A newborn feeds exclusively on mother's milk; his gastrointestinal tract has not yet formed, so loose stools are quite normal. Usually in appearance it resembles gruel or sour cream. In children who are bottle-fed, stool has a harder appearance.

Every mother of a newborn is tormented by the question - what kind of stool is considered healthy? Today the stool may be yellow with white lumps, tomorrow it may be greenish. Consistency and color depend on many factors. But all this is a variant of the norm.

The color of normal stool is golden, greenish, bright yellow, light yellow, brownish. The color of the stool depends on what the nursing mother eats. If the diet is dominated by dairy products (kefir, cheeses, milk), then the child’s stool will be yellow. Plant foods (vegetables, berries, fruits, dried fruits, herbs) in the mother's menu will make the baby's stool greenish.

Normal stool does not contain blood or mucus. Lumps of curd consistency may appear. The smell is reminiscent of slightly sour milk. If the child himself feels well, is steadily gaining weight, sleeps soundly at night, and does not show any signs of anxiety, then parents do not need to worry. The baby is completely fine, and his liquid feces are the body’s natural reaction to easily digestible food.

In the first four weeks after birth, the baby poops up to ten times a day. Ideally, your baby should defecate after every feeding. From the second month to six months, the frequency of large trips is reduced to three or five times a day. Children over six months of age who are breastfeeding poop once or twice a day. Sometimes less often. The volume of feces is small.

Such frequent bowel movements in the first month of life is an attempt by the small body to adapt to the updated regime and method of obtaining food.

Loose stools or diarrhea?

Diarrhea is frequent bowel movements with watery stools, accompanied by unpleasant sensations in the abdominal area. Mom or dad can determine that a newborn has diarrhea based on several signs:

• the frequency of bowel movements increases markedly;
• the stool turns from mushy to watery, the consistency becomes much thinner than before;
• the release of feces from the intestines occurs sharply and quickly;
• the sour smell of feces is much more pronounced;
• the stool takes on a rich green tint;
• blood, mucous clots, and foamy discharge are found in the stool;
• the general well-being of the newborn worsens: crying and restless behavior, colic, a hard or bloated tummy, temperature fluctuations, and loss of appetite appear.

If diarrhea appears, the baby is taken to the pediatrician. After examination and tests, the doctor prescribes treatment. But most often, diarrhea does not require therapy; it goes away on its own.

What should parents do?

If you think your baby has loose stools:

Video - Diarrhea or loose stools, when should you worry?

When to sound the alarm

Vigilant parents should notice the following symptoms that require immediate medical attention:

If the cause of loose stool in a baby is diarrhea due to otitis media, acute respiratory infections, tonsillitis, rotavirus infection or dysbacteriosis, then this is very dangerous. Delay can affect the health and life of the baby. Contacting a specialist will eliminate the risk of complications that arise from these diseases.

Timely request for medical care will help the baby gain weight well, normalize stool and prevent negative changes in the body. As a treatment, the pediatrician usually suggests changing the mode and technique of breastfeeding.

His advice might be:

1. Feeding should definitely be a joy. A comfortable position for mother and baby will put both in the right mood.
2. Breastfeeding technique is also very important. It’s bad when the baby grabs one nipple, most of the areola should get into the mouth.
3. If necessary, increase breast milk production. For this purpose, the mother often attaches the baby. Feedings occur every three hours, including nighttime. After the baby has eaten, the remaining milk is expressed and stored in the refrigerator.
4. The baby should eat not only fore milk, but also hind milk. The child suckles the breast until it is completely empty. You should not change breasts often.
5. It is not recommended to remove your baby from the breast on your own.
6. Regular feeding has long been outdated. Now the baby is fed on demand. In this case, he will never be hungry.

Liquid stool in a newborn who is fed only breast milk is an acceptable reaction. Parents should observe the smell, color and consistency of stool, and monitor their baby's condition. Any changes should be discussed with your pediatrician.

