Why do young babies' feaces come out partially solid when they only consume liquid (breastmilk/formula)?

Answer 1

Breastmilk is easily digested and there is very little waste.

Their spincter muscles are not mature enough to handle passing formed, solid poops when they are newborns.

They are on a liquid diet so there is no solid waste. As they get older and add solids, the poop becomes thicker (like peanut butter consistency) and eventually formed like an adults.

Answer 2

I had a similar question before (even for adult diets) and I was told that it is simply part of the digestive system that passes food into your 2 different intestines (1 that becomes pee and 1 that becomes feces).

Believe it or not, but breastmilk is very fatty and those fatty tissues will become solid after digestion. The same goes if you only drank milk and didn't eat anything, your bowls would pass normally.

I never knew this until someone told me, though. :)

Answer 3

Formula isn't entirely liquid. It has solids like fat in it. Its more like a solid with water in it.

If you think of what happens to milk or cream that goes bad (it turns quite solid) its easy to see the difference between that and something like water or tea.

Answer 4

because both formula and breastmilk contain calcium which actually bulks up the stool.