Orange diarrhea in a newborn baby

The main reasons for the appearance of orange stool

The appearance of orange-colored stool is often considered the first symptom of a certain internal disease that requires immediate treatment. However, in some situations, the acquisition of orange-colored stool is the body’s reaction to excessive consumption of foods that contain a fairly large amount of keratin, medications, and multivitamins. If this is indeed the case, then the color of the stool should normalize within three days.

Changes in the color of stool at a pathological level are often associated with diseases of the pancreas, kidneys, liver, as well as some disorders of bile secretion. Stool with an orange tint indicates that there are large quantities of bile pigments in the child’s body and this is associated with a disruption in the functioning of metabolic processes. Based on the color saturation of stool, you can determine the stage at which the development of the disease or pathological process is located.

Often, orange-colored stool in a breastfed baby is the result of breast milk being poorly absorbed by the body.

Among other things, when feeding a baby with artificial formulas, stool may acquire an unpleasant, pungent “sour” odor, yellow, brown and orange in color. This is explained by the fact that a reaction to bilirubin occurs.

Should you be afraid if your baby has diarrhea?

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The birth of a child is always stressful, because the usual environment changes completely. Ambient pressure and temperature, the way of breathing and feeding - all these factors in the first days and weeks of a baby’s life seriously affect his condition.

All vital systems of the baby must adapt to new conditions. The child’s digestive system is no exception in this matter.

In the first days after birth, the baby passes the original feces (meconium). It looks thick, black or dark in color, and sticky to the touch.

This type of stool often frightens new mothers, but it is completely normal. Meconium consists of digested epithelial cells, hair, mucus, amniotic fluid, bile and water.

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All this was absorbed by the child during pregnancy and excreted by the digestive system.

When a baby is born, the gastrointestinal tract is absolutely sterile, so in the first hours and days of life, the intestines are populated with the necessary microorganisms and bacteria.

The baby receives these bacteria when passing through the mother's birth canal, touching her skin and breast milk.

In the first four weeks of life, the number of bowel movements a child may have can reach 10 times per day. Basically, bowel movements occur immediately after feeding.

In the absence of any additional symptoms, such frequent bowel movements are normal. Over time, the frequency decreases to 2-4 times a day; by the age of one year, the norm of bowel movements is 1-2 times a day.

Before the age of six months, rare bowel movements (once every few days or even once a week) are considered normal by pediatricians if the child is breastfed.

Such rare bowel movements should not cause concern to parents if the child is active, alert, the stool remains soft, and is passed without pain or difficulty.

The color of a baby's stool can range from yellow to dark, with mucus, flakes, or a green tint.

Changes in the color and consistency of a breastfed baby's stool are completely normal.

The fact is that the baby’s liver adapts to new food and cannot always produce the required amount of enzymes to digest it.

Often, such changes in the appearance of a child’s stool are associated with the baby’s insufficient receipt of fatty mother’s milk, the so-called “foremilk.”

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With artificial feeding, a similar reaction of the enzymatic system is possible when consuming a mixture with a high iron content.

The consistency of stool in breastfed babies is always liquid, and this is what is considered normal stool.

With age, with the introduction of complementary foods and the transition to solid foods, children's stool takes shape and becomes less liquid.

At the same time, the occurrence of hard stool in a child under one year old should be of concern, especially if the baby is painful and restless.

Diarrhea in an infant

Diarrhea is repeated bowel movements that produce large quantities of liquefied stool.

Diarrhea is a protective reaction of the body to the influence of pathological factors. With diarrhea, bowel movements occur more than 4-5 times a day.

How to understand whether loose stools are normal or not? What does diarrhea look like in a baby? To correctly determine whether a child's feces are normal or not, you should look at the general condition of the child.

Symptoms of diarrhea in infants are as follows:

• loose, watery stools;
• unpleasant odor;
• a large amount of feces.

Parents should be wary if large quantities of mucus, streaks or blood clots, or white flakes are found in the stool.

If a child suddenly begins to cry a lot, refuses to breastfeed, or strains, pulling his legs toward his stomach, then you should immediately seek medical help.

If your body temperature rises and pain appears in the abdominal area, you should call a doctor at home.

If a newborn does not gain weight well or even loses it, then diarrhea in a breastfed baby may indicate serious problems with the gastrointestinal tract. In this case, emergency medical care is required.

What diseases can cause orange stool in a child?

So, if the color of stool becomes orange when consuming a huge amount of vegetables, fruits containing keratin, nutritional supplements, medications, then after they stop taking them, the color of the stool will definitely normalize.

In all other cases, the color of stool with an orange tint is considered a manifestation of a particular disease. These include:

• cystitis;
• violation of the outflow of bile;
• hepatitis/other liver diseases;
• disorders of urinary processes;
• lung diseases;
• a disease of an ulcerative nature;
• colitis;
• other ailments of the digestive system;
• disturbances in the functioning of hormones;
• the presence of stones in the gall bladder.

