Why is the newborn feces green with mucus, lumps and what to do?
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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The change in the color of children's feces can cause concern among young inexperienced parents. Sometimes it is justified, but mostly the greenish shade of infantile feces is completely permissible and does not in itself carry information about a child's malaise.
The first feces of the newborn is very dark, almost black with a greenish tinge (meconium), have a texture resembling a viscous putty, which is replaced by lumpy yellow turquoise with greenish veins of the remains of meconium. Later, about a week later, in the diaper, the baby finds mustard-colored feces, it is also called the color of a childish surprise, similar in texture to liquid mashed potatoes. If the contents of the diaper turns out to be an unusual color, parents may panic, although the reasons for this are overwhelmingly absent. Usually by changing the color of stool, the infant organism reacts to the intake of certain substances in the body.
Causes of the green feces in a newborn
The color of the feces is of an individual character, determined by the nutrition of the newborn and the degree of "ripeness" of its digestive organs.
The chair of babies, who are fed from the first days of life with adapted mixtures, as a rule, does not differ in color variety. The appearance of greenish feces in an artificial man can be caused by a new baby food, in particular, with an elevated iron content.
In newborns, which are fed breast milk, innocuous options for the appearance of green feces are more:
- a mother's diet, which includes many green vegetables (cucumbers, salads, zucchini);
- vitamin complexes that can be taken by a lactating woman (almost always contain iron);
- oxidation of the contents in time not removed diaper;
- inadequate receipt by the child of so-called "rear" milk.
With regard to the last point, the risk factors for lack of more fatty and nutritious milk produced at the end of feeding are as follows: the mother's restriction of sucking time and / or frequent breast changes (more often than once every two hours).
Malnutrition, which is manifested by the presence of greenery in the feces, can also be caused by a small amount of milk from the mother. Risk factors for malnutrition - the anatomical features of the nipples (retracted or flat), tight chest (especially in primiparas).
A greenish stool in a child can appear almost immediately, especially if the baby is breastfed, because the microflora of the mother's milk contains various bacteria, and the baby's intestinal tract must adapt to it after birth. Adaptable and artificial animals, in addition, and mother, and the child could be prescribed antibacterial drugs, which is also the cause of dysbiosis in the infantile intestine.
Hypoxia in childbirth can cause inflammation of the mucous membrane of the digestive tract, and even in the presence of milk rivers in the mother, the feces of her child look long as transitional (with a pronounced green hue).
Immaturity of enzyme systems of the liver leads to the appearance of a greenish shade of children's feces, a condition like intestinal imbalance of microorganisms usually passes without treatment.
The cause of the color change in feces in older babies (after six months) is often the introduction of complementary foods. This applies to all categories of babies - both artificers and those who are breastfed.
However, if the feces are green all the time and, in addition, there are other symptoms, the child needs to be examined to exclude or confirm the congenital enzymatic deficiency or bacterial infection of the newborn. The first of the reasons is the true intolerance of lactose, and also - galactosemia is a fairly rare pathology and manifests early, in the first days of life rather pronounced symptoms. Transient intolerance of lactose, which occurs much more often, goes away by itself as the digestive process in the child is established. The main contingent of the risk group is premature babies, in whom the mucosa of the small intestine is not sufficiently developed. The cause of the transient deficiency of lactase can also be gastroenteritis, an allergic reaction to the protein of cow's milk or celiac disease (gluten intolerance).
Pathogenesis
Talk about the pathological mechanism of changing the color of the newborn's stool is possible only in the presence of pathology. Harmless reasons for the appearance of green feces, such as: the diet of a nursing mother, oxidation in the air - pathologies are not. The consequences of taking antibiotics cause minor violations of the intestinal microflora, but with the withdrawal of drugs, disappear. The unsteady balance of microorganisms in the intestine or the activity of enzymes also quickly returns to normal.
Lactase deficiency (lactose intolerance) deserves special attention. The true (primary) lactose intolerance, a fairly rare metabolic disorder, is hereditary in nature. In this case, the mechanism of this pathology is due to low enzymatic activity of lactase or complete absence thereof, while the cells of the digestive tract enterocytes that must synthesize this enzyme remain unaffected.
The same mechanism is inherent in the development of transient (temporal) disruption of lactose digestion. In premature and full-term, but immature, newborns, there is insufficiently high enzymatic activity of lactase. As a result, most of the lactose remains undigested, useful lactobacilli bacteria (lactobacilli, bifidobacteria, lactose-positive intestinal bacillus) do not cope with its cleavage, which causes noticeable symptoms, including the greenish color of feces. They become green as a result of too rapid a food movement through the digestive canal - the faster the digestive cycle goes on, the more intense the green color of the feces. Dysbacteriosis caused by bacterial infection, taking medications, is also caused by a violation of the balance of the intestinal biocenosis of the baby in favor of pathogenic and conditionally pathogenic microorganisms.
