Pregnancy & Birth
50 shades of poop
This is not the most glamorous of articles but I would've liked to have known this information before I had my baby. I was not a baby person before I had my daughter and I was certainly not into bodily functions. I avoided any situation that involved poo, be it dogs, or other people’s children. Whilst in the hospital following the birth of my daughter, I realized the main thing that the nurses seemed fussed about was ‘what went in and what came out’ of my baby, and me for that matter. As my daughter could not obviously speak to me I suddenly realized that infact, poo was my friend. It was a direct link to my baby’s feelings, problems and a clue as to whether or not I was feeding her properly.
Now, let’s not romanticize about this. Poo is disgusting, even baby poo. Changing your own child’s dirty nappy is not ‘different’ as other parents have told me but still a revolting, smelly prospect. I have however learnt that different poo colour and consistency correlates to different problems. Now please don’t hang on my every word-I am not a doctor, I am not a paediatric bowel movement expert, I am just a new mother trying to figure this motherhood-thing out. I will spare you pictures, you can find plenty of those gems on the internet! So here are my VERY generalized top seven findings and I know there will be plenty more out there:
What the poo is telling you
1. Hard lumps of dark poo-your baby is constipated.
2. Yellow-coloured and seedy poo-normal poo from a breast-fed baby.
3. Biscuit-coloured and thick poo-normal poo from a formula-fed baby
4. Greenish-brown poo-normal if your baby has just started weaning
5. Watery diarrhoea with chunks for two days or more, can cause dehydration.
6. Pinkish-red baby poo-could be from a pink coloured drug or a red-ish food.
7. Dark-green baby poo-could be from an iron supplement in your baby’s diet, in formula milk for example
Hope this is helpful and that you are not reading this over dinner…..:) Nuf said.
Emma knows that it isn't glamourous and certainly not polite dinner conversation but does know that a nappy can be very revealing so here's the dirty truth