A smart mom and dad can only express themselves by crying when their baby is not feeling well. In addition to observing their baby’s vitality and feeding, observing their baby’s stool will also help them understand their health status. So, what kind of stool is normal? What kind of stool indicates a problem?
Normal stool
1, fetal stool fetal stool is mainly composed of water, accounting for about 72%, by the fetal intestinal shedding epithelial cells, bile, concentrated digestive juices and swallowed amniotic fluid, within a few hours after birth (generally within 10 hours) the first discharge of fetal feces, dark green, a little shiny, very much like the sun-dissolved tar on the road in summer, no odor, gradually transitioned to normal feces for infants within 2_3 days after eating.
2, breast-fed children’s stool is golden yellow, mostly uniform paste, occasionally small milk clots, sour taste, 2-3 times a day. Even if the stool reaches 3-5 times a day, but the stool does not contain too much water, paste-like, can also be considered normal.
3, artificially fed children stool to milk (including milk powder), goat milk fed infants, stool is light yellow, mostly formed, containing more milk clots, alkaline or neutral, more, more smelly, 1-2 times a day.
4, mixed feeding child feces feeding breast milk plus cow’s milk feces and feeding cow’s milk is similar, but more yellow, soft. After the addition of cereals, eggs, meat, vegetables and other complementary foods, stool properties close to adults, once a day.
Abnormal stools
In the absence of changes in the amount and type of food, a sudden increase in the number of stools and thinning of the baby’s stool should be considered abnormal.
1, foamy stools, too much starchy or sugary foods, can increase the fermentation of food in the intestinal cavity, resulting in dark brown watery stools, with foam.
2, smelly stools, too much protein-containing food, these proteins can neutralize the gastric acid in the stomach, which reduces the acidity of the gastric juice, so that the protein can not be fully digested and absorbed, coupled with the decomposition and metabolism of bacteria in the intestinal cavity, these babies’ stools are often smelly.
3, shiny stool when eating too much fat, in the intestinal cavity will produce too much fatty acids to stimulate the intestinal mucosa, so that the intestinal peristalsis increases, resulting in a yellowish liquid and the amount of more stool, sometimes shiny stool, and even slide in the potty.
4, green stool if the stool is green, stool volume is small, mucus is more, is hunger diarrhea. In addition, some children who eat formula, the feces is dark green, the reason is that the formula is generally added to a certain amount of iron, the iron through the digestive tract, and after contact with the air, it appears as dark green.
5, egg-flake soup-like stools viral enteritis and pathogenic E. coli enteritis of small patients often appear egg-flake soup-like stools.
6, bean curd-like stool is often seen in the enteritis caused by mold.
7, watery stools Most often seen in food poisoning and acute enteritis.
8, gray-white stool due to various causes of biliary obstruction patients will pass gray-white stool. Medically known as clay-colored stool. In addition, eating too much milk or too little sugar, the fatty acids produced by combining with the minerals calcium and magnesium in food, the formation of fatty soap, stool can also be gray, hard, and accompanied by odor.
9, tar-like stool due to bleeding in the upper gastrointestinal tract or small intestine and stay in the intestine for a long time, because after the destruction of red blood cells, hemoglobin in the intestine and sulfide combined to form ferrous sulfide, so the stool is black; and because ferrous sulfide stimulates the intestinal mucosa to secrete more mucus, and the stool is black and shiny, so called tar-like stool, mostly seen in gastric and duodenal ulcers, chronic gastritis caused by bleeding. Normal people eat animal blood, pig liver and other iron-containing food can also make the stool black, and taking bismuth, charcoal powder and some Chinese medicine and other drugs will also make the stool black, but generally gray-black lusterless, do the occult blood test negative can help identify.
10, bright red blood stool blood color is not mixed with feces, only adhering to the surface of the feces or after defecation with blood dripping or spraying out, suggesting that the anal or anal canal disease, such as hemorrhoids, anal fissures, intestinal polyps and rectal tumors caused by bleeding.
11, jam-like stool dark red jam-like stool is seen in intussusception; dark red jam-like pus and blood stool is seen in amebic dysentery.
12, mucopurulent fresh blood stool common in bacterial dysentery, Campylobacter jejuni enteritis.
13, wash water-like blood stool and a special fishy odor is seen in acute hemorrhagic necrotizing enterocolitis.
The color of the stool
Usually the first few days of life, the baby’s stool is uniform, dark green and sticky, called too stool (normal phenomenon). Newborn babies fed mother’s milk within a month, the stool is mostly yellow, with age, the stool will change from yellow to yellow-green or green. By the age of 5 months, most of the stools are yellow-green and green. However, babies fed infant formula, especially whey protein formula with iron fortification, tend to have green stools. The stool will gradually turn brown when the baby is given a side dish.
The presence of green stools in babies is related to the individual’s body type, age, intestinal pH, intestinal bacterial growth status, and the composition of milk products (e.g. iron), but there is nothing to worry about as long as the baby is mentally and physically active.
