How Often Should A Newborn Poop?
The average human being passes their first bowel movement between the ages of 2 and 4 months. Most babies pass their first stool at around 6 to 8 weeks old. If you are breastfeeding your baby, it is very likely that they will start passing their stools before they reach the age of six months!
A baby’s digestive system works differently than ours does. They do not have a large intestine like us. Instead, they have a small intestine with many tiny openings called villi (pronounced: vee-VEE-ees).
These openings allow food to enter the body through the intestines.
As mentioned above, there are two types of bacteria found in our bodies: Bacteria and Proteobacteria. Bacteria live inside us and help digest our food. Proteobacteria live outside of us and help build up our immune systems.
When these bacteria come into contact with each other, they produce gases such as hydrogen sulfide (H2S) and methane (CH4). These gases cause the feces to look brown or blackish-gray in color. They also make the outside of the body smell bad, too.
All babies are born with some Proteobacteria inside their body. This is why new parents should not be alarmed if their baby has a blackish-gray tint to its poop. It is also why the baby’s poop can smell pretty foul.
As the baby grows, more types of bacteria start growing inside their body. By the time they are around 3 months old, their bodies will naturally produce more types of bacteria. They also begin absorbing more types of bacteria from the environment. These two things cause stools to become less and less discolored and smelly.
It is important that you keep your baby’s skin clean because this helps prevent illnesses. Your child will also need to be kept up to date with all of his or her shots (or jabs). In general, human babies grow and mature at different rates.
As long as your baby is healthy and not losing weight, you do not need to be concerned if their poop is still blackish-gray in color. If you are breastfeeding, try changing your diet to see if this will change the color of your baby’s stools.
Newborn baby poop pictures
The following images and pictures are the blackish-gray stools that are passed by a newborn baby. The top image is a newborn baby boy’s stool. Note how it has a consistency of soft play dough.
As you can see, it is black in color and has sort of a shiny finish to it. This particular baby was formula fed.
The middle image is of a newborn baby girl’s stool. The stool is a little softer than the one above and more jelly-like in texture. This particular baby was breastfeeding.
The bottom image is of a 7-day old baby girl’s stool. As you can see, the stool is semi-soft and has sort of a light tan color to it. This baby was also breastfeeding.
What can I do if my baby’s poop is too green?
Newborn babies typically produce green poop that has a strong ammonia smell. This typically is due to the fact that the mother is drinking a lot of cows’ milk during pregnancy and the baby is drinking a lot of it after birth. Since cows’ milk has a lot of protein in it, it causes the baby to poop out a lot of dark green stools. It also has a strong smell due to the ammonia found in it.
Unfortunately, this can cause problems for a newborn such as vomiting, diarrhea or excessive gas. This is typically not due to an allergy to milk but rather that the baby is drinking too much of it. If this is the case, you’ll want to cut down on how much milk the baby is drinking and replace some of it with water.
In some cases, a baby’s poop can look green due to the fact that they are eating too much fruit. While vegetables are good for you, fruits contain a lot more natural sugars. These sugars get broken down by the baby’s system and converted into poop which comes out looking greenish in color.
If the baby is not drinking an overabundance of milk, then you should try cutting down on the amount of fruit your baby eats. If you do this, the baby’s poop should return to a normal brown color within a few days.
See more questions like this: My son’s poop is green and it smells awful
What does it mean if my newborn baby has loose stools?
Newborn babies typically have very runny and watery stools for the first few days of life. Even though it looks like diarrhea, and sometimes may smell like it, these babies are not sick.
Sources & references used in this article:
Analysis of intestinal flora development in breast-fed and formula-fed infants by using molecular identification and detection methods by HJM Harmsen, ACM Wildeboer–Veloo… – Journal of pediatric …, 2000 – journals.lww.com
Neonatal weight loss in breast and formula fed infants by PD Macdonald, SRM Ross, L Grant… – Archives of Disease in …, 2003 – fn.bmj.com
Intestinal adherent bacteria and bacterial translocation in breast-fed and formula-fed rats in relation to susceptibility to infection by M Nakayama, M Yajima, S Hatano, T Yajima… – Pediatric …, 2003 – nature.com
Health Impacts of Early Complementary Food Introduction Between Formula-fed and Breastfed Infants by PLF Rippey, F Aravena… – Journal of Pediatric …, 2020 – journals.lww.com
In vitro fermentation of carbohydrate by breast fed and formula fed infants by AM Parrett, CA Edwards – Archives of disease in childhood, 1997 – adc.bmj.com