The adapted mixture affects the baby’s stool: the stool becomes more uniform and dense, sometimes it is characterized as “putty-like.” The smell of stool is more pronounced. Defecation itself occurs much less frequently due to prolonged digestion of the mixture. It is worth noting that a bottle-fed baby is more susceptible to constipation than a baby fed breast milk.

What are the standards?

In order to determine the quality of functioning of the baby’s body, pediatricians pay attention to several important characteristics of his stool, among which the first place is quantity (how much should a child poop on IV) and frequency (how often does defecation occur). It is worth noting that the characteristics of the stool are influenced by many reasons: degree of maturity digestive system, type of feeding, method of delivery, the presence of pathologies and even the psychological atmosphere in the family.

Reasons for deviations

Deviations from the norm can be caused by several reasons:

The importance of normal bowel movements for infants on IV

In the first days after birth, doctors especially carefully question young parents about the characteristics of the baby's stool. This is easy to explain, because any change in the consistency, smell, or color of feces can signal the presence of some pathology in the baby’s body or a lack of nutrition he receives.

• Bright yellow or unnatural orange stool color may indicate liver problems.
• Green feces can be caused by many reasons: dysbacteriosis, jaundice, staphylococcus, infection or even lactose intolerance.

  In the first week of life, green stool (meconium) is normal.

• Dark color of stool or presence of blood streaks in it may be explained by the presence of microcracks in the baby’s anus or bleeding in the upper gastrointestinal tract.
• Colorless feces appears with jaundice or with abnormalities in the structure of the gallbladder.
• Liquid stool with big amount curdled inclusions means that the baby is overeating and his digestive system does not have time to digest food.

If the newborn's stool is not normal and the child has lost his appetite or is restless, then parents should contact their pediatrician. It must be remembered that timely consultation with a doctor will alleviate the baby’s condition.

You should immediately consult a doctor if changes in stool are accompanied by:

1. rash;
2. increased body temperature;
3. continuous monotonous crying;
4. sleep disorders;
5. bloating and seething in the abdomen;
6. reaction to touching the tummy;
7. long regurgitation after eating.

When complaining about changes in a baby’s stool, the pediatrician usually prescribes:

After receiving the tests, the pediatrician can make referrals to more specialized specialists:

1. gastroenterologist;
2. infectious disease specialist;
3. allergist;
4. endocrinologist;
5. surgeon;
6. hematologist.

If nothing bothers the child and he has loose, watery stools, then you can postpone the visit to the doctor for a day. For any other deviation, it is necessary to urgently consult with specialists.

In the first 2-3 days, a newborn's stool consists of a substance called meconium, which is black-green in color, thin and viscous. Then its color becomes yellow-brown. If the baby does not have stool within 2 days after birth, you should consult a doctor.

Stool in a breastfeeding baby

There may be several or even many bowel movements a day. In the first weeks, the newborn may have stool after each feeding. The color is usually light yellow. The consistency of a newborn's stool is usually similar to a thick puree soup or dough and is almost never too hard. In the first 2-3 months, the baby's stool occurs either often or rarely. For some children it happens every day, while for others it occurs only every other day or two. This can frighten a mother who is accustomed to believing that she should have a bowel movement every day. You have nothing to worry about if your baby is doing well. The stool of a breastfed baby remains soft, even after 2-3 days.

It happens that a child has difficulty squeezing out the feces accumulated over 2-3 days, and the consistency is like puree soup. I can only explain this by saying that the stool is so liquid that it does not create enough pressure on the inside of the anus. Usually, when solid foods are introduced into the baby's diet, stools improve. Talk to your doctor, they may recommend introducing solid foods earlier. Two to four spoons of boiled prune puree will help your child. Laxatives are not needed in such cases. Avoid using laxatives or enemas regularly as your child will become accustomed to them. Try to get by with prunes or other solid foods.

