What to do if your baby has milk curds during pregnancy

The most common problem for babies who are still in the confinement period is milk curds. They have not eaten anything, but their stools are still curd-like and have a slightly smelly smell. It is possible that the breast milk in the past few days is too irritating, or the mother has eaten a lot of indigestible food, which leads to this situation in the child. Special attention should be paid to daily feeding.

The stools of breastfed babies are yellow or golden yellow, uniform like ointment, but without odor. They have frequent bowel movements, usually 2 to 4 times a day, and some as many as 7 to 8 times a day. This is called physiological diarrhea. Parents don't need to worry, this is a normal phenomenon, and the diarrhea will disappear automatically when the child grows to a certain age. Babies fed with milk have less bowel movements, 1 to 2 times a day, with a slightly smelly stool.

Even if a newborn baby has not eaten anything, he or she will usually pass dark green meconium 10 to 12 hours after birth. After 3 to 4 days of breastfeeding, the stool becomes yellow-green, which is called transitional stool. After that, the stool gradually turns yellow. If the baby does not excrete meconium within 24 hours after birth, or still has no normal bowel movement after about 4 to 5 days, you should consult a doctor in time.

If a child fed with milk has hard and smelly stools, it means that the baby is fed too much milk and too little sugar, and some sugar should be added to the milk. If there is too much sugar, the baby's stool will be foamy, thin and yellow, and have a strong sour taste, and the amount of sugar should be appropriately reduced and the amount of milk should be increased.

If an infant or young child has been excreting grayish white stools since birth and has never had yellow stools, but his urine is yellow, it is likely caused by congenital bile duct obstruction. When infants and young children have intestinal infections, they have frequent bowel movements, loose or watery stools, smelly stools with mucus, and often experience vomiting, anorexia, fever, and even dehydration. The children should be taken to the hospital for examination in time.

The frequency and texture of infants' stools often reflect the state of their digestive function. If parents can pay attention to the texture, color and frequency of their infants' stools and correctly identify normal and abnormal stools, it will help to detect abnormalities in the baby's digestive tract early and provide valuable clues for diagnosing diseases.

Normal bowel movement

1. Meconium The main component of meconium is water, accounting for about 72%. It is composed of epithelial cells shed from the fetal intestine, bile, concentrated digestive juices and swallowed amniotic fluid. Meconium is first excreted within a few hours after birth (usually within 10 hours). It is dark green and a little shiny, much like the asphalt on the road surface melted by the scorching sun in summer. It has no odor and gradually transitions to normal baby feces within 2-3 days after feeding.

2. The feces of breastfed babies are golden yellow, mostly uniform and paste-like, with occasional small milk curds and a sour taste, 2-3 times a day. Even if you have bowel movements 3-5 times a day, it can be considered normal if the stool does not contain too much water and is mushy.

3. Artificially-fed infants’ feces: Infants fed with milk (including milk powder) or goat’s milk have light yellow feces, which are mostly formed, contain more milk curds, are alkaline or neutral, are large in quantity and smelly, and occur 1-2 times a day.

Abnormal stool

If your baby's stool frequency suddenly increases or becomes thinner without changing the amount or type of food, this should be considered abnormal.

1. Foamy stool

Eating too much starch or sugary food can increase the fermentation of food in the intestine, and the resulting stool will be dark brown, watery and foamy.

2. Foul-smelling stool

When babies eat too much protein-rich food, the protein can neutralize the gastric acid in the stomach, thus reducing the acidity of the gastric juice and making it impossible for the protein to be fully digested and absorbed. Coupled with the decomposition and metabolism of bacteria in the intestinal cavity, the stools of these babies are often very smelly.

3. Shiny stools : When you eat too much fat, too much fatty acids will be produced in the intestinal cavity, which will stimulate the intestinal mucosa and increase intestinal peristalsis, resulting in light yellow liquid and larger stools. Sometimes the stools are shiny and can even slide in the toilet bowl.