Many people wonder how many days meconium leaves in newborns. We will understand in this article.
With the birth of a baby, the life of parents changes radically, and the well-being of the child and his health becomes the most important concern. Very often, young mothers do not know what condition is the norm for a newborn, and therefore they are constantly afraid of something. In order to be less nervous for no reason and at the same time not to miss the signs of the disease, it is necessary to study in advance the specific physiological processes of the baby just born.
Good digestion
The baby’s good digestion is closely linked to his well-being and health. Where does it come from? The stool of a baby that has just been born undergoes changes and has several stages before it takes on the shape and color of the bowel movements we are used to seeing. It all starts with meconium. What is this? What is the timing of its appearance? And are there any pathologies directly related to the departure of meconium?
What should be the first baby chair?
Mekonium is a special primordial feces, the one that comes out of the intestine in the form of feces the very first . In its characteristics, meconium is significantly different from the future feces of the baby. It is very sticky, viscous, practically odorless, the color scheme is mainly of a deep dark green hue, reaching almost black (worth mentioning, mekonion in Greek means “poppy”).
Primary stool and its composition are directly determined by intrauterine life, as a result of which fragments of bile, digested epithelial cells, prenatal hair, amniotic fluid, mucus in small quantities and, naturally, water can be found in meconium.
Meconium sterility
It is generally accepted that the stool of a baby is almost completely sterile in the first three to four hours after birth, later colonization of the intestinal flora, including the intestine itself, occurs. But not so long ago, a group of Spanish scientists studied meconium and proved that lactobacilli, as well as a number of intestinal microorganisms, are present in the first feces.
The meconium mass indices in newborns range from sixty to one hundred grams, its acidity is 6 pH.
When is meconium excreted?
So, in what time frame does the body get rid of the first portion of feces processed by it? Normally, its contents are removed from the intestine on the first day, that is, from the third to twentieth hours after birth. But on the second and third day, feces is called transitional, since it includes the remains of meconium and digested pieces of incoming food - a mixture or colostrum. At first, individual impurities and veins become noticeable in it, but then the child’s stool gradually changes and becomes gruel or liquid yellow.
Is it possible to facilitate the release of meconium from the child's body? Yes, if from the very beginning the mother will put it to her breast. You should know that colostrum released in the first days of feeding is, in essence, thick mucus, which is saturated with nutrients and has a slight laxative effect. Children attached to the chest in the first hours of their life, it is much easier to defecate.
How is meconium washed?
This is not easy to do. To wash the sticky texture, running water alone is not enough. In order to solve the problem, you can use oil for newborns or cream, which is applied under the diaper. In this case, things will accelerate significantly, and it will be possible to easily clean the baby’s tender ass with water or a damp cloth.
Characteristic of a normal baby stool
So, meconium in newborns how many days comes out? By seven days after the birth of the baby, his stool should already return to normal, that is, acquire a yellow color and a mushy consistency, but in reality there may be other options that are not related to deviations.
- Color. The stool of a newborn can include all shades of yellow. It may also be a greenish tint if a high degree of bilirubin is observed. In addition, a sour smell, green color and impurities can occur due to the immature nature of the digestive system and liver. All this refers to the options for the norm and should pass over time.
- Consistency. In a newborn, stool can be either liquid or thick. It is considered normal in any case: if it is watery and leaves a yellow stain on the diaper and is thick, resembling sour cream in consistency.
- Impurities. In the stool of the newborn, normal may be a variety of veins, impurities and lumps. All this will be eliminated after the final establishment of the digestive process.
- The frequency of bowel movements is the main reason why inexperienced mothers worry and break their heads. However, in fact, the frequency of the stool is purely individual. Mostly in the first days of the baby’s life, his stool can be quite frequent, later it becomes increasingly rare, and at the end of the first month its full establishment takes place. The frequency of stool is determined by intestinal motility, the specificity of digestion, the presence of the desired microflora in the body and a large number of other properties, so normally a newborn can have any frequency of bowel movements, but usually their number reaches five to ten during the day. The main indicator is the well-being of the child. If he is active, cheerful and eats chest well, sleeps soundly, does not suffer from gas jokes, then everything is all right with him, and such a frequency depends on his individual characteristics.
However, various pathological conditions are possible. Consider them.
Meconium ileus
Very rarely, meconium is so viscous that it causes clogging of the ileum. Such obstruction is due to the failure of the pancreas, which in full does not produce enzymes that contribute to a decrease in the density of meconium. Mostly meconium ileus is associated with cystic fibrosis, that is, a serious hereditary disease, which is accompanied by a defect in respiratory functions. Such a disease is prevalent in one infant per twenty thousand.
It is very easy to recognize the symptoms that characterize meconium ileus: feces are absent on the first or second day, the stomach swells, accompanied by edema of the surrounding epidermal integument, vomiting contains an admixture of greenery and bile. But it is not easy to diagnose pathology with accuracy, often this happens already during the operating procedure. Talk about intestinal obstruction is possible only after radiography with a suspension of barium.
At first, they try to help the baby and put an enema, for example, with a three percent solution of pancreatin, due to which there is a rarefaction of feces. In the absence of the proper effect of such procedures, surgical intervention is required.
There is aspiration with meconium.
Aspiration syndrome
Another problem is associated with such a condition when meconium enters the baby's lungs. This can happen before childbirth, and during them. So, in the amniotic fluid, meconium is found in the case of transplantation of pregnancy. If labor is prolonged, there is always a danger of developing asphyxia or hypoxia. Such conditions are extremely terrible, since carbon dioxide accumulated in the circulatory system irritates the brain respiratory centers, the child reflexively takes the first breath in the womb, and there is a danger of swallowing water. When contaminated with meconium, it penetrates the respiratory organs, and this can cause severe pneumonia.
If a newborn has swallowed clean or contaminated water, the airways are cleaned and then his condition is carefully monitored to prevent the development of pneumonia or to treat it in time.
Thus, the state of meconium is a very important sign of the baby’s health. Most often, no problems arise with it, only in rare cases may resuscitation be required to restore the respiratory or digestive functions of the crumbs.
Now we know how much meconium is released in newborns.