What should be the treatment for orange stool?

Let us recall that the presence of orange color in stool may well be a consequence of excessive consumption of foods containing large amounts of keratin. In order to properly treat the disease that caused orange stool in an infant, a full diagnostic examination should first be performed. This will help determine with maximum accuracy the stage of development of the disease, as well as the presence of complications. If it is discovered that the disease is infectious, then the patient must be hospitalized immediately. To restore the body after poisoning, doctors send the patient to correct the water balance and restore the intestinal microflora.

If the baby has orange stool, the doctor will prescribe special stool tests to determine the formed elements contained in it. If, after diagnosis, leukocytes and red blood cells were detected, this indicates that an inflammatory or purulent process is occurring in the intestines.

If stones are found in the gall bladder, then the patient is required to undergo surgery to remove them. If an infection is detected in orange stool, drug therapy is prescribed, which includes the following groups of drugs:

1. Anti-inflammatory.
2. Antibacterial.
3. General strengthening.

Treatment with strong antibiotics is provided only when severe infectious processes are detected.

Orange diarrhea in a newborn baby

The baby often experiences changes in the color, consistency, and frequency of stool. Since children are different from adults, infant stool becomes the source of many questions and concerns for parents - is this type of stool normal for a newborn, why does the child have green, loose stool? To understand what the contents of a baby’s diaper says about his health, what are the causes of diarrhea in a baby, how to treat diarrhea in a child so that he feels better quickly, will help a candidate of medical sciences, a doctor of the highest category, a pediatrician and deputy head of a children’s hospital. Savelovskaya Alla Anatolyevna Shcherbakova.

— Alla Anatolyevna, please tell us what diarrhea (diarrhea) is in a baby.

— Diarrhea is a disease, a functional disorder of the gastrointestinal tract, which is accompanied by loose stools. There is a Bristol stool scale, according to which diarrhea is considered to be liquid or semi-liquid with solid lumps. Diarrhea is not typical for healthy children.

— What are the symptoms of this problem and how can a mother distinguish diarrhea from normal feces?

— Diarrhea in young children is quite rare. However, according to statistics from the World Health Organization, a functional disorder of the gastrointestinal tract, accompanied by diarrhea, is in second place among the causes of death in children of the first year of life.

• Loose stool in a baby is normal.
  A child of the first and second months of life has stools of a more liquid consistency than an adult. If the baby has stool the consistency of an egg yolk and has bowel movements after each feeding, but gains weight well, eats and sleeps, is cheerful and does not cry, then this should not cause concern to the mother.

Important!
Diarrhea is not just loose stool. If a child does not gain weight in the first months of life and has frequent watery, foamy or loose stools with mucus or blood, this is a reason to immediately contact your pediatrician.

— Alla Anatolyevna, what can cause diarrhea in a baby?

— For a child in the first months of life, the main cause of diarrhea is food intolerance; for a child in the second half of life and the second year of life, it is an intestinal infection of a viral nature. But why a baby has diarrhea, a doctor must decide in each case.

Food allergy in an infant

occurs on the food he receives, most often cow's milk protein. Causes of allergies in infants:

• in a child who is exclusively breastfed - consumption of dairy products by the nursing mother;
• in a bottle-fed child - a reaction to cow's milk protein;
• A mixed-fed baby is more allergic to formula milk, and to a lesser extent allergic to mother's milk.

Infection of infants with intestinal infections

occurs through dirty palms and toys (when a child begins to crawl, pick up objects from the floor with his own hands, play outside).

Signs of an intestinal infection in a child:

• refusal to eat;
• decreased appetite;
• temperature increase;
• vomit.

— What does the color of the stool of a breastfed and bottle-fed baby indicate? What are the norms and dangerous situations?

— Bile pigments, which are produced by the liver, accumulate in the gallbladder and are released during nutrition, helping digestion, are responsible for the color of stool. They turn the baby's stool yellow, green, or olive green. Therefore, if the child feels well and gains weight well, and the stool has a greenish-yellow tint, this is the norm for up to a year.

• An infant has yellow diarrhea.
  If a 4, 5 or 6 month old child has yellow stool and the temperature has risen, the stool has become more frequent and watery and profuse, and appetite has decreased - these are signs of an intestinal infection.

• The baby has diarrhea with mucus.
  Mucus in the stool is the product of the activity of intestinal goblet cells, which secrete mucus. Mucus in a child’s stool is a sign of inflammatory colitis of the colon (an indicator of a food allergy or the final stage of an intestinal infection). There should be no mucus in the stool.

