The scoop on poop! Understanding what your child’s poo is telling you

When you become a parent, you quickly realise that the contents of your little one’s nappies tell a story of what is going on inside. The colour of your child’s poo can reveal a lot about their digestion and their overall health. As a mother of three and with 30 years of experience as a family naturopath, here is what I have learned about poo (!) and why it is so vital to understand what each colour tone means. 

It might not seem that glamorous to talk about your little one’s bowel movements, but understanding what’s normal (and what’s not) can help you spot any niggling issues early on, and also give you the agency to seek out medical help or to work on their gut health through diet and supplements.

Why colour matters

The colour of your child’s poo reflects how well their digestive system is working and how balanced their gut microbiome is. Optimal digestion and a healthy gut microbiome support immunity, nutrient absorption and even brain development. And disruptions in the gut from medications such as antibiotics, antacids like omeprazole, or a C-section birth can affect digestive function and microbial balance.

Since a healthy gut microbiome is linked to better sleep and more settled, cuddly and smiley babies, as well as happier and more robust children, paying attention to poo colour is more than a parent’s curiosity – it’s a window into understanding your child’s overall health as well as demeanour.

Stool colours demystified

Here’s is the lowdown on what the different poo colours mean:

The first couple of days – meconium

In the first couple of days after birth, your baby will pass a sticky, tar-like substance into their nappy called meconium which looks black or dark green.

This is entirely normal and shows that your baby’s digestive system is clearing out everything they ingested in the womb, like amniotic fluid and skin cells.

Mustard yellow – the gold standard for newborns

After meconium is passed, breastfed babies usually produce mustard-yellow stools that are soft and sometimes look a bit seedy. This is what it should look like, and it should be the consistency of toothpaste. If you see ochre coloured poos at this stage, it is a sign of healthy digestion and a thriving gut microbiome.

Formula-fed babies will probably have slightly darker tan coloured stools or light brown poos, which is also perfectly normal.

Green poo – when to take note

Poo can be dark green or khaki green for several reasons:

In babies

• A foremilk/hindmilk imbalance in breastfeeding. When a baby gets more of the thinner, lower-fat foremilk from the front of the breast and not enough of the richer, higher-fat hindmilk from the back, the poo might go green. This can happen if feeds are very short, the baby is switched between breasts too quickly, or there is an oversupply of milk causing the baby to fill up on foremilk.
• From certain hypoallergenic milk formulas such as Nutramigen or Neocate (it also smells like potato).

And in all age groups

• Mild gut irritation due to a minor intestinal infection or a reaction to a food.
• Occasionally, green poo is linked to viral infections and will go away once the virus is over.

If your baby is otherwise happy and feeding well, green poo is usually not a reason to be alarmed. But if it persists alongside other symptoms that are worrying you, then it is important to check in with your GP.

Pale or chalky – a red flag

Very pale yellow, grey or chalky white stools can indicate a problem with bile flow or liver function in your little one, and this needs urgent medical attention. So head straight to your doctor and don’t wait and see. This can sometimes be a one-off, but it is still important to seek medical advice if you ever notice this.

Yellow and greasy – malabsorption

Once a baby has been weaned onto solids and has reduced their milk intake, you will start to see their poo change colour from baby yellow to a mid-brown or hazelnut brown. It should remain hazelnut brown throughout childhood and into adulthood.

However, if your child’s poo looks yellow and greasy , it may mean fat isn’t being absorbed properly. A medical doctor should check persistent greasy stools to check for Coeliac disease and other forms of malabsorption.

Hazelnut brown – the perfect poo!

This is the colour you are aiming for in an ideal world, with one to three long ‘sausage-shaped’ stools being passed once or twice a day.

And even better, it should be formed enough to be able to roll off the nappy and into the loo with only light marks left on the nappy (unless they have been sitting in it for a little while!) or clean after one or two wipes of loo paper.

