Dark green is the normal color of a seven-month-old baby's stool

The baby’s health, even every move, every cry and smile, concerns the whole family. Indeed, the baby is now the center of the family. The baby's diet, the baby's clothes, and even the baby's bowel movements all attract special attention. The doctor said that dark green is the normal color of a seven-month-old baby’s stool. Today, we are going to learn some knowledge about baby’s defecation. Please follow the editor to learn more.

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.

4. The feces of mixed-feeding infants: The feces of infants fed with breast milk and cow's milk are similar to those of infants fed with cow's milk, but are yellower and softer. After adding complementary foods such as cereals, eggs, meat, and vegetables, the stool characteristics become close to those of adults, and should be taken once 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. Stinky 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.

4. Green stool: If the stool is green, the amount of stool is small, and there is a lot of mucus, it is hunger diarrhea.

In addition, some children who are fed formula milk have dark green feces. The reason is that a certain amount of iron is added to formula milk. After the iron passes through the digestive tract and comes into contact with the air, it turns dark green.

5. Egg drop soup-like stool Young patients with viral enteritis and pathogenic Escherichia coli enteritis often have egg drop soup-like stool.

6. Tofu-like stools are often seen in enteritis caused by fungi.

7. Watery stools are often seen in food poisoning and acute enteritis.

8. Grayish white stools Patients with bile duct obstruction caused by various reasons will excrete grayish white stools. Medically it is called clay-colored stool. In addition, if you consume too much milk or too little sugar, the fatty acids produced will combine with the minerals calcium and magnesium in the food to form fat soaps, and the feces may also appear grayish white, hard, and have a foul odor.

9. Tarry stool is caused by upper gastrointestinal or small intestinal bleeding and a long residence time in the intestine. After the red blood cells are destroyed, hemoglobin combines with sulfide in the intestine to form ferrous sulfide, so the stool is black. Because ferrous sulfide stimulates the intestinal mucosa to secrete more mucus, the stool becomes black and shiny, so it is called tarry stool. It is more common in bleeding caused by gastric and duodenal ulcers and chronic gastritis.

For normal people, eating animal blood, pork liver and other iron-rich foods may also cause the stool to turn black, and taking bismuth, charcoal powder and certain Chinese medicines may also cause the stool to turn black, but it is generally gray-black and dull. A negative occult blood test can help identify it.

10. Bright red blood in stools. The blood is bright red and does not mix with the stool. It only sticks to the surface of the stool or drips or sprays out after defecation, indicating bleeding caused by anal or anal canal diseases, such as hemorrhoids, anal fissures, intestinal polyps and rectal tumors.

11. Jam-like stool: Dark red jam-like stool is seen in intussusception; dark red jam-like stool with pus and blood is seen in amoebic dysentery.

The best time for a normal baby to supplement cod liver oil is between half a month after birth and two years old. If the baby has no obvious signs of calcium deficiency, there is no need to supplement calcium. Just take 400IU-800IU of cod liver oil every day until the age of two. In the northern region, it can be extended to three years old. This is a preventive amount. Because breast milk and milk powder contain high calcium content, but very little vitamin D, calcium supplements can meet the baby's current body needs. Cod liver oil promotes calcium absorption, so cod liver oil must be supplemented. In addition, sunlight exposure to the skin is also the best way to absorb calcium. Let the baby get more sun, two hours a day, but not in direct sunlight. You can choose Icosin for cod liver oil, which has good absorption effect and can also be put in milk powder to eat together.

If your baby has obvious signs of calcium deficiency, such as irritability, restlessness, restless sleep, easy to be startled, crying at night, sweating, etc., it is best to go to the hospital to check for trace elements, use medication according to the doctor's instructions, supplement calcium and cod liver oil in time, and have regular check-ups.

After reading the above experts’ introduction, you must have a certain understanding and knowledge of the various different information reflected by your baby’s stool. Although a seven-month-old baby cannot express himself and communicate with his parents. However, parents and friends, please use the correct method to identify the color and shape of your baby's stool, so that you can still judge your baby's health status.