Newborn babies don't do much. They cry and sleep. They gaze around some. They eat and spit-up. They pee and poop. Really, that's about it. So it's easy to see why new parents focus on their infant's bowel habits. Of course, relatives are also responsible. Everyone has an Aunt Betty (or maybe it's your Mother-in-law) whose goal in life it is to voice concern about everything. "He poops too much. She doesn't go enough. It's too hard. It's too soft. Why's he always grunting like that?" Often new parents aren't concerned until someone convinces them of a so-called problem.

The trouble with baby poop is the wide-degree of variation. Some infants stool shortly after every feeding, while others go once a week. There's also a wide-range of thickness--from thin liquid to clay patties. And then there's color: yellows, greens, browns, reds, and blacks. Let's take a quick look at each of these factors and discuss what's normal and what's not.

Stool frequency depends on how much stool your baby makes and how quickly the intestine moves it down the pike. The amount of stool is dependent upon two variables--how well your baby's intestine absorbs food and how many bacteria live in the gut. Since a baby's ability to absorb food changes over time, the amount of residue left over also changes. Typically there is more residue to stool out in the first few weeks of life. Then, as your baby's intestine matures, absorption improves and the amount of residue decreases. Thus, babies who used to poop several times a day may slow production down to once every couple days.

On the other hand, bacteria may have the opposite result. As a baby matures, more and more bacteria populate the gut. They are important to the digestion process and are one of the reason baby stool changes in character over the first few months of life. But as their numbers increase, the body eliminates more and more of them in the stool. Stool bulk increases as the number of bacteria increases, and increased stool bulk leads to more frequent bowel movements.

Another factor affecting stool frequency is transit time. Some guts work faster than others. So what's normal? Well, some newborns will have a stool every time they eat, while others will go every few days. If your infant's stools are more than three or four days apart, it may still be alright, but you should give your child's doctor a call and let him know.

Stool consistency is another important consideration. If your baby's stools are always slimy like mucus or thin like water or thick like clay, talk to your doctor. The ideal consistency of newborn stool is like mustard, but some variation on this may be okay.

Also pay attention to color. Bright red usually means blood. Bring this to your doctor's attention right away. Possible causes include milk allergy, a crack in the skin around the anus, or (rarely) a more serious internal problem of the intestinal tract. Black tar-like stool is normal during the first few days of life. But if it remains this way long or becomes this way again, talk to your doctor. It could be a sign of bleeding in the gut.

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