Very often, young mothers who do not have experience in caring for babies worry about the well-being of their babies as soon as they see minimal changes in their behavior. And most of all they ask the question: "And how should a newborn poop and how many times a day?". We’ll try to figure this out.
Features of the stool of a newborn baby
An experienced pediatrician or mother can determine how healthy the baby is, whether he eats well, and whether there are at least some health problems based on the texture of bowel movements and stool consistency. But young parents quite often try to compare feces and the frequency of emptying the intestines of crumbs with feces of adults, which is why they begin to find problems where they are completely absent. No need to panic.
A real storehouse of knowledge to determine if everything is fine with the baby can be called wet and dirty diapers that parents change in the first few days after the baby is born. But you need to be careful, because all the features of the chair of a newly born baby are dependent on factors, the number of which is more than ten. The main ones that give at least some idea of how much a newborn baby should poop include the following:
- general disease that affects emptying;
- a peculiarity of my mother’s diet (you need to pay attention to this if the toddler eats only breast milk);
- the presence of problems with the development of the digestive tract;
- frequency of feedings;
- the presence of maternal hormonal disruptions;
- introduction of the mixture, its replacement (for babies who are on artificial nutrition), an increase in the volume of the mixture.
Let's talk about meconium
Perhaps all mothers know that the very first feces of the baby in medical terminology are called meconium. Moreover, he absolutely does not have to appear on the first day after the birth of the crumbs. Some toddlers begin to defecate while still in their mother’s tummy (this applies to about one fifth of the total number of newborns). If your baby is like that, then the departed water will be greenish or yellowish in color. This is precisely meconium, which has dissolved in the amniotic fluid.
If it is not very much, then it will not be threatened with crumbs - the first feces are absolutely sterile. In rare cases, the baby can be aspirated with meconium, but doctors can easily cope with such a problem during childbirth.
For most babies, meconium comes out a day or two after birth. After that, the digestive system is configured for normal operation, standard color and consistency of feces. As a rule, the first stool is odorless, it is brown or green, its consistency is sticky and mucous.
Norm of feces of a karapuzik
Any pediatrician can connect the physiological need of the crumbs with the general condition of his small body, nutrition and possible dehydration. Nevertheless, young parents should not forget that each child is individual and that we are not talking about any approved standard.
So how much should a newborn poop per day? This question really excites inexperienced moms and dads. A baby who is one month old and whose mother is breastfeeding has an approximate stool rate of 15 grams. After a while, this indicator will increase to 40-50 g. If the baby is breast-fed, the amount of feces should be about 40 g.
When a mother breastfeeds her baby, his stool will present a uniform yellowish mass that smells of sour milk. And the norm in this case is a chair with tiny lumps, most often blotches will be a greenish tint.
If the newborn is an artificial person, the color scheme will range from light yellow to dark brown, and the smell will be quite sharp. You should not immediately worry if mom sees mucus or small blotches of white. This only indicates that undigested milk fats are excreted from the body.
How many times does he poop?
How many times should a newborn poop a day? This is another issue that worries parents who do not yet understand how and what should happen to a small child.
A baby who is already a month old has the ability to poop about eight times a day, after almost every feeding.
It happens that some toddlers poop only once or twice a week, but in quite a large amount. If at the same time the baby feels well, he does not have colic, then the indicators of this process are normal.
Children who are breast-fed will poop a little less - about four times a day. If these indicators are less than normal, then the crumbs begin to constipate.
Consistency
Understanding the question of how many times a day a newborn should poop, one must not forget that it is necessary to remember about controlling the consistency of feces.
If the baby is on artificial feeding, then his stool is a little more dense than that of a baby. Nevertheless, a fully formed feces can be observed in the tots, who celebrated their first birthday. In a normal bowel movement, a porridge-like homogeneous consistency. Fluctuations from liquid slurry to thicker are possible. In some cases, there may be small soft lumps in the liquid feces. The liquid is usually absorbed into the diaper, but the lumps remain on the surface. A similar consistency pediatricians call normal, especially if it is not a permanent condition.
