Adults without children are often amazed at how passionate, persistent and interested young parents can be about the contents of their baby's nappy. They sniff, compare and describe it in detail. As disconcerting as it may be for some people, the contents of the nappy are actually meaningful and change amazingly quickly in the course of a baby's life. We, at NUK, also take a close look (and sniff) because the nappy oracle tells us a lot of interesting things about your baby's life, nutrition and health.
COLOURFUL AND SOLID
If your child mainly eats solids, the stool can take on all kinds of colours. This depends on what was on the menu. The consistency is then more solid. And the smell is no longer so "baby-sweet".
GREEN, FOAMY, PUNGENT SMELL
If the stool fits this description and is still like this the next day, it may indicate an infection. Time to visit the paediatrician. The same applies with diarrhoea. A doctor should also be consulted in the case of constipation or if your baby is in pain during bowel movements.
YELLOWISH, SOLID AND STINKY
By the way, babies who are given formula from the beginning do not have projectile poop. Here, too, yellowish but firmer stools lands in the nappy. But you can recognise the formula stool, even blindfolded, by its intense smell.
YELLOW AND SOFT
When your baby gets what is called mature breast milk, the poop changes too. All shades of yellow and consistencies from soft to liquid are now normal in the nappy.
LIGHT GREEN AND LIQUID
"Projectile poop" - that's what midwives call the light green, liquid droplets that can sometimes shoot metres across the room. No joke. After the first breast milk - colostrum - there is another type of milk that is produced for about two weeks. It's what makes your baby's stool so light and "bubbly".
BLACK AND TOUGH
It's black, it's tough and somehow has nothing in common with a poo. But: it's completely normal. This excretion, called "meconium"(mec for short), is your baby’s first bowel movement. If it appears within 48 hours of birth, then the intestines are working optimally. But even if you have to wait a little longer for this viscous mass, there is no reason to worry.