The baby is crying – you have fed it, you have given it some love, and it is still crying.  It must be a dirty diaper!  You make your way to the changing table and get ready to take care of business. Then, you pop off the diaper, and there is the most amazing color of poo that you have every seen!  There must be something wrong with the baby, it must be sick.  You make your way to the phone to call the doctor…   Hold on, don’t call anyone!  There is nothing wrong with your wailing wee one.  Welcome the wonderful world of baby poo.

I don’t know about you, but this is the one part of parenting that is not fantastic.  I also never thought that I would be writing about my child’s bowel movements.  A newborn isn’t able to tell us what is going on, so we have to rely on other clues to help us out.  Checking bowel movements is the first place to look.  I truly wasn’t prepared for baby poo.  While teaching preschool, I have changed my fair share of diapers, but that was for children ages 2 and up.  They have bowel movements similar to ours and just as smelly!

When your new little baby is born, its first bowel movement is called meconium.  It is just like tar.  Most babies will have their first bowel movement 10-12 hours after they are born.  Hopefully, your baby will express this lovely meconium after it has been born, but in some cases, the baby has the first bowel movement while in utero.  This creates a bit more of a mess and baby needs to be super-cleaned after delivery along with making sure the airways are clear.  When my little one was born, she was almost 2 weeks late.  Needless to say, she was a messy delivery. 

If you choose to breastfeed, babies are said to have sweeter smelling poo.  I thought this sounded pretty silly when I read it, and then I had my baby.  After the meconioum mess and she started having regular bowel movements, I realized that they really do smell sweet.  It is normal for it to take a couple days before you see regular bowel movements right after baby is born.  Breastfed babies usually have runny poo ranging from orange to brown in color.  It has a seedy texture to it, kind of like runny small curd cottage cheese.  Some compare it to mustard.  If you are formula feeding, your baby’s poo might be similar to peanut butter. 

I was absolutely astounded by the amount of poo my baby was creating.  It seemed that every time I fed her, she was going poo!  I started loosing count of how many diapers I was changing!  Did she have diarrhea?  Was there something wrong?  It is totally normal for breastfed babies to have lots of bowel movements.  In fact, all babies have lots of bowel movements.  They have tiny tummies that fill up, and there is nowhere for everything to go other than out.  Expect to go through lots and lots of diapers.  I thought it was funny how everyone kept giving me infant diapers, until I ran out.

After a couple weeks, I noticed that we weren’t going through so many diapers and her bowel movements were slowing down.  Then, one afternoon, I was changing the diaper and there, in the diaper, was the most amazing green poo.  She must be sick!  I was a little shocked and scared at the same time.  I told myself to calm down.  She wasn’t acting strange or upset so there must be a different reason for this green poo.  It turns out that baby poo runs the gamut in color from yellow, to orange, to brown, to green!  I breathed a sigh of relief and we went on with our day.  Her next bowel movement was a completely different color – yellow actually.

It turns out that there are only a few colors you don’t want to see when changing a diaper.  Those colors are:

Red – If it ever looks like there is blood in your child’s diaper, you should contact your pediatrician.  Some girls might pass a small amount of blood soon after they are born, and many times blood in the diaper might be due to small cuts or strain around the anus, but it is still a good idea to call your pediatrician and let them know.

Black – Other than when your baby passes its meconium, you shouldn’t see black poo.  If you are seeing dark or black bowel movements, call your pediatrician right away.

White – This can be a sign of problems with some of your baby’s internals.  This is another color that deserves a call to the pediatrician.

(Green) – Yes, I said before to not worry about green poo, but if you are seeing a lot of green poo along with a fussy baby, you might want to call your pediatrician.  It could be a sign of a allergy or iron issue.  If your baby is happy and showing no signs of distress, don’t worry about it.

No Poo – If your baby hasn’t had a bowel movement in a couple days, this is another time to give your pediatrician a call.  Sometimes babies have long breaks between movements, so if baby seems happy, let it go another day or two.

Through my baby poo adventures there are a couple things I have learned along the way.  I will leave you with these final thoughts:

-       ALWAYS make sure that you have something under baby when you are changing it.  Please do not put baby on something that you like to change its diaper.  Babies pee and poo whether they have a diaper on or not.  If you have a boy, remember they can make the pee go farther….

-       Some babies will sit in a dirty diaper for hours without putting up any kind of fuss to let you know they need a new diaper.  That’s great if you are busy or doing something that doesn’t lend itself to stopping and changing baby, but chiseling baby poo off of baby’s little butt takes many baby wipes.

-       Plastic gloves might come in handy at times.

-       Look at your baby’s bottom after each changing and search for ANY little red bumps.  If you even see one, apply a small amount of your choice of butt ointment on the anus area.  This helps to keep diaper rash away.  Diaper rash isn’t just a rash – wailing accompanies it.

Stay positive while changing baby!  This is a great time to be eye-to-eye with baby, have a conversation and some positive interactions!