Bowel Movement/Stool Question

[sloneta]

Hello-

I lurk here a lot and these boards have been very helpful. My daughter is 3 weeks old and is exclusively eating breastmilk - either directly from me or from a bottle. Her stools are grainy and loose, but they are bright orange in color instead of the pale yellow I read about. Should I be concerned? She has adequate wet and dirty diapers each day and is sleeping well.

Thoughts are appreciated.

Tara

[mommyoftwo]

There is really a pretty wide variety of colors when it come BM stool. As long as you aren't green you are doing just fine. Linnea's stools were always orangey in color and not pale yellow. It sounds like your daughter is perfectly normal unless you have some other reason to be concerned.

[writermama]

Yep. Orange is fine. Strange to look at, but fine. Here are a link about the surprising color and texture variations that can be completely normal:

http://www.drjaygordon.com/development/pediatricks/poop.asp

I had to look it up again myself with DD#2 because I'd forgotten after 3 years.

[proggoddess]

As long as she doesn't have other symptoms, it's probably fine. Although, if it's yellow with red (and not a uniform orange) you may want to check with your pediatrician. My DD is intolerant to milk. She was cranky and colicky all the time as a newborn, but it was the red flecks in her diaper that clued us in that something was wrong. She's fine now, and the allergist assures us she will probably grow out of her milk intolerance.

[sloneta]

Thank you all for the reassurance. We went to the ped today and Miranda gained 12 oz in 12 days despite our slow start with breastfeeding. It is good to know that she is "normal".