But if the baby's bowel movements are completely liquid, this is no longer an indicator of the health of the crumbs. You can talk about an intestinal upset. If the stool is very dense, then the baby does not have enough fluid in the body.
What should be the color?
Returning to how a newborn should poop, it is necessary to remember about monitoring the health status of a small family member by the color of feces. It should be borne in mind that in babies eating breast milk, it is slightly different from what happens with artificers.
The shade of children's feces will depend on the type of mixture that the baby eats, and this shade can change. If we take it as the norm, then the peanut chair is in a range of colors from golden yellow to light brown.
Pediatricians consider it normal if the baby feces:
- yellow with a greenish tint;
- brown yellow;
- yellow or straw with white blotches;
- dark yellow, almost orange.
But what color will the feces of the crumbs, to which the mother began to introduce additional complementary foods, depend on the products. But as a rule, it turns brown.
Ah, what a "flavor"!
So, understanding how many times a newborn baby should poop per day, one should pay attention to the fact that the smell of feces in infants and babies who are on artificial nutrition is different. For example, the feces of children who eat their mother’s milk smells almost nothing.
So how should a newborn poop if it gets a mixture? The feces of the artificial baby smell not very pleasant, and yet milky notes predominate. Usually, only the feces of the peanuts have such a fragrance; they cannot be confused with others, especially if it is not the first child with mom. If the stool has crumbs, the smell is sour or gives out rottenness, this is not the norm.
Mix in a pot
And also about feces of artificers. In their stool quite often there may be impurities. Indeed, in mixtures there are complexes of minerals and vitamins, so everyone is able to give their inclusions and shades. True, not every change in feces can be called safe.
A signal to the fact that there is some kind of violation or illness is the stool:
- with an admixture of rather dark, almost black inclusions - this indicates that there is clotted blood in the intestine;
- scarlet blood means that the baby has cracks in the rectum;
- green feces with mucus impurities indicates that there is lactose deficiency;
- there is an admixture of foam in the stool - this is a consequence of dysbiosis;
- feces are almost white in color, there is fluid - perhaps the baby has some liver problems.
If foam and mucus are present in small amounts in the baby's stool, the mother should not worry. This happens from gazikov, colic, not very well-digested food. If they are constantly in the diaper, one should no longer think about how often a newborn should poop, but immediately consult a pediatrician. He will give the necessary recommendations and tell you what to do.
Pay special attention
Before figuring out how a newborn should poop and how many times a day, we need to remember three situations that parents should pay special attention to.
If the baby does not poop for a rather long time, while crying when he tries to push, he is likely to suffer from constipation. This problem can be solved through the use of products with the effect of a laxative, as well as a plentiful drink of mom. In an extreme case, you can apply an enema, but taking medications is permissible only after consulting a doctor.
If the baby, who is already a month old, poop about ten to twelve times during the day, in addition, the stool has a very specific smell, foam appears or the color changes to green, you should contact the doctor as soon as possible. On the one hand, a mistake in the mother’s daily diet can lead to such a situation. On the other, a rather serious disease that requires a thorough examination.
Many unpleasant moments for the baby are delivered by colic and increased gas formation. Such problems can be corrected by making changes to the baby’s nutrition and gentle massage of his tummy.
We turn to the doctor for help
In order to know exactly what and how you can help your baby and how to fix his stool (and for this you need to understand how much a newborn should poop), you need to find out exactly what is the cause of the violations. But it is not always visible immediately and it is not so easy to determine.
The baby's body is still weak, and health is fragile. Therefore, parents are better off not risking self-medication, but immediately go to the hospital. It is very dangerous to prescribe medications to the baby himself, at home. Due to some drugs, a baby can have not only an allergy, but also big health problems.
The best help for the child in this case is examination and timely prescribed therapy from a specialist. First, the doctor needs to examine the baby, sent for a general blood and feces test. If necessary, the doctor may prescribe other types of tests and additional examinations.
If the violation is minor, nutrition adjustments and mixture changes may suffice. But other cases will require more serious treatment.