Rarely, does a baby's bowel movements tell us anything important about his or her health, however, a baby's poop is the subject of much attention and raises many questions. We tell you what exactly the appearance of his diaper reveals to us when we take it off.
Small details and variations in the number and consistency of a baby's bowel movements are of little importance, and their continued contemplation tells us little about the health of our children. Only if we observe persistent liquid stools, black or chalk-white stools, or very smelly and pasty stools accompanied by tummy pain should we consult with our pediatrician.
These are some of the most common questions parents have about their babies' bowel movements:
What is meconium?
Meconium is the first poop that a child makes shortly after birth. It is black, pasty, and adherent, resembles tar, and is the result of the digestion of amniotic fluid and waste products of the fetus.
What is a newborn's poop like?
After the meconium (he expels it once or twice), the baby makes transitional stools for four or five days, which are not abundant, very liquid, and grayish-greenish.
Does the mother's diet influence it?
Normally it does not influence the child's stools, except in cases of allergies. If you are allergic to something the mother has eaten, you may have diarrhea, sometimes bloody, or less commonly, constipation. Generally, the allergy is to cow's milk proteins that the mother ingests.
Why does he go several days without pooping?
By two to four months (sometimes a little earlier), breastfed children usually stop pooping every day. Almost all of them go two or three days without defecating, many go four or five days, and it is not unusual to find someone who has gone seven or ten days without defecating. Of course, when they finally poop, it is still soft, like puree, and very, very abundant. This is totally normal, it is not constipation, and there is no need to worry. What best tells us that everything is going well is that the baby continues to eat normally and shows no signs of pain or discomfort.
What is constipation?
It consists of making large, hard, and generally dry balls. We can also define it as a lack of poop associated with frequent tummy discomfort and refusal to feed. It is a disease because it hurts and can cause anal fissures (bleeding wounds in the buttocks) and hemorrhoids, which is why parents usually go to the pediatrician's office where they are diagnosed.
Are children who do not breastfeed more constipated?
Definitely. True constipation, with dry, hard balls, is very rare, almost impossible, in exclusively breastfed children. In mixed breastfeeding, sometimes a little bottle feeding is enough for harder poop to appear. In very rare cases, constipation can be a symptom of an allergy to cow's milk, although it is much more common for this allergy to cause bloody diarrhea.
Do some brands of milk constipate more than others?
Yes, some brands, depending on their composition, produce harder stools than others. If the child takes a bottle and is constipated, consulting your pediatrician is the best option before switching to formula milk on your own. There are “digest” formulas that help improve constipation, although sometimes they can worsen reflux or make digestion a little more difficult.
Is it good to stimulate him with a thermometer?
Rectal stimulation is not advisable to be done frequently, much less with home-use thermometers. It is still common to find grandmothers who use the mercury thermometer for stimulation, something very dangerous and with the risk of breaking and causing not only injury but poisoning.
Can you take laxatives?
No. Some laxatives are dangerous for the baby; They should not be administered unless indicated by the pediatrician. In rare cases, they will be necessary, but they must be appropriate for the age of the minor and for her specific situation.
Do vitamins constipate?
No, but iron does. This is a problem because in general healthy children do not need vitamins, but some do need iron. If you are being treated with iron and have marked constipation, it will be possible to adjust the dose after speaking with your pediatrician.
Does giving orange juice help?
Fruit juice in large quantities can cause diarrhea. This is one of the reasons why it is recommended never to give juice before six months. From that age onwards, it is not highly recommended, but it can be tolerated (no more than half a glass a day). The idea is to consume whole fruits so that they contain the pulp, the element where the greatest source of fiber is found. Fiber will help improve intestinal transit and will also help the fruit's own sugars to be absorbed more slowly, facilitating better digestion and reducing blood sugar spikes.
Why do whole foods appear in the diaper?
It is totally normal and has no importance; It only proves that the little one has not digested in the slightest that pea or that grain of corn that we have found. He will digest them better if we crush them before giving them to him to break the skin.
What should your stools be like?
The typical feces of a breastfed child are golden-yellow (there are brownish and greenish varieties), soft like puree, lumpy like rice soup, with strands of mucus, and noisy. They will be frequent, almost always more than four or five a day; Normally one after each feeding and sometimes others as a gift between feedings. This is normal, it is not diarrhea and does not require treatment.
Are stools different if you take a bottle?
They will probably be darker and more compact, varying between thick porridge and a rather dry ball that does not stain the diaper.
Is there a natural method to prevent constipation?
For babies, the only natural remedy is breastfeeding. For older children, it is important to eat foods rich in fiber, especially legumes, followed by whole grains, vegetables, and fruits. Even so, there will be children who are constipated and who will have to control their adult diet 100% since the predisposition to constipation exists.
Does teeth eruption cause softer or more liquid poop?
There is no type of direct relationship. It has been scientifically proven that, in the days before and after a tooth emerges, bowel movements are neither softer nor more frequent than they usually are, so we have just broken a grandmother's myth.
0 Comments