Topic Outline
Topic Outline
Stools
IABLE
Topic Outline

Stools

The first stool should occur within the first 24 hours of life. This will be meconium–a thick, black, sticky substance. This stool gradually becomes looser and transitions to a brownish-green color, then finally yellow. The yellow stool may be “seedy” and is the consistency of pancake batter. New parents often voice concern that the typical breastfed stool has the appearance of diarrhea. During the first 2-3 days of life, there may be anywhere from a few to several meconium stools each day. By day 4, infants typically have approximately four “credit card size” yellow seedy stools per day. This change occurs as mom’s milk increases in volume (“comes in”) and is a good indication of how well breastfeeding is going. Moms who have breastfed a previous child tend to see the milk increase by day 2-3, as compared to a mom with her first child, for whom the milk supply typically increases by day 3-5. Breastfed infants typically have more frequent and runnier stools than formula fed infants1, once the milk is ‘in.’

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References

  1. Moretti, E, Rakza T, Mestdagh B, Labreuche J, Turck D. The bowel movement characteristics of exclusively breastfed and exclusively formula fed infants differ during the first three months of life Acta Paediatrica 108(5) May 2019 p. 877-881