Black – watch out

Black poo may be due to iron supplementation if your child has been recommended to take additional iron on top of their diet. The poo might also temporarily become black if you give them activated charcoal for an upset tummy.

If you see red streaks in their poo and it looks black, think back to up to two days prior to the bowel movement and ask yourself if your child had eaten any beetroot? If not, the black poo or red streaks might be blood, and it is vital to seek medical care as soon as possible to get things checked out.

Speckled or multi-coloured – maldigestion

Finding undigested food particles in your child’s poo is a flag for maldigestion or poor absorption of nutrients. It is totally normal to see raisins and sweetcorn as they are indigestible, but if you are seeing more undigested food like carrots, spinach or chunks of meat, then this could suggest poor digestive enzyme activity. Again, this needs to be checked out by a medical doctor or a nutritional therapist specialising in baby gut health.

Much of the time it might simply mean that your baby needs their food better blended or very softly cooked until their gut is mature enough to digest larger chunks of food. At other times, they might need more help with their digestion using digestive aids such as cooled herbal teas and digestive enzymes.

When to seek medical help

Here are the scenarios when you should seek medical support for your child at any age:

• When you see blood or slimy mucus in the stool.
• Persistently pale yellow (ochre coloured) or chalky white colour.
• Ongoing greasy or explosive stools.
• Sudden changes in bowel movements combined with distress or poor feeding patterns.

Easy steps for a happy tum

If your child seems to be quite gassy and their poo is not quite right after an infection, or they have eaten a food that has not suited them, then the first port of call is to add in a live bacteria supplement.

Look out for products which contain at least one or two of the following strains to help repopulate their gut: Limosilactobacillus reuteri (used to be known as Lactobacillus reuteri), Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG, Bifidobacterium animalis lactis, Bifidobacterium bifidum, Bifidobacterium longum and Bifidobacterium breve which are the key bacteria experts have found to help cultivate a healthy gut microbiome in children.

Vitamin D can also be given from birth and helps to promote a healthy gut microbiome in babies and older children.

Once your child is eating food, then you can also feed them bone broth in soups or stews which is very soothing on the tummy. Other gentle and soothing tummy foods are lamb, millet and pear as well as ginger.

From 6 months plus, babies and children can also take an omega – 3 fish oil supplement which again helps to populate a diverse and healthy gut microbiome and helps to soothe an inflamed tummy.

And of course, don’t forget to feed them a wide range of fruits, vegetables, ground nuts, ground seeds, beans, herbs and spices, to help create a healthy gut environment.

Round up

Good gut health is fundamental to your youngster’s wellbeing now and in the future, and the contents of their nappies or what they leave behind in the loo can tell you a great deal about what is going on inside.

If you have concerns about your child’s gut health, then our clinical team at NatureDoc can run a gut function and gut microbiome test and also explore food intolerances which might be upsetting their tummy. So, get in touch if you need a helping hand.

References

• Bowel function in a prospective cohort of 1052 healthy term infants up to 4 months of age
• Understanding your baby’s poo
• Seeding the Infant Gut in Early Life—Effects of Maternal and Infant Seeding with Probiotics on Strain Transfer, Microbiota, and Gastrointestinal Symptoms in Healthy Breastfed Infants
• Growth, Gastrointestinal Tolerance and Stool Characteristics of Healthy Term Infants Fed an Infant Formula Containing Hydrolyzed Whey Protein (63%) and Intact Casein (37%): A Randomized Clinical Trial
• On the Clinical Significance of Colourless or Clay-coloured Stools unaccompanied by Jaundice, and their connection with Disease of the Pancreas; and on the part played by the Pancreas in Eliminating Bile from the Intestines  
• Mayo Clinic Baby Stool Color
• The development of a neonatal stool colour comparator
• Relationships between baby feeding types and patterns, gut transit time of meconium and the incidence of neonatal jaundice
• Colour and spectral reflectance of stools from normal neonatal babies