If all a baby drinks is milk, how come their poo is brown?

Answer 1

Well if the poop is brown than the baby must be drinking formula. There are ingredients in formula that the baby can not digest. The brown poop is the results of what is left after the baby digests what it can and discards what it can't -which there is a lot it can't digest hence the more solid dark poop. Plus most formulas are iron enriched which makes poop always brown or very dark. If you ever had to take an iron supplement you know what I'm talking about! The iron makes stools hard and formed -sometimes even constipating.

If a baby is breast fed, the poop will tend be yellow and usually runny or custard because a baby tends to digest almost all of the milk and leaves next to nothing to excrete.

Answer 2

It isn't. When all a baby drinks is milk, their bowel movements are yellow and soft. It's when you introduce *other* foods (formula, solids, etc.) that baby's bowel movements turn brown.

The reason for the color is the type of bacteria in the baby's digestive system. When a baby is fully breastfed, there are "friendly" bacteria. Once you give other foods, really nasty bacteria grow in there (just like in adults--do *you* eat only brown foods?!) and produce the brown color.

Answer 3

One from my biology days...

Your body breaks down and re-makes your red blood cells continuously. One of the by-products of hemoglobin (the bits of your red blood cells that carry oxygen) break down is a brown chemical called billiruben. This chemical is a waste material that your bile ducts dump into your small intestine. It causes the colour of poo.

Answer 4

The baby is removing the nutrients out of the milk.

Answer 5

The body takes all the nutrients and good things out and discards the rest. Almost all foods get discarded as brown, after being mixed with all the body's acids and fluids also.

Answer 6

Hmm.....all my baby drank was breastmilk and her poo was orange. Maybe formula fed baby poo is different? Composed differently. I heard bottlefed baby poo is stinkier too. My baby's poo just smells like sour yogurt.

Answer 7

there are actually enzymes in the body that turn the intestinal contents brown, the principal factor is a bile pigment called bilirubin - When worn-out red blood cells are broken down, iron, globin, and bilirubin are released. The iron and globin are recycled, but some of the bilirubin is excreted in bile. Bilirubin eventually is broken down in the intestine and one of its breaksoen products (stercobilin) gives feces their normal brown color.

Answer 8

Well, if you mix a bunch of colours together what colour do you get. Brown. It's all the stuff coming out of body are diffrent colours.

Answer 9

i not quite sure, but i think it is because your excretions do not consist only of what you eat, it also is composed of dead cells that your body tries to get out. There is a sort of pigment in a broken up red blood cell that is partly responsible for the color of feces. the color of feces also depends on what a person eats.

Answer 10

my baby drinks Stella and eats vindaloo and his poo is brown too but also its very steamy