Of all of the awe-inspiring changes that come with becoming a parent, one of the strangest rites of passage has to exist your new fixation withbabe poop! Moms and dads will rapidly become experts in their baby'due south many different kinds of poops—and not just because they're up to their elbows in diaper changes (which may also exist true). Poop can actually exist a helpful indication of your baby's health.  This poo preoccupation begins the very offset time a baby goes "number two" with the epic-sounding (and kind of freaky looking) meconium.

What Is Meconium?

Meconium is a newborn's first bowel movement. At the aforementioned time a babe is busy forming all of its cute niggling fingers and toes, they're also ingesting dead peel cells, amniotic fluid, and a substance called lanugo (the fine hair that covers a baby'south body and is shed earlier nascency). All of that fabric forms meconium.

The expect of a baby's first poop can come up equally a stupor! Meconium is black-green and extremely pasty, more tar than turd. In fact, it can seem almost impossible to wipe clean! Robin Williams said that meconium looks like a cross between Velcro…and toxic waste!  But the good news is that it's totally normal.

This amazing poo—made of hair and dead skin—sounds pretty gross, but yous'll exist surprised to discover that information technology'southward almost odorless. That'southward because, at birth, a babe has nigh no gut bacteria, so there are not yet any stinky leaner which is what makes poop smell. (Wonderfully, poop smells sweetness, at long as yous are merely feeding breast milk. Unfortunately, once they offset eating annihilation other than that, doodoo becomes a fleck disgusting!)

As soon as your newborn starts snacking on your colostrum or a trivial formula, the poop volition start to alter. A babe's first meal will introduce intestinal leaner. That changes the consistency, odour, and color of poop. Breastfed babies get from night greenish tar-y, "airheaded putty" poops to a mustard xanthous poo with little flecks of white. Formula-fed babies will go from meconium to a tan, paste-like poop that may resemble peanut butter (sorry if I just put you off of Pb&J's forever!).

Meconium Aspiration Syndrome

While meconium isn't harmful on its own, it is definitely a problem if the baby passes their offset stool before birth. The danger here is that the meconium tin mix with amniotic fluid and be inhaled during or soon after nascency causing serious issues for the babe (called meconium aspiration syndrome).

The doctor/midwife can run across that the baby has pooped inside because, when the bag of waters breaks, instead of being clear the amniotic fluid will be greenish. (Even the infant's fingernails tin get stained a niggling light-green!) If your babe did poo inside, your provider will suction the meconium out of the mouth and—if necessary— out of the windpipe. Some of these babies demand an x-ray of the breast and may even need handling with oxygen and antibiotics.

Who knew in that location was so much to learn about poop? And still, here we are! If you lot have questions about your infant's poop or if yous suspect something is not quite right, telephone call your pediatrician.

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Disclaimer: The information on our site is NOT medical communication for whatever specific person or condition. It is just meant as general data. If you have any medical questions and concerns about your child or yourself, please contact your health provider.