On the question of stooling or the lack of it in a newborn...  I too expect
at least 4 reasonable-sized poopies each day after the 3-5 day of life (when
mom's milk is in). Most well-nourished breastfed babies are producing at
least this much (until 6-8 wk when the pooping often slows down). Besides
feeding history and hx of maternal breast surgery, one thing I want to know
about with a baby who is not pooping much is nature and timing of their
first meconium stool. This is usually delayed with Hirschsprung's or may
come out as a meconium plug with CF. Dr. Jack has said that he has never
seen an exclusively breastfed baby that is constipated-- hard stools (in the
archives).

While I have always held to the idea that exclusively breastfed newborns
should *always* have several poops each day if they are well-nourished, my
new son is teaching me that there are exceptions. I throw this out as an
example of exceptions (... actually I just like to talk about him). At one
week of age, he was only pooping once a day (runny yellow generous poops and
tons of voids). He only had a couple days of seedy yellow poops. Now that
he's 6 weeks old, the infrequent poops don't bother me b/c he's *old enough*
for this pattern. Earlier on, I certainly did question whether he was
getting enough milk (he also had a poor latch & somewhat wimpy suck; and
mild reflux). But he was gaining well more than an ounce/day!!! So I have
figured that he just didn't read the text-book on *normal* pooping patterns
for a newborn.

Mari Douma, DO

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