Colour, consistency, odour: let’s talk about children’s poop

With the birth of a child, your relationship to faeces changes. From then on, they’re a recurring theme. Has the baby gone number two today? If so, how many times? What was the colour? The shape? The consistency? And how was the smell? Suddenly, you find yourself chatting about your offspring’s excretions with parents at a cocktail party – and you think it’s perfectly run-of-the-mill. You would never have told intimate toilet tales of yourself in this friend group. Let alone in your relationship. It’s no secret that many people are embarrassed to do the doo in front of their partner – even years into the relationship.

So, while children’s poop is the most normal thing in the world, that of adults leads a sad, smelly, shadowy existence. Seems like a double standard.

Watery and yellow like never before

I ponder all of this as I change my kids' soiled sheets for the fourth night in a row – while simultaneously discussing with my husband the details of our daughters’ stool, both of whom are suffering from a gastrointestinal infection.

We’re especially preoccupied with the two-and-a-half-year-old’s diarrhoea. It’s watery and yellow like we've never seen before. And in the almost six years of parenting we’ve got under our belts, we’ve seen quite a few stool colours and consistencies. Once more, I find myself Googling information on human stool. I compare the contents of our toilet to the poop palette I found online. And feel stupid doing so. I wonder if other mums and dads to this, too...

«We take a whiff anyway»

They do, Lucia Cremer assures me a few days later in a telephone interview. The German paediatric nurse practitioner is an author of baby advice books and runs the info website Babytipps24.de. «My articles on children’s stool get quite a lot of views,» she says. And, according to Lucia, that’s neither a sign of overprotectiveness nor of panic. «A change in bowel movements should always be taken seriously by parents. Even though it’s often harmless, especially in babies.»

With the help of Lucia’s expertise, I hope to explore the question of which stool actually warrants concern. She shares two rules of thumb: First, alarm bells should ring as soon as there’s a change in smell. «If the stool suddenly smells sour, it can be a harbinger of an infection,» she says. «Fortunately, we always unconsciously take a whiff, anyway. That’s our intuitive warning system.» Second, if you have an uneasy feeling regardless of smell, consult a paediatrician. The unwritten rule is that new parents should rely on their instincts. This also applies to faecal matter.

The poop palette

Together, Lucia and I go through the poop colour palette. And I realise it’s bigger than I’d thought. In general, the colour depends on the age of the child and the food they eat, Lucia Cremer explains. «You shouldn’t forget that.»

Dark green-black (newborns)

This is so-called meconium, or a newborn’s first, almost odourless bowel movement shortly after birth. The baby’s intestines still contain what it swallowed back in its mother’s stomach.

Light green to creamy yellow

Whether you breastfeed or bottle-feed your baby, its stools become lighter in colour during the first few weeks of life. «Extra foam is typical for a breastfed child that isn’t sucking well,» the specialist says. If this is the case, you should seek lactation counselling. Bottle-fed infants have bowel movements once a day, explains Lucia Cremer, who also trains specialists for bottle-fed infants. «In the case of breastfed babies, on the other hand, it’s normal that they go a few days without having a bowel movement.»

Green

Around the fourth to sixth month of life, you may introduce complementary foods. From then on, your baby’s diaper will also contain the colours of these foods. Spinach, for example, is responsible for greenish stool, as are iron supplements. «However, green stool can also be indicative of a stomach bug or cold.» Lucia clarifies that the presence of a slightly sour smell is decisive in this case.

Yellow

In combination with a sour smell, this too could be indicative of an infection of the gastrointestinal tract or another disease. If symptoms such as abdominal pain or diarrhoea are present in addition to the yellow stool, consult your paediatrician. Sometimes eggs or dairy products can also cause a yellow colour.

Red

If the stool is red, you may get a scare. However, it could also just be beetroot. «Blood would be at the top,» says Lucia Cremer. And, if present, parents should immediately consult a paediatrician. «Even if there’s the tiniest drop of blood in urine.»

Black

Iron supplements could be to blame for black poop. Very rarely, it may also be intestinal bleeding. Aside from meconium, black stool is always a reason to see a specialist, says Lucia Cremer.

Clay-coloured to whitish

The expert also advises seeking medical advice in the case of very light-coloured stools. There are many possible reasons for this. Low bile is one possible explanation. Sometimes, however, simple anti-diarrhoeal medications are the culprit. Or high-calcium water, in the case of a bottle-fed baby.

«Not a foul-smelling, sticky monstrosity»

I spend three quarters of an hour talking to the paediatric expert and baby blogger about all the textures and colours of children’s poop – and not once do I feel any hint of disgust. We might as well be talking about the latest toy trend or baby clothes. If, on the other hand, we were to dissect adult excrement in such detail, I’d probably find myself switching between shame and the gag reflex.

«Adult stool really is a big taboo topic,» confirms Lucia Cremer. Wrongfully so, in her eyes. «It shouldn’t just be dismissed as a foul-smelling, sticky monstrosity.» She’d like to see a more relaxed societal approach to the topic. So, she regularly recommends that her students read the bestselling book «Darm mit Charme» (English edition: Gut: The Inside Story of Our Body’s Most Under-Rated Organ) to chip away at any inhibitions.

«Digestion is a billion-dollar business; we see so many ads every day with remedies for the gut. And yet we still can’t speak about it openly,» Lucia Cremer points out. She adds: in geriatric care – as with children – the topic again becomes omnipresent.

From public to powder room

This really is absurd, especially given the fact that bowel movements clearly weren’t always a taboo subject. The ancient Romans, for example, squatted in so-called latrines to do their business – next to each other and without any screens. In the Middle Ages, people shamelessly relieved themselves in the open street or fertilised the fields with their faeces. And today, we lock ourselves in a cubicle and call it the «powder room»... But let’s not get into the details. After all, my colleague has already recounted the history of the toilet in an article.

After laundering bedsheets for the fifth time, one visit to the paediatrician and lots of biscuits and pretzels, my daughters’ misadventure has luckily come to an end (as have my nerves). At least until the next infection. But then I’ll have the poop palette in mind as I peer into the toilet.