- Diarrhea without fever in a child - what can this mean and what should the mother do?

— Do not ignore diarrhea without fever in an infant. This may be a manifestation of pathological conditions. Such as:

1. Food allergy - its cause will be determined by a doctor, who will also tell you what the mother needs to do.
2. Antibiotic-associated diarrhea - in children it occurs during treatment of an infectious disease that is associated with the activity of clostridia and their toxins, which is accompanied by diarrhea with blood. This serious condition requires seeing a doctor.
3. Gluten intolerance - prolonged diarrhea with celiac disease does not respond to traditional treatment and is not similar to the course of an intestinal infection. The assumption of the presence of such a disease requires additional examination, observation and, at a minimum, consultation with a competent pediatrician and pediatric gastroenterologist.

— Alla Anatolyevna, can diarrhea begin during teething?

— During the teething period, there may be a disturbance in stool, but it is not associated with the fact that the baby is cutting teeth. Teething is a normal, physiological process that occurs in all children. Diarrhea is not the norm, but a pathological disorder of the gastrointestinal tract (GIT), which is accompanied by loose stools.

— Diarrhea during complementary feeding—what is considered normal and what is a problem in such a situation?

What color should a baby's stool be?

Already in the second week, the color of the baby's stool becomes yellowish with a sharp sour smell of kefir. However, here, of course, everything depends on what the young nursing mother and baby eat.

Stool that is greenish in color and has a runny consistency indicates that the child has an imbalance or dysbacteriosis. The stool has a strong and unpleasant odor.

Experts focus readers' attention on the fact that during this period of life the child experiences adaptation to the outside world, and his unaccustomed stomach gets used to external nutrition. The “sterile baby” upon entering the world accepts all the conditions of development.

As for the frequency of stool, it is individual for each baby. However, doctors strongly recommend monitoring the frequency of gas formation and bloating. You should also be sure to remember that any violations of a nursing mother are harmful to the health of her child.

Orange diarrhea in an adult, red liquid stool in an infant

Published: January 3, 2021 at 11:48 am

In a situation where orange diarrhea appears in an adult or child, you should not try to make the correct diagnosis yourself. It is especially not recommended to do this if the baby has loose orange stools. Only a specialist, an infectious disease doctor or a gastroenterologist can find out the cause that provoked the pathology and prescribe adequate treatment for the disease that caused diarrhea, which has such unusual stools. And then only after an appropriate diagnostic study. Therefore, it is under no circumstances recommended to ignore suddenly appearing orange diarrhea. You should immediately contact a specialist and identify a possible danger to the body from such a pathological sign.

The appearance of red-colored diarrhea may indicate both natural and negative reactions of the body. Most often, experts note such a reason as eating a large amount of foods containing carotene. But if this was not the case, orange loose stools in an adult may well be caused by diseases such as hormonal disorders, hepatitis, cystitis, pathologies of the pancreas, biliary tract and liver, and stomach ulcers. The color saturation of unusual red diarrhea in an adult will tell a specialist about the stage to which the disease has reached. The brighter it is, the more urgent measures should be taken to diagnose the disease and, if any pathology in the body is confirmed, to prescribe adequate treatment.

Why does my baby have loose orange stool?

Red-colored stools with an unformed consistency resembling diarrhea in a baby in the first month of life may be a reaction to bilirubin. It is excreted from the baby's body through urine and feces, giving feces a similar color. Also, the color of feces directly depends on the type of feeding. In order to understand exactly what shade of stool you need to be wary of, it is worth considering both options for feeding a child, which can provoke the appearance of orange diarrhea:

• Breastfeeding a baby. With this type of feeding, loose stools of a faint reddish color are more than normal. Mother's milk is not thick in consistency, so the feces of a baby feeding on it will be the same, resembling the structure of diarrhea. The shades of the baby's feces will directly depend on the mother's diet, and can vary from bright orange to green. In some cases, the color of a child’s stool may indicate that mother’s milk is poorly absorbed;
• Artificial feeding of a baby also often results in orange diarrhea. Most often, bottle-fed babies poop a little less frequently than if they drink breast milk, but their stool is just as runny and varies in color from bright orange to light yellow. This color of stool is normal for a bottle-fed baby. The shade of diarrhea in this case is associated with the addition of a trace element such as iron in the mixture.

With any type of feeding, the appearance of such an unusual orange shade of loose stool in a baby is quite normal. If the baby feels well, is active, cheerful, and has not lost his appetite, there is no need to worry about his stool changing in color and consistency. But in the case when orange diarrhea is accompanied by concomitant negative symptoms, an urgent consultation with a pediatrician and, if necessary, with a more specialized specialist is necessary. In this case, it is possible to identify the pathology that is beginning to develop at an earlier stage and take the necessary measures to eliminate it.