Ever since the baby was born, one thing has made mothers and fathers nervous. That is… the soul torture from \”the frequency of bowel movements\” ▼■ My baby is 2 months old. Is it too frequent to poop 3 or 4 times a day? ■ My baby didn’t poop all day yesterday. Is he constipated? ■ How many times a day is it normal for breast-fed and formula-fed babies to poop? Regarding the issue of how many times a day infants and young children have bowel movements, many new parents would like to have a small notebook to write down their child\’s bowel movements. If there is a slight discrepancy, they will worry whether it is diarrhea, indigestion, or constipation. Seriously, friends~ don’t be so strict with your baby. Because the standard of judgment you firmly believe in may be wrong. As for how many times a day is normal for a baby to poop? What are the stool characteristics of babies fed breast milk, milk powder or mixed feeding? Is the frequency of bowel movements really a criterion for judging a baby’s health? Let Doudehui reveal the truth to all you mothers and fathers! How many times a day is normal for a baby to poop? The normal daily defecation pattern for babies is… no pattern. In fact, in medicine, there is no absolute standard for how many times infants and young children should defecate every day. As long as the baby eats well, grows and develops normally, and his weight and height are within the normal range, it is not abnormal whether he puffs once a day, several times a day, or even only three times a week. If I have to talk about a standard, it’s not like there isn’t one. It\’s just that mothers and fathers don\’t need to be rigid, they just need to look at the frequency of their baby\’s bowel movements in a Buddhist way. How many times a day does a breastfed baby poop? Breastfed babies have irregular bowel movements, with varying frequency. Generally, it is normal if the stool is within 4 times a day and has a golden paste shape (it will turn green or dark green if you take anti-jaundice medicine) without mucus, pus or blood. Some babies will defecate 4 to 8 times a day. Parents, don’t worry, because as long as the baby is not feeling unwell and the stools look normal, more frequent defecation is not considered abnormal. At this time, some parents asked: When will breastfed babies have more regular bowel movements? Generally speaking, after breastfeeding babies add complementary foods, their frequent bowel movements and loose stools will be improved. By the time they are 1 year old, they can basically maintain a regular bowel movement of 1 to 2 times a day. Another point is that breastfed babies rarely suffer from constipation, because babies can absorb almost everything in breast milk and have very little waste, so it is normal to defecate once every three days. How many times a day does a formula-fed baby poop? For babies fed with milk powder, it is normal to defecate 1 to 2 times a day, and no more than 3 times. Compared with breastfed babies, the feces of formula-fed babies are harder, yellower, and smellier. Sometimes the baby\’s stool will turn green. This is because the iron content in the milk powder is high and the baby does not absorb it completely. So don\’t think that it is caused by cold as soon as you see the baby\’s stool turning green. In addition, the stool of babies fed with milk powder is hard, so in addition to frequent feeding of water, complementary foods must be added on time after the baby is six months old, so that the baby can eat more vegetables, fruits, and crude fiber foods to prevent dry stool. How many times a day does a mixed-fed baby poop? For babies who drink both breast milk and milk powder, there is no standard for the frequency and characteristics., the color is darker or lighter, and the frequency of bowel movements changes with the different ratio of breast milk and milk powder. As for the stool characteristics, it is the same as that of a baby fed with milk powder. It may be softer than a baby fed with pure milk powder. It is considered normal if the frequency of defecation is less than 3 times a day. The standard for judging normality is not the number of bowel movements. Don\’t think that your baby has constipation if he has no bowel movements for a day, and don\’t think that his baby has diarrhea if he has multiple bowel movements in a day. Because there are individual differences for babies, there is no specific number of bowel movements. It mainly depends on whether the stool characteristics are normal. If you have the following symptoms, constipation is suspected: ▼❶ Struggling to defecate, or crying because of difficulty in defecation; ❷ Small, hard, dry, and difficult defecation; ❸ Inability to defecate and accompanied by bad breath and loss of appetite. ; ❹ Abdominal bloating caused by not defecating for a long time. Every baby\’s defecation situation is different. Some babies don\’t defecate for two or three days, but fortunately, the defecation time is regular, the defecation is smooth, and the stool is moderately soft and hard. This is not constipation. However, although some babies have high defecation frequency, it is difficult to defecate every time, so this may be constipation. Diarrhea is suspected if the following symptoms appear ▼❶ The frequency of defecation suddenly increases, the color and smell are very different from usual, accompanied by a sense of urgency, abdominal discomfort, defecation incontinence and other symptoms; ❷ The stool is watery and contains a large amount of milk The water content of the stool exceeds 85%; ❸ Due to excessive defecation, the baby refuses to eat, has sunken eye sockets and fontanels, and has symptoms of suspected dehydration such as decreased tears, saliva, and urine output. He must seek medical attention as soon as possible; ❹ The height and weight are not up to standard. This situation occurs firstly due to excessive stool frequency due to infection, indigestion, lactose intolerance and other reasons; secondly due to reduced stool frequency due to insufficient feeding. Both of these will cause slow growth in height and weight. In short, changes in bowel movement frequency do not indicate any problem. As long as the baby is in good spirits, has an appetite, is growing well in height and weight, has normal stool frequency and characteristics, and does not have strenuous defecation, there is no need to worry or intervene, just feed normally.
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