristics accompany the normal stool of a baby who begins to receive the first complementary foods; feces become soft, pasty, and resemble putty.
5. A 6-month-old baby's stool can come in a variety of colors. The reason for such changes lies in the products offered to the child as complementary foods: carrots offered by the mother will turn the stool orange, beets will color it a bright dark beet color, chopped apples and bananas will turn it yellow, and pears, zucchini, and broccoli will turn it green. After 6 months, the number of small intestinal bowel movements is significantly reduced; now the baby poops 1-2 times a day
6. Normal stool for a one-year-old baby is quite thick in consistency and well-formed. The color of feces directly depends on what the toddler eats. Typically, the color range of feces is brown, varying from light to dark. Sometimes small pieces of semi-digested vegetables are observed in the stool - this is also the norm.

How often should a baby poop during the day?

Most pediatricians believe that it is normal for a one-month-old baby to have bowel movements 12 times a day. Gradually, with age, the total number of daily bowel movements will decrease significantly - up to 1-3 times for a one-year-old toddler.

The video below will answer the question of how often a baby should have bowel movements during the day.

Normal stool of a sick baby

Most medications used to treat young children are available in the form of sweetened syrups or suspensions. When taking them, the baby's feces change significantly. Typically, the stool becomes liquid and smells “chemical.” There is no need to worry, this phenomenon is temporary, it will go away after the end of treatment. On the recommendation of a doctor, beneficial probiotics are added to the diet of the mother and her child.

Why is the quality of newborn stool constantly different?

If the baby is breastfed, then the consistency of his stool depends on his mother’s milk, and it cannot always be of the same composition, since its “production” is influenced by various factors:

1. mother's own nutrition
2. timing of lactation
3. newborn needs
4. quantitative ratio of essential microelements in it
5. mood and emotional state of a nursing mother

This is why the structure of the stool of an infant who has not yet been introduced to complementary foods is so different in appearance, consistency, color, and smell.

Features of the chair of artificial babies

Formula-fed or formula-fed newborns poop approximately three times a day, and their feces are thicker in consistency and dark brown in color. There are no mucous layers or greenish impurities in the feces.

Is a child's stool with mucus a cause for concern?

A moderate amount of mucus in children's feces is normal. A small number of small yellow, sometimes whitish lumps along with mucous veins, as well as a sour smell, green or brown color is absolutely normal.

Is green stool with a foamy consistency a sign of pathology or a normal variant?

Such bowel movements signal to the mother that the baby is suckling too quickly, and therefore eats exclusively “front” milk, and does not reach the fatty and truly nutritious “hind” milk. “Liquid” skim milk is quickly digested in a child’s stomach, and the result of such nutrition is green, foamy stool.

Algorithm of mother’s actions to normalize baby’s stool

1. Ensure early attachment. Try to place the newborn on the mother's breast immediately in the first minutes after birth. Even if he doesn’t want to eat right away, this technique will “indicate” his food source
2. Feed your infant only on demand. This recommendation is based on the individuality of the child’s body, which requires its own amount of the required volume of milk at certain “biological” hours
3. Eliminate “supplementing” the baby with water, tea, baby juice - this way the baby loses his appetite, and an increased amount of fluid accumulates in the child’s body
4. Prevent early “feeding” of the baby: for the first 6 months, the baby’s body is able to digest exclusively mother’s milk

It must be remembered that the mother’s reasonable behavior in organizing proper feeding directly affects the quality of the newborn’s stool.
A baby's stool is the most important indicator of his health. By the consistency, color, smell and frequency of bowel movements, one can judge the perfect functioning of the little person’s digestive system, the state of the child’s intestinal microflora and the correctness of his nutrition. The quality of feces of a newborn, one-month-old and one-year-old child differs significantly, and what the mother takes for pathology is in fact a harmless variant of the norm.

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