Eva Alessia, D.O.
Before you became a parent, you probably never thought that you would fixate on the quality of another individual’s poop. Yet, here you are: My child’s poop is blue. My baby has loose, like diarrhea, poops. My toddler is passing poop that looks like balls. Is this ok?
A newborn’s poop is called “meconium”: it is thick, very sticky and dark green, practically black. You could probably use it to spackle your walls or mortar bricks together.
This poop goes away in about 3 to 5 days. The newborn’s poop will change to a loose/mushy stool that can be yellow, orange or even green in color.
A breastfed baby’s poop will be a little looser than a formula fed baby’s and can have little chunks of solid poop within the “liquidy” stool that can remind you of curds in cottage cheese. This is called a “seedy stool” and is normal.
An infant’s poop should not look like it is thicker than peanut butter. If so, then your child may be constipated. Likewise, an older child should not be passing pellets, balls, anything hard and/or dry or a poop that you remark “I can’t believe that came out of my child!”
As you start adding solid foods to your baby’s diet, the color of the poop will change. The color will depend on what you are feeding your child. Pretty much, any color of poop is ok (yes, even blue!), except white, black and red. If you see any of these colors, talk to your child’s doctor.
Seeing mucous in the stool here and there is ok; there could be more when your child is sick. If you notice that your child is passing mucous with every bowel movement and your child is not sick with a cold or tummy flu, call your child’s doctor.
Now you have the scoop on poop!