Black tar to scrambled eggs: what are normal baby poops like?

Few new parents are prepared for how weird baby poops are. For starters, there’s the almost extraterrestrial first poop – meconium. (Robin Williams described its tarry consistency as a cross between Velcro and toxic waste!) Within days, meconium’s green-black color changes to light green and then to bright, mustard yellow with a seedy texture. (The seeds are miniature milk curds.)

In breast-fed babies, poops then turn into runny scrambled eggs that squirt out four to twelve times a day. Over the next month or two, the poop gradually becomes thicker, like oatmeal, and may only come out once a day or less. (The longest period I’ve ever seen a healthy, breast-fed baby go without a stool has been twenty-one days. However, if your baby is skipping more than three days without a stool, call your pediatrician to make sure he’s okay.)

For bottle-fed babies, poop may be loose, claylike, or hard in the first weeks. The particular formula a baby drinks can affect this consistency. Some infants get constipated from cow’s milk formula, while others get stopped up by soy. A few are even sensitive to whether the formula is made from power or concentrate.