Poop is a window into the body. Its different colors and textures-and the food that comes out-can give you a clue as to what’s going on inside.
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Sometimes poop is healthy. Sometimes it’s not. But one thing is certain-it’s always changing. This is why hosts Alok Patel and Bethany Van Delft are here to guide you through your child’s poop evolution (by recreating it in the kitchen!).
Meconium is one of the first poops a newborn will make, and it’s made up of all the things they ingested in utero, including intestinal cells, amniotic fluid, and bile-and even the hair they grow, shed, and consume inside the womb. Meconium is dark, tar-like, sticky, and “hard to wipe off,” Bethany says. And it indicates an infant’s intestines are up and running.
Meconium doesn’t last for long, though: Once babies are no longer consuming the same things they did in utero, they eventually graduate to passing “transitional stool.” This stool is a little more consistent. It’s yellow, produced when a baby consumes breastmilk or formula, and, thanks to the baby’s gut bacteria doing a little bit of lifting, it’s a bit more solid. And new parents, rejoice: “It doesn’t smell bad,” Bethany says.
As time goes on, yellow, somewhat liquidy transitional stool can change to look either a bit looser or darker. This all depends on whether or not your child is breastfed. “Breast milk has a natural laxative to it,” so breastfed babies have lighter, seedier-looking stools, Alok explains. Formula poop might stink a little bit more, but not much.
Once your little one starts eating solid foods, their poop should become denser, “like poop you see in the subway,” says Bethany. It’s darker, heavier, much smellier, and inconsistent (depending on what your child has eaten recently) in texture. By this point, your baby’s poop-and their intestines-are well-evolved and working.
PRODUCTION CREDITS:
Hosted by: Alok Patel and Bethany Van Delft
Producer/Director: Ari Daniel
Producer/Camera: Emily Zendt
Production Assistance: Diego Arenas, Christina Monnen, Arlo Pérez, Madeline Weir, Amanda Willis
Senior Digital Editor: Sukee Bennett
Rights Manager: Hannah Gotwals
Business Manager: Elisabeth Frele
Managing Producer: Kristine Allington
Coordinating Producer: Elizabeth Benjes
Director of Audience Development: Dante Graves
Director of Public Relations: Jennifer Welsh
Legal and Business Affairs: Susan Rosen and Eric Brass
Director, Business Operations and Finance: Laurie Cahalane
Executive Producers: Julia Cort and Chris Schmidt
Scientific consultants:
Kyle Staller, MD, MPH & Claire Zar-Kessler, MD
Archival:
Shutterstock & Storyblocks
Sound Effect:
cetsoundcrew / flickr / CC BY 3.0
Music:
APM
© WGBH Educational Foundation 2021