Stool in a bottle-fed baby

At first, stool occurs 1-4, and sometimes 6 times a day. The number of bowel movements does not matter if the stool consistency is normal and the child is gaining weight well.

The stool of a baby fed cow's milk is light yellow or beige colour. However, in some newborns, the stool resembles soft scrambled eggs or pieces of cottage cheese in a liquid medium. If your baby is feeling well and gaining weight normally, then you have nothing to worry about.

The most common difficulty that arises with artificial feeding is a predisposition to constipation. In the first months, bottle-fed babies rarely have liquid, greenish or curdled stool. If you increase the amount of sugar in the formula, the quality of the stool will deteriorate. If the newborn's stool is characterized by the mentioned signs, it is necessary to show the child to the doctor as often as possible. Try to completely eliminate sugar from your child’s diet. But, if the child always has somewhat loose stools, but he is cheerful, gains weight well, and the doctor does not find any illness, then you can consider the stool normal.

Changes in stool

You are convinced that if the child is gaining weight well and his stool is always the same, then the consistency and color of the stool does not matter. But, if the stool changes dramatically in quality, you should consult a doctor. If, for example, the stool was viscous and then suddenly became thinner with pieces of undigested food and became more frequent, this could be a sign of indigestion. If the stool has become very liquid, frequent, greenish in color and has a different smell, then this almost certainly means an intestinal disease (diarrhea) in severe or mild form. If there has been no stool for a long time, and then unusually hard and dry stool appears, then sometimes (but not necessarily) this means the onset of a cold or other disease. The fact is that the infection not only reduces appetite, but changes intestinal function. Generally speaking, changes in stool color and frequency are not as important as changes in stool consistency and odor.

Loose stools often contain mucus, the presence of which confirms intestinal disease. Mucus gets into the stool if the child has a runny nose or bronchitis. Healthy newborns often produce a lot of mucus in the first weeks.

When a new type of vegetable is introduced into a child’s diet, some of it may pass into the feces undigested. If at the same time the stool becomes thinner and mucus appears in it, next time give him very little of these vegetables. Otherwise, continue to give the same amount or gradually increase the portions until the child gets used to this type of vegetable. Beetroot can turn your stool red. When exposed to air, stool may turn brown or green. It doesn't mean anything.

Traces of blood on the surface of the stool indicate that there are scratches on the walls of the rectum from too hard stool. Although this is not a disease, still consult a doctor so that your child can be treated for constipation in time. Constipation has harmful effects not only physically, but also mental condition child.

If there is a lot of blood in the stool, which is extremely rare, then the cause may be an abnormal intestinal structure or a severe form of diarrhea, or intussusception. Call a doctor immediately or take your child to a clinic.

Very often, the condition of a small child is assessed by the nature of the stool. Many problems can be solved at the initial stage. To do this, you need to know the norm and deviations for the main indicators: stool frequency, color, consistency. All these characteristics may differ depending on what kind of feeding the baby is on.

The stool of children who are breastfed has its own characteristics.

1. The amount and frequency of stool changes frequently.
2. Having bowel movements up to 12 times a day is not considered a digestive disorder, and the absence of bowel movements for three days is not constipation.
3. After the introduction of complementary foods (not earlier than the sixth month), the baby’s stool depends on the foods eaten, but not on what the mother ate. The diet of a nursing woman does not affect feces.

What stool test result is considered normal?

• The stool is yellow to green in color.
• The presence of bilirubin can be traced up to the 8th month.
• Sourish smell.
• White blood cells, streaks of blood, mucus, and lumps of milk may be present.
• Unformed intestinal microflora.

Key Indicators: What You Need to Know

Stool standards may vary. This depends on the general condition of the baby, what kind of nutrition he receives (formula or breast milk), and whether complementary foods are included in the diet. If the child is breastfed, then the feces have the following norm.