Breastfed babies have dilute, delicate, golden colored, slightly sour, non-foaming stools, ranging from 3-8 times a day;
General formula-fed babies, in general, stools are easy to dry, egg-yolk color, slightly smelly, more than human milk-fed babies stool, the number of times to relieve stool, 1-3 times a day. However, if you choose infant formula containing prebiotics, your baby’s stool will be closer to the shape of breast milk stool.
White pellets in the stool
This is because the newborn baby’s stomach and intestines are not fully developed and the digestive enzymes in the digestive tract are not fully mature, resulting in incomplete digestion of fat and discharge in the stool, which is commonly known as physiological stool and will gradually disappear with age. Mothers can rest assured.
Stool frequency
If the stools are more frequent, egg-like, watery, with a fishy odor, or if there is mucus, pus, or fresh blood in the stool, it is an abnormal stool and should be seen promptly. A small amount of abnormal stool should be left at the time of consultation and brought to the hospital for laboratory tests to assist in treatment.
Detailed explanation of the newborn to the complementary feeding stage – “stinky” is normal, is the baby’s health barometer.
1.Newborn fetal stool (dark green)
It is estimated that the child’s first stool to the world did not less scared parents, dark green and green pile, scared fathers ran to call the doctor.
Just born baby, even if they did not eat a little something, 6 to 12 hours after birth will also pull out dark green fetal stool.
I don’t know if the baby cherishes its mother, or they don’t want to get dirty with the amniotic fluid they swallow every day and week, anyway, the baby must come out of the mother’s belly before they are willing to poop for the first time in their lives. The fetal stool that has accumulated for 9 months must be cleared by frequent bowel movements, which usually takes 2 to 3 days, 3 to 5 times a day, for the heavy dark green color to disappear.
Fetal stool is usually odorless, sticky, and nearly dark green in color, and consists mainly of amniotic fluid swallowed by the child in the fetus and epithelial cells, fine hair, and sebum shed by the fetus, as well as bile and intestinal secretions. These innate things are very difficult to wash, and experienced elderly people will tell the parents of children, the first few days must be wrapped diapers rather than diapers.
This is not a bad “stink”: preterm infants will sometimes have delayed defecation, which is mainly related to the poor intestinal peristaltic function of preterm infants or delayed feeding of the child.
2, the transition period stool (yellow-green)
The days of fetal stool discharge, breastfeeding also began to carry out, to be clean fetal stool, the transition to normal stool when the stool is yellow-green. Most newborns show this stage of stool after 2~3 days of breastfeeding, and then gradually enter the normal yellow stage (breastfed babies).
This is not a bad “stink”: The timing of the start of feeding and the amount of milk consumed by the newborn will directly affect how long the transitional stool appears and lasts. If the start of milk is delayed, or the amount of milk consumed is too little, the time of transition stools will also be delayed.
3.Breastfeeding stool
(1) Breastfed baby (golden yellow soft paste stool)
Because mother’s milk is rich in oligosaccharides, can fully stimulate intestinal peristalsis, so most babies will not have hard stool situation, there will be no obvious odor, golden yellow, occasionally slightly green and thin; or a soft paste-like, uniform, with a sour taste and no foam. The number of bowel movements of breastfed babies is very flexible, usually more in the newborn period, 2-5 times a day, as the child grows older, the number of bowel movements will gradually decrease, 2-3 months old children will reduce the number of bowel movements to 1~2 times a day. Therefore, if a breastfed infant has thin stools and more frequent stools, as long as the infant is in good spirits and eating milk, has normal weight gain, and does not have difficulty relieving stool, abdominal pain, or flatulence, it is normal and there is no need for parents to worry.
This is not a bad “stink”: breast-fed newborns can even happen 7 to 8 times a day defecation, parents do not have to worry, this is called physiological diarrhea, a normal phenomenon, to the baby grows to a certain period this diarrhea will automatically disappear.
(2) artificially fed baby (earthy yellow hard paste stool)
Formula-fed babies have less stool, usually dry, rough, slightly hard as hard paste, but also as long as it is not difficult to solve, not like sheep stool, it does not matter. If there is no problem with digestion, it will usually be earthy yellow or golden yellow, with some sour smell, about 1~2 times a day.
This is not a bad “stink”: children who drink formula will sometimes have yellow stools with green or greenish, this is because the iron content of formula is very high, when the baby does not fully absorb the iron in the formula, the excess iron will make the stool green, this situation is normal. It is not the old saying that the child’s stool is green. It is frightened to cause gastrointestinal discomfort.
4, after eating complementary food stool (darker color)
Babies from 4 months to add complementary foods, with the number and type of complementary foods for babies increase, baby stool sex began to slowly approach adults, began to become darker color.
This is not a bad “stink”: Babies who eat more vegetables and fruits will have fluffier stools. If the child eats more fish, meat, milk, eggs, because of the protein digestion, the stool will be more smelly.