Color changes in your baby's poop

If you are a new parent, you may be thinking more about your child's stool than you ever thought. Various colors and textures appear all the time. How do you know if they are normal or a sign of a problem?

Learn the basics to help you through this stage in your child's life.

What is going on in there?

Your baby's first poop is called meconium. It is a thick, sticky, greenish-black precipitate. You should only see it during the first 3 days of your baby's life.

The milk your baby swallows goes into his stomach, where acids break it down and pass through the small intestine. Some of the digested nutrients and water are absorbed into the bloodstream, while the larger, undigested ones continue to move. If they move through the intestines at a leisurely pace, your baby's body will have enough time to absorb more water from them, so what comes out can be quite hard. But if things go fast, more water will come out with the rest of the waste, which can lead to diarrhea.

As feces pass through the intestines, they also collect digestive juices, bile, bacteria, and other substances, giving them different colors and smells.

Effects of breast milk vs. formula

What a baby eats affects what ends up in their diaper. The body tends to absorb breast milk more fully. On the other hand, many breastfed babies pass mustard-yellow stools every time they feed, at least for a short time. Formula-fed babies tend to have darker, yellowish-brown stools, which are less common.

But remember: every child is different and there is a very wide range of norms when it comes to bowel movements.

Tips for concerned parents

The color and timing of a baby's stools change as their diet changes, their digestive tract matures, and new normal bacteria emerge. Color change is rarely a sign of digestive problems. Usually they just mean that there is more or less yellow/green/brown/orange pigment in the stool.

When to worry about baby stool

Tell your child's doctor if you see:

• Poop that stays white as chalk. This may mean that their livers are not producing enough bile to digest food.
• Poop that is tarry black. There may be blood in their digestive tract that has turned black as it passes through the intestines.
• Bright red blood in their poop. Red stools can also be caused by certain medications, beets, and food coloring. But the pediatrician can test your baby's stool to see if it contains blood.
• You don't have to worry about green, orange and yellow stools. They are normal and rarely a sign of digestive problems.