Color can vary from light yellow to brown. For a baby who drinks breast milk, a greenish tint to the stool will be normal.

Feces can change color for several reasons:

Normal stool can have a different consistency, from thick to runny. It is important to distinguish the condition of diarrhea from the norm.

Worrying moments:

• stool becomes watery;
• frequent bowel movements;
• an unpleasant odor appears;
• pronounced green color;
• high body temperature;
• the appearance of vomiting;
• mucus, blood, foam can be observed in the stool;
• the child looks lethargic, drowsy, apathetic.

Parents need to know that if the body temperature rises, the baby’s behavior changes, loss of appetite and poor weight gain, they should immediately consult a doctor.

Baby's feces always contain various impurities

1. A large number of white lumps may indicate that the baby is overeating. There are not enough enzymes to digest all the milk.
2. A small amount of mucus is always present in the stool. In the case when it becomes more, we can talk about the beginning of the inflammatory process. There are several other reasons for the appearance of mucus in the stool of a breastfed baby: improper attachment to the breast, early introduction of complementary foods, infections.
3. Foam may indicate dysbacteriosis, food allergies, or abdominal colic. The appearance of abundant foam indicates an intestinal infection.
4. The appearance of blood in the stool can be a consequence of anal fissures, an inflammatory process in various parts of the gastrointestinal tract, a lack of vitamin K, and helminthiasis.

Changes from birth to one year

If the child is breastfed, the composition of the stool will depend on what the mother ate and on the development of the child’s digestive system. If the mother eats foods that weaken her, the stool will become thinner. And vice versa.

As soon as the baby is born, within three days he passes his first stool - meconium comes out. It has a black color and a viscous composition. After this, the baby will begin to poop with normal feces, which have color of mustard and medium liquid consistency. There may be no stool for several days, since the child has completely emptied the intestines of the contents.

When a baby is breastfed, his stool takes on a greenish tint, liquefies and acquires a sour smell.

Around the second week of life, transitional milk changes to mature milk. The child's digestive organs begin to get used to these changes. Colic and regurgitation are often observed. By the end of the first month, the milk acquires its final composition.

At 1 month, the baby defecates after almost every feeding. At 2 months, the frequency of stool decreases up to 4 times. The norm is yellow color, liquid consistency, milky smell.

The third month is characterized by the fact that the baby may poop every other day. During this period, the composition of breast milk and enzymes in the baby’s intestines change. If your child rarely poops, but does not experience discomfort, you just need to wait out this period.

After the 6th month, changes in stool can be observed. It acquires a more pronounced pungent odor, and the consistency thickens. These changes can occur even if complementary foods have not been introduced. This is due to the fact that the child’s body is preparing for new food and began to produce more enzymes.

It is very important to ensure that the baby sucks not only foremilk, which is a means of quenching thirst for the baby. Hind milk contains all the nutrients, which is more difficult for the baby to get to.

The appearance of green, loose stools indicates that the baby is fed only foremilk. The mother should hold the baby on one breast longer during feeding.

Important points: how to recognize the problem

Problems with stool during breastfeeding can occur for the following reasons:

• feeding the child according to the schedule;
• lack of milk;
• additional water;
• early feeding with formulas;
• early introduction of complementary foods.

If the following symptoms appear, you should seek help from a doctor:

1. Stool more than 12 times a day.
2. Rare urination.
3. Copious, frequent regurgitation.
4. Stomach ache.
5. Bad breath.

How to fix the situation: tips for solving the problem

Constipation in a child can be suspected in the following cases:

• the child has not pooped for more than three days;
• the baby’s behavior becomes capricious, constant crying is observed;
• the child has a hard stomach;
• stool becomes dry and very hard;
• suspicion of abdominal pain in the child (he often bends his legs towards his tummy).

You cannot resort to self-treatment and use of folk advice (thermometer, soap). All these methods can lead to disruption of the intestinal microflora and inflammatory processes. Constipation is rare in breastfed babies. A symptom can be not only a long absence of feces. It becomes hard and dry.

