BABY BOWES : FECES COLOR CHANGE
New parent for the first new born baby have some worry about something happen
with their baby, but that is normal, because the parent did have experience
anything about baby. One of the problem with new born baby is faeces color.
Sometime the color of feces change not always like usual adult faces.
Here are the basics to get you through this stage in your baby's life:
What Are Feces?
Your baby's first bowel movement (BM) was the tarry black "meconium."
This is a thick and sticky residue that is greenish-black in color. You'll never
see it again once it passes.
Food in, feces out. Your baby swallows the milk, which is digested by the acids
in the stomach and moves into the small intestine. The digested, smaller nutritional
elements and water get absorbed into the bloodstream, and the larger, undigested
ones (like fiber) keep moving through. If the undigested ones continue down
the intestines at a leisurely pace, the water has time to be absorbed and what
comes out may be quite firm. Alternatively, if things are moving rapidly, the
water has no time to be absorbed and the stools can be quite loose (diarrhea).
As the stool moves thorough the intestines, it also picks up various digestive
juices, bile, bacteria, and other chemicals, which impart their characteristic
color and odor.
The Effects of Breast Milk vs. Formula
Additionally, what is eaten makes a difference in the final product. Breast
milk tends to be absorbed more completely -- sometimes there is so little residue
to come out that a baby may not have a BM for days. On the other hand, many
breastfed babies pass a mustardy stool with each feeding, at least for a short
while. Bottle-fed babies tend to have darker and less frequent stools.
Most importantly, every baby is different, and there is a very wide range of
what is called normal poop.
Tips for Concerned Parents:
Don't be frightened by the color changes of BMs. In normal infants, BMs change
color as the baby's diet changes, as the digestive tract matures, and as it
is populated by new, normal bacteria. It's rare that color changes signal a
digestive problem. Usually color changes just mean that there is more or less
of the yellow/green/brown/orange pigments that are picked up along the way.
When Parent have to Worry with Baby Faces :
- If the color of your baby's stools stay chalky white, there may be no bile
from the liver to digest the food.
- If the stool is tarry black, there may be blood in the digestive tract that
has turned dark black as it traveled down the intestines.
- If there is bright red blood in the stools, there has been some blood expressed
very close to the anus, (i.e. no time to turn black).
You don't need to worry about green, orange, and yellow stools. They are par
for the course and are rarely a sign of a digestive problem. (by Steven
Parker, MD - Baby.TopResource.NET Reference)
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