PEE/POOP/SPITTING OUT

HERE IS WHAT TO EXPECT ON YOUR BABY’S URINE FREQUENCY AND COLOR DURING THE FIRST WEEK OF LIVING:

How often a newborn baby can be expected to pee actually changes rapidly during their first week of living. And so does the expected color of the pee!

 

NEWBORN PEE DURING THE FIRST FEW DAYS AFTER BEING BORN

A newborn baby doesn’t eat or drink much at all. During the first couple of days outside the womb, a baby will start out with drinking only very small amounts of breast milk or formula and hence will have no need to pee very much either.

  • During your baby’s first 24 hours, it may very well be that your baby only urinates once.
  • On day 2, you can probably expect 2 wet (but not very heavy) diapers. (If this means that your baby actually only peed twice or peed many times but only enough to wet two diapers, is impossible to know because a baby has no bladder control and may pee in very tiny amounts often.)
  • On day 3 – 3 diapers.
  • On day 4 – 4 wet diapers.

When checking your baby’s diapers during these first few days, you may also be surprised (or scared) by the color of the urine.
Newborn babies often produce pink or orange-colored urine. This is normal and NOT blood. (See a sample diaper below) The color is caused by urate crystals, a byproduct of bilirubin and completely normal. It can even be that you can see actual crystals or something resembling power, which is comprised of the crystals.
The intensity of the color is likely to level off quickly. If red-orange on the first day, the urine should be slightly more pale orange on day 2. The color will then continue to shift towards normal pale yellow urine color by day 5.



Urate Crystals In Newborn Diaper

If the color of your baby’s urine is not becoming paler day by day, or if your baby’s peeing frequency isn’t increasing, your baby needs more fluid. Make sure you breastfeed on demand or offer formula more often. Also, check with your baby’s health care provider at any doubts on your newborn baby’s wellbeing.

 

NEWBORN PEE HABITS FROM DAY 5 AND ON

At around 5 or 6 days old, your baby is likely to have started breastfeeding (or formula feeding) more often and in greater amounts. By then, most babies will wet 6 to 8 heavy diapers per 24 hours.
Breastfed babies may also start pooping very frequently – even as often as after every feeding or more.

 

HOW MUCH A BABY SHOULD BE PEEING?

How much a baby generally urinates is hard to tell and varies with the age of the baby and individually. Here are some guidelines to urine frequency in infants:

  • For newborn babies, a rule of thumb is that they should produce 6-8 heavy diapers per 24 hours after a few days of living. Since such young babies have very small bladders, it probably means that they will pee one to several times per hour. During the very first few days of living,newborn babies will not pee very much. For young babies, 1-3 hours in between peeing is seen as normal according to NIH (The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development).
  • Older babies are likely to pee less often since they both have larger bladders and eat solid foods. A urination frequency of 4-6 hours (or more often) is then normal.
  • At some point, your baby is going to start gaining some degree of bladder control, and then he or she is even more likely to urinate less often.
  • In very hot weather, a baby might pee less frequently, just like adults.

 

POOP  PARAMETERS

You’ve no doubt heard that breastfed babies pass golden yellow tooth pasty stools at every feeding, but again, this becomes true only after about the first week. Immediately postpartum, babies produce a thick, black tar-like stool called meconium(this may happen in the hospital, so you may not see it). Then as breast milk and/or formula begin to make their way through the system, the stools become brown and pasty. Formula-fed babies will continue to poop this way (though it becomes more formed, and the color may vary), while breastfed babies will go on to the thinner, yellow, seedy variety.

Again, many breastfed babies have a bowel movement during or after almost every feeding.. Formula-fed babies are definitely less frequent poopers, and may even go as little as every few days. Babies may also be loud poopers, occasionally straining, grunting and getting very red-faced—all of this can add up to major anxiety in new parents. Like adults, infants are unique in their bowel habits, and your paediatrician is likely to dismiss your concerns. As long as the poop is soft , your baby is quite normal. The bowel movements of the babies who are breastfed vary widely. Some babies may not pass stool for four to five days in a row while others may do it after every feed.

Colostrum, which is your first milk, is very essential for newborns as it protects them from various infections and also acts as a laxative. The meconium is present in the baby’s intestine before birth. The colostrum which is a thick yellow milk will help to push meconium out of your baby’s body. In the days following that, once your milk starts to come in, the stools will still be a mixture of meconium and milk bi-products and will continue to have a tinge of green and yellow. Gradually it will normalize. If the baby is breastfed, the stools are normally light yellow with tiny seed-like particles and have a slightly sweet smell to it. Sometimes newborn stools are confused with diarrhea because of the texture.

Baby’s Poop  on Formula-Feeding?

If you are bottle feeding your baby, then they will pass stool few times in a day but then like we said earlier, every baby is different so is their pooping pattern. Formula fed babies can pass stool several times per day or can poop once every other day. If the baby is formula-fed, the stools may be dark or yellow and firmer. His poop may  have toothpaste like consistency, will be bulkier like that of an adult and may have a strong smell to it. Since formula milk is not fully digested like breast milk, formula fed babies are more prone to constipation than the breastfed babies.

SPITTING OUT

Many babies spit up as often as ten or twelve times a day. Sometimes we’re talking a major eruption; other times it just trickles out like overflow. Either way it’s messy.

As for the science behind it, if you must know, the most common reason for spitting up is that a baby’s digestive tract muscle between the stomach and the esophagus is immature (essentially, it’s loose and will gradually tighten up by about six months of age). Most babies are not bothered by spitting up, and there’s probably a lot less nutrition being lost than you think—typically about a tablespoon, but because the breast milk or formula mixes with other fluids, it can seem like more. Just keep plenty of bibs , towels and clothes for quick cleanups on hand, especially when you go out.


To minimize spitting up, try these tactics:

  • Ensure smaller and more frequent feeds.
  • Do not overfeed.
  • Hold or keep your baby sitting upright after feedings for a little while to let gravity help with digestion.
  • Burp your baby regularly.
  • If you’re feeding your baby formula, talk to your paediatrician about a brand that might be easier for him to digest.

Occasionally,  persistent spitting up warrants medical attention. If your baby is very irritable and fussy and prone to spitting up, he may have a reflux problem that could be relieved with medication. If your baby experiences true vomiting—more forceful expelling of a greater amount of his stomach contents—diarrhoea, bloating and is not gaining weight adequately, he may have a milk allergy, so discuss it with your doctor. Both reflux and milk allergies are uncommon, but they do occur. Spitting up any blood is a sign of infection, and yellowish green bile indicates a blockage, so if you see either of these, call your doctor right away.

 

Best wishes to new moms who have embarked on this beautiful new journey filled with many wonderful moments. Make sure you don’t miss any of them.

KNOW MORE ABOUT NEWBORN NORMALS

 

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