What foods make you weak? The following products will help change the situation: cereals, fruits, boiled vegetables, kefir. Prunes will help improve the digestion process. To do this, a woman should eat about 4 pieces of this dried fruit in the morning on an empty stomach.

Thick stools may occur due to medications that contain iron. They are usually prescribed to mothers in the first months after childbirth to increase hemoglobin.

Another reason that stool is thick is impaired intestinal motility.

The following will help you adjust your chair:

1. placing the baby on his stomach before feeding;
2. sufficient amount of liquid;
3. abdominal massage;
4. gymnastics.

If all these methods do not help, resort to laxatives medicines. What medications are allowed for infants for constipation? Glycerin suppositories or the drug "Microlax" instantly weaken and lead to the desired result.

It is better to exclude from the diet foods that cause increased gas formation and worsen the situation. What foods should you not eat? These are peas, grapes, cucumbers, cabbage. If there are white lumps in the stool, this indicates poor digestion of breast milk. Enzyme preparations, which should only be prescribed by a doctor, help normalize the situation.

Frequent loose stools may occur due to infection in the body.

Dangerous symptoms:

• temperature increase;
• stool becomes very liquid;
• the appearance of copious amounts of blood and mucus;
• lack of weight gain;
• regurgitation, vomiting.

In this case, only medications will help improve bowel movements: antibiotics, antiviral drugs, prebiotics.

Mom should not eat foods that weaken her and lead to increased gas formation. Don't worry and quit. The main thing is to recognize the problem in time and consult a doctor. Self-medication can lead to serious health problems for the baby.

With the birth of a child, a mother has a lot of fears related to the baby’s health and proper care for him. These fears are not difficult to allay.

Young parents look at the contents of a baby's diaper with interest and trepidation... Is this a familiar picture? The stool often causes anxiety in the mother and can really tell about the health and unhealthiness of the baby - you just need to be able to “read between the lines,” that is, understand the signs of the body.

Let's get to know the norm

While the baby lives and develops in the mother's womb, it accumulates in his intestines. meconium. It is a homogeneous tar-like mass of dark olive, almost black color, practically odorless. It consists of condensed cells of the intestinal mucosa, swallowed by the baby amniotic fluid etc. Normally, meconium begins to be released from the baby’s intestines after birth and therefore is also called original feces(sometimes meconium is released in utero: during unfavorable labor or at the very end of pregnancy oxygen starvation the fetus causes premature bowel movement, in which case meconium enters the amniotic fluid and turns it green). The baby's stool is usually represented by meconium in the first two or three days, that is, until the mother produces a large amount of milk. Sometimes it happens that after the bulk of the meconium has passed, say, during the first day, until the mother’s milk arrives, the baby may not have any stool at all. This is due to the fact that the colostrum, which the baby eats in the first few days, is absorbed by the body almost completely, so that there are no toxins left in the intestines - therefore, there is simply nothing to be excreted.

After the mother has established active lactation, the baby’s stool gradually becomes mature, usually passing through a transitional stage. Transitional is called a stool that combines the features of original feces and mature stool; it has a mushy consistency, yellow-green color and a sour odor. Mature the chair is clean yellow, homogeneous mushy consistency (it is often compared to thin sour cream), the smell of sour milk. Its frequency is higher, the higher younger child: in the first weeks after birth, bowel movements can occur after almost every feeding, that is, up to 5-8, and sometimes 10 times per day.

