Diaper Dilemma

Your baby’s diaper contains important clues to her well-being; here’s the scoop on poop to help you decode these hints.

Parents with a new bundle of joy will naturally want to ascertain that baby is healthy and if there are sudden changes that require a doctor’s immediate attention. This can be tricky, as babies aren’t equipped to communicate their needs clearly. In those early days, pretty much all they can do is drink milk, sleep, cry, and poop.

Thankfully, your baby’s poop is actually a great indicator of their health. Hiding in baby’s diaper is a wealth of information that can clue you in to the state of their well-being. With babies having anything from one to eight bowel movements a day, that’s a lot of poop to keep track of.

Anything from the frequency of their bowel movements to what their poop looks and smells like can be a useful indicator of their health, but there’s a surprisingly wide variety of poo—and it can differ based on whether you’re feeding your little one with breast milk or formula. On top of that, poop can vary from baby to baby, and decoding that information can be tricky. That’s why we’ve gathered a handy primer to simplify the language of poop for you.

The Norm For Newborns

Within the first 36 hours of birth, you should notice a dark-green or greenish-black, sticky, and tar-like poop in your baby’s diaper. Called meconium, this is a baby’s first stool, which built up in her intestines while she was in the womb. Meconium can be hard to wipe off your baby’s bottom – seasoned moms and nannies swear by olive oil as an easy and effective way to clean your baby’s tender skin. Some even apply olive oil before baby’s first poop to make the process easier.