How to Know When Breastfeeding is Going Well, pt. 3: Baby’s Stools

The first stools your baby passes are meconium. These are black, tarry, and sticky and are not made from your milk; they were in your baby’s intestines before birth. Passing the meconium quickly is important in preventing exaggerated newborn jaundice. Fortunately, colostrum has a laxative effect, which causes meconium to pass very naturally during normal breastfeeding.

When your baby is breastfeeding well, your baby’s stools should begin to change from black to greenish (called transitional stools) by day 3 or 4. If a baby is still passing black meconium stools after day 4, it’s time to take your baby for a weight check. Note: If she has lost more than 10% of birth weight, find skilled breastfeeding help to evaluate what needs adjusting because your baby is at risk for underfeeding.

By day 5, your baby’s stool should turn yellow. In a nutshell, if breastfeeding is going normally, at a minimum, you should see the following:

*day 1: one stool (black)

*day 2: two stools (black)

*day 3: three stools (black or greenish)

*day 4: three to four stools (greenish or yellowish)

If you’re keeping track of your baby’s stools, which the authors* recommend, keep in mind that in order to count, a baby’s stool should be the size of a US quarter or larger. Smaller stools are fine (and your baby will have different sized stools); they just don’t count.

If your baby’s stool turns to greenish or yellow ahead of schedule that’s great. It just means that breastfeeding is going especially well.

Often new parents are surprised by the appearance of a breastfed baby’s normal stools. They look nothing like adult stools and, fortunately, they smell nothing like them either. Normal stools of a breastfed baby are very loose. Some compare them to the consistency of split pea soup, with lot of liquid and some curds. They may also look seedy or completely watery. Both are normal. They may also vary in color.

Due to the healthy effect of human milk on a baby’s gut, when babies are exclusively breastfed, their stools have a mild, inoffensive scent. Once a baby receives any other food, his gut flora changes and so the fragrance of her stools.

*From Breastfeeding Made Simple, Mohrbacher and Kendall-Tackett, 2010.