Gradually, stool is reduced to approximately 1-3 times a day, but there is a rare variant of the norm when mother’s milk is so completely absorbed by the baby’s body that almost no undigested residue accumulates in his intestines. In this case, bowel movements can occur once every few days, sometimes even once a week. This is due to the fact that only sufficient filling of the large intestine with waste (undigested food debris) is a signal for contractions of the intestinal walls, leading to emptying. That is why the intestines must first “accumulate” the remains in order to then throw them out. As a rule, this feature of the absorption of mother's milk becomes obvious in babies no earlier than 1.5-3 months. Let's make a reservation: the frequency of stool once every few days can be considered the norm only if three conditions are met: when completely natural feeding(that is, the baby does not receive anything other than mother's milk), at least 1.5 months old and the absence of any signs of ill health - pain and bloating in the abdomen, discomfort and difficulty in bowel movements - that is, when the baby eats well, gains weight correctly weight and nothing bothers him.

Stool with artificial or mixed feeding It may be no different from normal, mature breastfeeding stool, or it may have a more “grown-up”, putrid odor, thicker consistency, and a darker, brownish color. Bowel movements during mixed or artificial feeding should occur at least once a day; anything else is considered constipation.

Now that we have become familiar with the “ideal” course of the process, it is necessary to become familiar with possible deviations from this.

Greens in the chair

It often happens that the “correct” type of stool is not established for a long time, and even against the background of active lactation in the mother, the stool for a long time retains the features of a transitional one, that is, it has a clear greenish tint, sometimes mucus is also found in it. There are several reasons for this.

• Malnutrition(the so-called “hungry” stool). This often occurs due to a lack of milk from the mother. Factors that make it more difficult for a baby to “extract” milk from the breast can also be flat and inverted nipples and tight breasts, especially after the first birth.
• The predominance of fruits and vegetables in the diet of a nursing woman in comparison with other products.
• Inflammation of the intestinal mucosa in a baby. A very common reason for this is fetal hypoxia (oxygen starvation) experienced during pregnancy and/or childbirth. This pathological condition affects many tissues in the body, including the intestinal mucosa, which then takes quite a long time to recover. In addition, inflammation of the intestinal mucosa can be caused by the influence of synthetic substances - flavors, dyes and preservatives and any artificial compounds present in the mother's diet, penetrating into breast milk and affecting directly the intestinal mucosa, i.e. the mother's consumption of products containing synthetic additives: sausages, smoked meats, all types of canned food, industrial juices, dairy products with fruit and other aromatic fillers. Finally, a very common cause of intestinal inflammation is a disruption of the normal intestinal microflora - in other words, intestinal dysbiosis (or dysbiosis), when representatives of the normal microflora become few, but so-called opportunistic microbes multiply, that is, pathogens that, under unfavorable conditions, can cause inflammation in the intestines. In this case, the mucous membrane suffers as a result of the influence of opportunistic microorganisms and their metabolic products. The risk of development increases significantly if the mother and/or baby were prescribed antibacterial drugs.

What to do? If there is greenery in the stool, the first thing to do is to rule out malnutrition in the baby. Of course, in addition to stool disorders, other symptoms will be noted: the baby may show dissatisfaction at the breast, if milk is poorly released from the nipple, he does not fall asleep after feeding and / or never stands more than 1-1.5 hours between feedings, he has the rate of weight gain and growth is reduced. With severe malnutrition, the number of urinations may decrease in a child (normally it is at least 6-8 per day), urine may be more concentrated (normally it is almost colorless and has only a slight odor). Next, you should act according to the situation: if lactation is insufficient - switch to feeding “on demand” or “at the first cry”, put the baby to the breast more often, allow him to stay at the breast as much as he wants, give both breasts at one feeding, be sure to feed breastfeeding overnight, take medications that stimulate lactation. If the cause of malnutrition lies in the irregular shape of the nipples, it may be worth using special nipple shields during feeding. In any case, if you suspect your baby is malnourished, it is better to contact your pediatrician, as well as a lactation consultant.

With artificial feeding, constipation is much more common.