The inflammatory process in the intestine of any nature causes damage to enterocytes and, as a consequence, secondary lactase deficiency. In this case, inflammation of allergic genesis is quite common, especially in artificial animals, which are too early to meet with foreign soy proteins or from cow's milk, which are the basis of adapted mixtures. When ingested into the intestine of a child, immunocytes determine them as "aliens," and the response to this is an allergic inflammatory reaction.
If a child receives only breast milk, allergic inflammation in it can cause food allergens in the mother's diet.
Symptoms of the green feces in a newborn
So, the concept of the standard for the appearance of feces of a newborn is somewhat blurry, especially for children fed with breast milk. Theoretically greenish color, lumps and inclusions, a little mucus, found in feces, are not yet symptoms of ill health. In general, attention should be paid to the state and behavior of the child. If the crumb does not suffer from lack of appetite, sleeps quietly, gaining weight well, then you should not worry. The deciding factor for parents should be not so much a shade of feces as the behavior and mood of their baby.
Yellow feces with green lumps in a newborn is not a symptom of the disease, it is a variant of normal feces. Nevertheless, the appearance of the chair may indicate a lot.
So, the green feces of a newborn breastfed, watery, foamy and often frequent, are often called "hungry". He says that the mother often changes her breast during feeding, and the child, in the main, eats low-fat milk, but dense, nutritious and fatty before it simply does not reach. Additional signs of this state of affairs are - insufficient weight gain for the week, frequent child hunger crying.
Yellow-green feces in a newborn can be a sign of allergic inflammation, if frequent (more than 10 times a day) emptying of the intestine with mucus is added to the color. If the baby no longer bothers anything, then this condition can be fully attributed to the variant of the norm.
Dark green feces of the newborn, resinous, viscous, almost black, are observed in the first days after birth. It is replaced by a greenish transition, in which there may be veins of meconium. In older infants, who are fed breast milk, enough dark green feces can be caused by taking activated charcoal by a nursing mother. Preparations containing iron and dyes can also change the color spectrum of children's feces.
In short, with natural feeding in a newborn feces with green lumps, a small amount of mucus or foam and the absence of other symptoms can be considered not of particular concern.
Green feces in a newborn on artificial feeding as a normal phenomenon can appear when changing the brand of baby food. In general, children fed with adapted mixtures of feces have a more formal appearance and a permanent color. In artificial animals, greens in feces can be a sign of food allergies or inflammatory processes of the intestinal mucosa, a complication of which is a secondary lactase deficiency and / or a violation of the intestinal microflora.
It happens that with insufficient amount of breast milk, the child is supplemented with adapted mixtures. Green feces in a newborn on mixed feeding in this case can be caused both by the peculiarities of the maternal diet, and by the causes characteristic of artificial children.
Anxiety symptoms accompanying green shades of bowel movement are bloating, colic, rash, frequent regurgitation or vomiting, unusual weakness and retardation of the baby, frequent or, on the contrary, more rare than usual defecation with a sharp unpleasant odor caused by dilute watery stools persistent intertrigo and, of course, blood veins in feces and an increase in body temperature.
The first signs, which are worth paying attention to - when a crumb that actively starts sucking, suddenly suddenly stops doing it, cries, bending, or pressing legs to the tummy. At the same time the feces of the baby are liquid, greenish, foamy, the smell is sour. Such symptoms make it possible to suspect a deficiency in lactase activity.
For the primary (congenital) deficiency is characterized by an increase in symptoms with increasing consumption of mother's milk. First - it's periodic colic and flatulence, later - regular pains in the tummy, then - disturbances of the stool. Congenital deficiency of lactase is worth considering if the family of the nearest adult relatives also has lactose intolerance, since the disease is hereditary.
With lactose intolerance, you can confuse a rare congenital metabolic disease caused by the lack or low activity of the enzyme that catalyzes the process of splitting galactose into glucose-galactosemia. Symptoms in this case are already evident from the first days and are manifested by jaundice, vomiting, hepatomegaly, rejection of the breast, neurological manifestations. A distinctive feature - with lactose intolerance, vomiting is not observed, only - frequent regurgitation.
Secondary deficiency of lactase often develops against the background of inflammatory processes in the intestine of a newborn of any genesis. In this case, there may be various variants of green stools, characterized by an abundance of mucus, diarrhea. There may be a green mucus in the feces of a newborn. Inflammatory processes are accompanied, as a rule, by fever, by vomiting, by indigestion, by dehydration. Allergic inflammations often begin with diarrhea and vomiting, skin manifestations can be absent for a long time. Symptoms of hypersensitivity resemble signs of lactose intolerance, besides the green foamy and liquid stool in the stool can be observed and blood veins. In this case, the assistance of a specialist is necessary.
Complications and consequences
In most cases, green feces in a newborn is a variant of the norm and, if the child's behavior indicates its comfortable state, then there are no negative consequences for himself.
