Six month old baby has black stool

Stool can also show whether people are suffering from any disease. For example, unformed stool may be due to enteritis, hard stool may be due to lack of water in the body, which easily leads to the formation of stool retention, and lumpy stool may be due to inflammation, etc. Many mothers find that their six-month-old babies have black stools, but the babies have no symptoms of other diseases and they don’t know what disease the babies have. Next, I will tell mothers what black stool means.

1. Black stool

The main reason why the baby's stool is black is that when the baby eats too much fat, too much fatty acid will be produced in the intestinal cavity, which will stimulate the intestinal mucosa and increase intestinal peristalsis, resulting in light yellow liquid and larger stool.

If your baby's stool is black, it may be caused by the stool being stored in the baby's intestines for a long time after drinking milk powder. However, if black stool occurs frequently, it is also necessary to do a routine stool test for the baby to see if there is any occult blood.

Usually, your baby must drink enough water, and you can also let your baby drink vegetable juice and fruit juice. Be careful to prevent your baby from constipation. Mothers can also use their fingers to gently massage around the baby's belly button in a clockwise direction to stimulate the baby's intestinal peristalsis. If necessary, use soap bars or enema to help your baby defecate.

2. What is the reason for black stool?

What causes black stool? There are 4 reasons why your baby's stool is black:

1. If you eat animal blood, liver and more meat, or take iron or carbon supplements, your stool may be black.

2. Digestive tract diseases: The most common cause of bloody stools, including esophageal varices, esophageal foreign bodies, ulcer disease, acute gastritis, gastric mucosal prolapse, intussusception, hemorrhagic necrotizing enteritis, strangulated intestinal obstruction, Meckel's diverticulum, intestinal polyps, anal fissures, etc.

3. Blood diseases: neonatal hemorrhagic disease, hemophilia, leukemia, aplastic anemia, thrombocytopenia and allergic purpura, etc.

4. Other systemic infectious diseases, such as sepsis, typhoid fever, etc., the baby swallows the mother's birth canal blood or blood from ruptured nipples, swallows bleeding from the nose, pharynx, and gums, etc.

3. What to do if your baby has black stools

When the baby's stool is black, the first thing you should consider is whether the baby has taken iron supplements. When the baby takes iron supplements or eats iron-rich foods, black stools will appear, and the stool will return to normal after stopping. Therefore, when adding complementary foods to your baby, the first thing to consider is the coloring of the complementary foods. For example, eating bananas, persimmons, etc. will cause the stool to turn black, but it will return to normal after you stop eating them. If it is not caused by complementary food, then you should consider whether it is a gastrointestinal bleeding problem for the baby. It is recommended to send the stool for examination immediately for diagnosis.

If the baby's stool is black due to taking iron supplements or indigestion, it can usually be prevented and treated by adjusting the diet. During this period, the baby's diet should be simple and light, such as drinking rice soup and eating porridge. After a period of time, you can add some vegetables, juice, rice noodles and other easily digestible foods. If there is no impact, no special treatment is required.

If the baby's stool is "tarry" black, it may be considered that the baby has gastrointestinal bleeding and needs to see a doctor.