Next, you should carefully check your mother’s diet. All products containing synthetic additives are subject to unconditional exclusion. We should not forget that often the cause of intestinal inflammation in a baby can be synthetic vitamin preparations taken by the mother (including for pregnant and lactating women), so it is necessary to exclude their intake. You should also make sure that the amount of fruits and vegetables in the diet does not exceed other products (these “gifts of the earth” contain a large amount of acids, an excess of which in breast milk can cause inflammation of the mucous membrane in the baby’s intestines).

Now that we have created all possible prerequisites for proper nutrition crumbs, you should be guided by his well-being. If the baby is gaining good height and weight, he is not bothered by abdominal pain and allergic reactions, he is generally healthy and cheerful, interested in the world around him according to his age, then the only symptom - the green color of the stool - can be ignored: most likely, it will reflect the consequences or the presence of intestinal dysbiosis in the baby. In the human body, especially one that has recently been born, everything proceeds according to its own laws and at an individual speed. Colonization of the intestines with the “right” microbes is not a process of one day or even one week, so even in completely healthy children, transitional stool can persist for up to a month or even more. If this does not interfere with the baby’s normal development, you can not interfere with this process. Still, no drug has yet been created for dysbiosis better than breast milk. The only thing that doesn’t hurt to do if there are lingering signs of dysbiosis is to submit the mother’s milk for culture to make sure that it does not contain pathogenic microbes (if any are detected, their sensitivity to antibacterial drugs must be determined, then the mother is treated with the most effective antibiotics for this case - During this period, breastfeeding is usually stopped).

If not everything is fine in the baby’s well-being (for example, he is tormented by intestinal colic, or skin allergic reactions are noted, or he is not gaining enough weight and height), then you should take some tests - a coprogram and a stool flora analysis (or, as they say , for dysbacteriosis). The coprogram will show how the digestion processes are progressing in the intestines and can confirm the presence of inflammation of the mucous membrane (this will be indicated by an increase in the number in the stool, a sharply acidic reaction, and the presence of hidden blood). In a flora analysis, the main attention should be paid to the presence and/or quantity of pathogenic microorganisms - those that should not normally be found in the intestines or the number of which should not exceed certain limits. The number of “friendly” microbes may be completely indicative if the stool is analyzed later than two hours after collection. Since this is exactly what happens in the vast majority of cases, the number of normal microbes in this analysis can be ignored special attention. The detection of pathogenic (disease-causing) microbes (provided that the mother's milk has been analyzed and the mother has been treated, if necessary) is the reason for prescribing special medications to the baby. As a rule, treatment is carried out with phages - special viruses that destroy a certain type of pathogenic microbes and do not affect the flora as a whole. In some cases, antibacterial drugs may be prescribed, taking into account the sensitivity of pathogenic bacteria to them. Treatment is completed with drugs that help restore normal microflora.

White lumps in baby's stool

Sometimes you can see white lumps in the baby’s stool, as if someone had mixed coarse cottage cheese into it. If this symptom is noted against the background of normal physical (gaining weight well and growing), then it is evidence of some overeating: the body receives more nutrients than it needs to satisfy real needs (when the breast is offered not only to satisfy hunger, but also any reassurance). There is absolutely nothing wrong with this, since the baby’s body is perfectly adapted to such “overkill”: it simply throws out the excess in the form of such undigested white lumps. Nowadays, when the policy of feeding “at first cry” has been taken, most healthy children at least from time to time have this feature of their stool. If this symptom is accompanied by a lack of weight or height, especially if this lag worsens, most likely there is an enzymatic deficiency of the digestive glands, which does not allow the incoming nutrients to be properly digested. In this case, a pediatrician or gastroenterologist may prescribe enzyme replacement therapy.

Sometimes you can see white lumps in your baby's stool.