Even, moreover, close attention of parents and excessive vigilance of the local pediatrician can lead to unnecessary treatment and transfer of the child to artificial feeding. Lactase deficiency and dysbacteriosis have now become quite popular and often groundless diagnoses, which is promoted by wide advertising of lactose-free mixtures. The true intolerance of mother's milk is extremely rare and is accompanied from the first days of life by severe symptomatology, which is difficult to overlook. Incomplete splitting of lactose in healthy newborns, which is often taken for lactase deficiency, is an absolutely normal phenomenon, often up to five months of age. And if a young child is deprived of lactose from the first month of life, then lactic (useful) bacteria can not develop in the intestines in sufficient quantity and pathogenic microorganisms will take their place. In this case, the situation becomes much more complicated.
However, parents should not relax at all, the child's condition should be watched in order not to miss really serious pathologies. Congenital enzymatic disorders do require special feeding of the child. Inflammation of the intestinal mucosa, caused by infection or food allergy, also requires specialist intervention. Gastroenteritis in a newborn usually proceeds acutely, dehydration quickly arrives, so emergency measures must be taken to prevent further development of the disease, complications and even death of the baby.
Diagnostics of the green feces in a newborn
To address to the doctor with complaints about greens in feces of the baby it is necessary in the event that this circumstance is accompanied by any of the above symptoms: diarrhea (meaning twelve or more soiled diapers a day, frothy watery stools with a sharp unpleasant odor), vomiting or very frequent regurgitation, poor appetite, lethargy, high temperature, shortage or weight loss, there are signs of dehydration.
The child will be given an analysis for the presence of sugar in the feces, which suggests how completely digested and absorbed in the intestines carbohydrates, the analysis of feces on coprogram and on the microflora of the intestine. A breath analysis for hydrogen, a clinical blood test that excludes or confirms the presence of inflammation, and an analysis of maternal milk for the presence of pathogenic microorganisms can be assigned.
According to the survey and the results of the analyzes, differential diagnosis is usually carried out by the method of elimination: congenital metabolic disorders are excluded, lactose intolerance and dysbacteriosis are differentiated, which, by the way, are often combined with one another, the etiology of the inflammatory process is determined, and so on.
Who to contact?
Treatment of the green feces in a newborn
If, in addition to the color of the faeces, nothing else bothers, then you need to continue to breastfeed, analyzing your diet, excluding synthetic additives, dyes, limiting the amount of vegetables and fruits, as well as the possible use of medications, including vitamin medications. With the change in the style of feeding the mother and stopping the medication, the color of the stool usually normalizes. It should be noted that the greenish shade of feces can be observed in the baby for a long time, up to three to five months, the stabilization of the intestinal microflora is an individual process and can also be prolonged.
What if the newborn has green feces?
If a newborn often cries, restlessly sleeps, never can stand even an hour and a half between feeding, we can assume that he does not gorge. If this continues for several days, there may be a noticeable shortage of weight, a decrease in the amount of urine and urine quality (more concentrated, with a sharp odor). In this case, the number of feedings is increased - the baby is applied to the breast at the first request, at any time of the day, does not limit the time of sucking, is fed from both breasts in one feeding, nipple pads are applied in case of their uncomfortable shape. Usually it is possible to establish breastfeeding yourself, adapting to the requirements of your baby, flexibly combining them with your needs. Now there are enough recommendations on breastfeeding. In extreme cases, you can seek advice from a specialist.
If the most common and harmless causes are eliminated, and the chair still remains greenish, but the behavior of the baby indicates its comfortable state, you do not need to worry. Most likely he has not yet normalized intestinal microflora or the color of the stool is a consequence of a small oxygen starvation during childbirth. After all, even in absolutely healthy and full-term babies, the transitional stool can be observed up to three months or more. This is very individual, and it is better not to interfere with the development process if there are no symptoms of lag. The best means for the normal functioning of the newborn's body, its maturation and becoming is the mother's milk.
In the case of prolonged manifestations of symptoms of intestinal microflora disorders, it is recommended to make bakposev of mother's milk. If pathogenic microorganisms are found in it, the mother is treated - prescribe antibiotics, and at this point the breastfeeding is stopped. However, then it is still better to restore it.
In the case of severe painful symptoms, not limited only by the color of feces, it is necessary to consult a pediatrician and undergo a survey. Depending on the results, the baby will be treated.
Prevention
The best form of nutrition for the growth and development of the newborn, as well as the prevention of dysbacteriosis, allergic inflammation, intestinal and other infections is breastfeeding, and the most effective prevention is quality breast milk.
Currently, many recommendations have been developed for breastfeeding, guided by which you can find your own feeding scheme that is comfortable for both the mother and the baby. On-demand feeding promotes better lactation, saturation, growth and development of the child.
For an artificial baby, you need to choose the right mixture and try not to change it often. When changing the mixture, it takes at least a week for the baby's organism to adapt to the new composition of the food.
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