Is it normal for a newborn to have a lot of stool?

Newborns grow and develop quickly, but their metabolism is also fast. Many parents always encounter symptoms such as a large amount of stool in newborns. They always think that the baby is small and excreting a lot of stool will affect the baby's health. They are afraid that the baby will not absorb the nutrients from the food, and they are always particularly worried. They don’t know if such symptoms are normal and whether they will affect the baby’s health. Let’s find out whether it is normal for newborns to have a large amount of stool.

Is it normal for a newborn to have a lot of stool?

Observing the characteristics of the stool is an important way to understand the baby's digestive status and an important basis for adjusting the child's diet. You should know the number of bowel movements of your child every day. Each bowel movement should be carefully observed in the light, to see the characteristics and smell the odor.

Infants begin to excrete meconium within ten hours after birth. The meconium is black-green or dark green, sticky, odorless, and a bit like asphalt used for paving roads. Meconium is composed of bile, intestinal secretions, desquamated epithelial cells, amniotic fluid and fetal hair swallowed by the baby in the womb. It usually takes two to three days to complete, about 3 to 5 times a day. If no meconium is seen within 24 hours after birth, one should suspect congenital malformation of the digestive tract causing fecal obstruction, which requires prompt diagnosis and treatment.

Three to four days after birth, meconium gradually transitions to regular baby stool. For infants under four months old whose main food is milk, their normal stool is mostly paste-like with uniform consistency, quite similar to the paste made of fine sand and water, and may contain a small amount of granular matter as big as pepper seeds. The stools of breastfed babies are mostly golden yellow, occasionally thin like water or thick soup, slightly green, sour and odorless, and they defecate two to four times a day.

The baby may defecate more frequently when he is newborn, four to five times a day, or even after every feeding. This is because breast milk is easy to digest, easy to excrete, and because of the reflex peristalsis of the intestines after food is input. In addition, within one to two months after birth, the child seems to be exerting a lot of effort every time he or she defecates. All the muscles in the body contract and the little face turns red. This is because the child's nervous system is not yet fully developed and the nerve impulses cannot differentiate. An urge to defecate causes muscle contraction throughout the body, which will gradually become localized as the child grows.

If the child has 4-5 bowel movements or more per day, or conversely only once every two to three days, but the stool is normal, the child is gaining weight and is in good spirits, then filtering is not necessary.

2. The color of newborn baby's stool

When your baby is just born, you will see dark green, sticky, gasoline-like stools in his diaper. Since a newborn's meconium is made up of amniotic fluid, mucus, skin flakes, and other things absorbed in the uterus, it has no odor, so you may not even realize that it's time to change your baby's diaper.

2-4 days after a newborn is born, his stool will become lighter in color, a bit army green, and less sticky. This is called a "transitional stool," and it's a sign that your baby is starting to digest his first dose of breast milk or formula and that his bowels are functioning normally.

If your baby is exclusively breastfed, his poop will be mushy or curd-like and yellow or slightly green in color. A newborn's stools may also be watery and resemble diarrhea. A breastfed baby's poop often looks like a mixture of mustard and cottage cheese, and may also have some seed-like particles in it. Interestingly, this kind of poop doesn't smell bad. "

There is a wide range of normal stools for breastfed babies. If you notice that your baby's stool is greener than before, it may mean that you have eaten something that you don't normally eat. If your baby has no other symptoms, there is probably no need to worry.

If you see bright green, bubbly stool in your baby's diaper that looks almost like seaweed, he's probably getting too much foremilk and not enough hindmilk. Foremilk is the first milk your breasts produce and is low in calories. Hind milk has a higher fat content and is the most nutritious. This may be because you are not letting your baby feed from one breast long enough. To change this situation, when you feed, start from the breast where your baby finished feeding last time.

The above is an introduction to whether it is normal for newborns to have a lot of stool. After understanding it, we know that it is normal for newborns to have a lot of stool, but we must observe the shape of the baby's stool. Once the baby's stool appears egg-drop pattern or abnormal color, we must help the baby to regulate it in time.