Lactase deficiency

Quite often, parents may encounter that the baby’s stool is liquefied, watery, sometimes foams, has a sharper sour smell, and in some cases a changed color - mustard or greenish. On a cotton diaper, such feces leave a water zone around it. Often, stool is passed in small portions even when gas is passed. An acidic stool reaction often causes stubborn stools. This picture is observed when the digestion of lactose - milk sugar is impaired, when for some reason the amount of lactose entering the intestines with mother's milk exceeds the amount of the lactase enzyme necessary for its digestion. This can either be due to an excess of lactose in milk (hereditary predisposition of the mother , an excess of fresh milk and dairy products in her diet), or with reduced production of lactase by the baby’s digestive glands. Undigested carbohydrates “pull” a large amount of water into the intestinal lumen, which is why stool has a liquefied, watery character.

Often, lactase deficiency is accompanied by intestinal dysbiosis: the acidic reaction of intestinal contents prevents the colonization of the intestines with the correct flora, and the lack of the required amount of beneficial microorganisms, in turn, reduces the ability to digest carbohydrates. If this does not interfere with the baby’s development (as we have already said, its signs are normal increase in height and weight, absence of intestinal colic and persistent diaper rash), this condition can be left without treatment. In the vast majority of cases, lactase deficiency is a transient problem and disappears without a trace with age (by about 9-12 months, the activity of the digestive glands increases so much that the baby’s body can easily cope not only with fermented milk products, but also with fresh milk). Severe and lifelong disorders of lactase production are almost always genetically determined: I should think about this type of hereditary disease if close relatives in the family suffer from lactase deficiency in adulthood. To confirm the diagnosis, in addition to a scatological examination, a stool test for carbohydrates is performed. If lactase deficiency is confirmed, the mother should first adjust her diet: exclude fresh milk; if this step is ineffective, significantly reduce the amount of fermented milk products (the exception is cheese, which contains virtually no milk sugar). If all of these measures fail, your doctor may prescribe lactase replacement therapy.

Constipation in infants

Constipation is considered to be the absence of independent stool for more than a day (of course, except in cases of complete digestion of milk), as well as cases when bowel movements are difficult and accompanied by significant discomfort.

Constipation is quite rare during breastfeeding, and there are two main reasons for it: poor nutrition of the mother and impaired intestinal motility, including spasm of the anal sphincter.

Improper nutrition of the mother is expressed by a tendency towards foods rich in proteins and easily digestible carbohydrates, a lack of dietary fiber. Therefore, if constipation occurs in the baby, the mother should first normalize her diet: give preference to cereals (especially buckwheat, brown rice, oatmeal), whole grains bread, include boiled vegetables in your diet. Some products (peaches, apricots, prunes, dried apricots, figs, boiled beets, fresh kefir) have pronounced laxative properties. In many cases, they will normalize not only your own stool, but also the baby’s stool.

If such measures do not lead to anything, most likely there is a violation of intestinal motility (or, on the contrary, a spasm) and/or a spasm of the anal sphincter. When the sphincter spasms, the passage of gases from the intestines is also difficult, so constipation is often accompanied by severe intestinal colic. Unfortunately, it is almost impossible to combat these conditions with home methods, since they are associated with a violation of the nervous regulation of smooth muscle tone and are consequences of birth trauma or an unfavorable course of pregnancy. If they are accompanied by other symptoms that force you to consult a neurologist (excitability or, conversely, lethargy of the baby, sleep disturbances, weather dependence, disturbances muscle tone etc.), then the treatment prescribed for problems with the central nervous system often helps to improve the situation with constipation. If, in the absence of bowel movements, the baby is bothered by pain and/or bloating in the abdomen, you can try to install a gas tube, which will allow you to gently stimulate the anus . With artificial feeding, constipation, unfortunately, is much more common, since the digestion of infant formula is a great difficulty for the baby's digestive system. In many cases, the situation can be normalized by replacing half of the baby’s daily diet with fermented milk formula (sour milk formulas can be gradually introduced after 3 weeks of life). After 4-6 months of life, you can introduce decoction and puree of prunes into your baby’s diet, which help cope with constipation in most cases.